Istanbul Day One

I have no idea how we ended up with this photo of the kids before the circus on the same file as the trip we just took, but I thought it was cute, so there it is.  :-) 

 Here we are in Istanbul!  We had a 14 hour flight but Turkish airlines is awesome!  Turkish delight-delicious! Fresh flowers, great little welcome packets with socks, slippers, lip balm, toothbrush and paste, eye covers, pillows, blankets, and on and on.

Here we are, seriously jetlagged and happy to be on dry ground!  Here's Whit and Brian, just in the main square of old town.  I got us a hotel near the airport (Marriott) but I hadn't thought about needing a cab into town and then back and then back in the next day and then back again! Sheesh.  Oh well.  Live and learn.   Anyway, the old town is beautiful!

 Every European civilization seems to have stolen lots of obelisks from Egypt.  Here's one in the main square.

 Here's the famous blue mosque.  I had to wear a head shawl and skirt thing but I didn't get a photo of that.  It's on Whit's phone I think, or Brian's.  Anyway, it was a neat sight.  The guide we had kept telling us how it had 6 minarets.  Apparently they use them to call people to prayer but it's a big deal there.  They have seven in Mecca, but nowhere else.. so they are pretty proud of the minarets. I must have heard the phrase "six minaret" 100 times.  Even the cabbies had to say it when we passed!

So here is the beautiful Blue Mosque!!

 A minaret!!

 There are thousands of wires dropped from the ceiling to hold up all the lights.  It's a little distracting.  You'd think they'd have come up with another, better, less distracting way to light the place!!

 SIX MINARET!

 They had these stars all over the floor.  Pretty cool.

 Then just a walk across the street and you're at the Hagia Sofia. We didn't go inside that night but egads it was gorgeous.

 That night we walked a LOT before grabbing another cab and making it to the pier. Once there we finally found our boat for our fancy dinner cruise.  Here's my hot date.

 Here we are, super duper duper jetlagged but still having fun.  I loved the food.  Lots of spices.  Tons and tons of different kinds of things to try, all heavily spiced.  I have a photo but I think it's on my phone or Whit's of the food.  It was really cool.  3 courses.  the dessert was melons, but they were really good!

 The traditional turkish dancing afterward was... strange.  Look at these men with fabric over their heads and faces on their stomachs.  SO WEIRD.  I had no idea what to make of it.

 The belly dancer had a serious crush on Brian.  She came over and made him get up and dance over and over and never did that with ANYONE else.  Haha.  Good thing Brooke wasn't there.  I'd have punched her in the eye if she tried that crap with Whit.  LOL

 At the end, we all got up and danced a bit.  Whit isn't really into all that, but he finally did.

 I sure love this man!  The only thing I loved more late that night was when we finally got back to our hotel (our cabbie couldn't find it.  I was seriously worried we'd never get back) and we got to sleep.  Hallelujah!!