First Day in Turkey

Well its certainly different here. Our kids can walk down the road without being harrassed. The locals speak even less English but are very friendly. We managed to work out how to open the door and were relieved to realise that someone had not locked it from the outside.

I took Julia on a scouting mission and wandered up to the main thorough fair in Old Istandbul, Ordu Cr. We are about 15 minutes walk between some of the most famous land marks in Istanbul including The Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace and the Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar). It is really hot around midday as there is no breeze through the streets. Its also a bit of a climb from where we are up to Ordu Cr which runs along a low ridge. We got slightly lost and ended up walking on the water front.

In the evening there was a celebration festival in the park right in front of our apartment. As part of Ramadan the locals get together and eat just after dusk. We joined them for sometime, but are still adjusting to the time difference and were flaking out at about 7pm. We feel a need to refrain from eating in public and bought something at the shop before retiring to our rooms.