Istanbul

Hello!

We left the heat of Egypt yesterday morning and landed in Istanbul in the afternoon. We weren't quite sure what to expect but were pleasantly surprised! The metro was fast, clean, cheap, and easy to operate and we were off the plane and in the center of the tourist district before we knew it. Our hostel isn't much to write home about, but its in an awesome spot. We're only blocks from all the sites. Yesterday we ate dinner on a small cafe on a cobble stone lane. We enjoyed our first Pide (turkish pizza) and are very happy to report that the food is World's apart from the Egyptian food that we were struggling with.

Moments before checking into our hostel, we had a bit of an incident. Jessie took a tumble which later resulted in a lot of pouting, and a reasonable amount of tears. This morning her ankle felt a bit better and she toughed it out with the help of a tensor. All joking aside, it was very scary as a bummed ankle is the last thing we need !

Today we visited the blue mosque 3 times. The structure is very impressive and we had a lot of fun walking the grounds and soaking it in while sitting on the marble slabs.

We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time as a turkish festival was held today which drew quite a crowd. We saw turkish dancing and music and all for free!

We also visited the basilica cistern which is a huge underground area which was built hundreds of years ago to manage water in the case of a drought or siege. It was quite dim and had a very unique ambiance - it was very cool!

We have made two brief tours through the grand bazaar but haven't had nearly enough time to see it all yet. We're told there are 4000 stores, and while that seems an unbelievable number, the more that we walk around it, the more that we believe it. The shopping here is great. There are less geeky trinkets and more very cool things that we're excited to bring home. We're currently investigating the cost of a shipment home! Otherwise, we may be taking on an additional piece of luggage to house our turkish treasures.

The weather here is VERY cold in comparison to Egypt. Its a pleasant 25C during the day, but dips to just below 20C in the evening which requires our first use of hoodies and wind breakers. That said, we're still not complaining.

Well, that's it for now. We've got a full schedule of sites in Istanbul tomorrow and look forward to heading inland on Sunday.

Cheers! Jess and Steve.