Saturday, May 01, 2010

Istanbul first day

we left Kusadasi this a.m., taxi to Ishmir airport and flew to Istanbul, finally connected with the hotel shuttle and after a most crazy and frightening ride we arrived at Penninsula Hotel. the shuttle driver chatted with us and on his cell phone as he sped his way thru the mass of cars and taxis on the road. seems this guy was the sports editor/newscaster for CNN-Turk until he retired 2 years ago and started driving the shuttle, so he started talking NBA with Greg and Jim. i'd be happy with no more taxi adventures like that, but there's one to go before we get on a plane tuesday 6a.m. This is a wonderful location... walking distance to Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia and the reportedly HUGE market/bazaar. we walked around for awhile, fending off carpet salesmen trying to hussle us into their shops. it doesn't really deter them much when we say we've already bought carpets, but we did avoid going into any shops! so we walked and gawked til we found the ideal place for dinner.... that took a lot of walking, menu-reading and debating! good dinner... i had minced lamb kebab with aubergine chunks, baked potato!!, rice, veggies... delicious!
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this was one of the sights along the way... loved the colors and Linda and I thought of Anne Parker!a mosque



lovely dinner.

1 comment:

anne said...

MAN I sure wish I had gone there!!! I love the the colors of the buildings!!!
Miss you guys