Day 1: Merhaba Istanbul!

I'm alive and well in Istanbul.

Sometime during the 11 hour flight the two girls sitting next to me were looking through their guidebook and asked me if I had been to Istanbul before because I wasn't using the time to plan. I told them my girlfriend lives here and they reminded me how lucky I was. The trip from the airport to Banu's sister's apartment involved changing from subway to more crowded subway to ferry boat to mini-bus so when she picked me up at the airport I was never so happy to see Banu.

A giant mosque seen from the ferry port.

I've only gotten a glimpse of the city from my trip from the airport to the apartment but it has made me more excited to explore than ever. From the dense mass of buildings beautiful spires burst out all over the city. Banu told me that they are mosques. We took a ferry over the straight of Bosphorous, and setting foot in Asia didn't feel a whole lot different than anywhere else. The ride was beautiful and continued to give me a glimpse of how big Istanbul is.

Unfortunately I couldn't bring Lola–I miss her already.

Our transportation adventure was rewarded with a delicious dish called çiğ köfte, which traditionally made with meat, due to health concerns is now vegetarian. Banu failed to warn me about these super hot peppers served with it. To be honest I think she enjoyed watching me suffer as I sucked down my turnip juice. Now that I've caught up on some sleep and written this blog entry eating more is all I can think about...

Fortunately Banu says there are lot of stray cats here.

Here are some Turkish words that I've learned today:

teşekkürler = thank you

bişey değil = you're welcome

evet = yes

harika = amazing!

nefis = delicious

çok nefis = very delicious
salak = idiot

Görüşürüz!