It's Turkey time!

And it begins........


After an all-nighter leading to a laborious 27-hours of hopping airports, ferry boats, and trekking up cobblestone streets... I have finally made it to Brent's house. Quite the journey so far, and with a lack of sleep so severe, I have developed a grand narcoleptic condition. Falling asleep just about every time I do not have to move.

It is now the start of my 3rd day here. The first night was spent meeting Irina, Brent's girlfriend, and his roommates, Safak and David. Two guys from Denmark are also staying here, Lars and Simon. All in all, a cool group of people.

Since going to bed (or turning off lights, or turning off music, or anything of the sort) is not really considered an option until well after a sane time (we're talking 2-3am here, people). Our days have been starting a little late, but hey, gotta adapt, right? We started out by going to grab some food down the street, 3 items for 5TL (~$3), not bad! Ihad a rice dish, some soup, and egg plant / beef. I was a little worried about the options for breakfast, but it turned out to be really good and did not cause a nuclear bomb togo off in my stomach. Irina has not been here before, so we took to the main tourist parts, going to see Hayasofia and the Blue Mosque. Although I had already seen these about a year ago, of course it was awesome to see them again! This time we were actually able to go into the Hayasofia (meaning holy wisdom), it was the first center for the Christian religion, it was then later captured and turned into a mosque,and now a museum.

The Blue Mosque is just an incredible sight, giant ornate pillars support the highly domed and decorated walls. It inspires a sense of awe.

Of course, we stopped for some Turkish coffee throughout the morning adventures and talked, which is really one of the best parts about traveling that is often left out in the blogs or discussions. It would be a bit odd to talk about talking, I think, it's tough to convey the happenings of a few hours over coffee and tea. So, this stuff is usually just left out and the rough skeleton of my day is sketched!

We were feeling quite hungry at this time, so we headed towards another district of Istanbul and found ourselves in a small cafe. I had a Donor Tavuk (chicken sandwich). After we ate the custom is to serve tea, which we gladly drank over 7 or 8 games of Durrak, a Russian card game.

We decided to take the long way home, and walk along the Bosporus, it was great seeing all the lights on the water and soaking everything in. It is a religious holiday period called Ramazan right now for the majority of the Turkish people, fasting ends after the last call to prayer, which is usually around or later than 8pm. With this being said, the city gets a bit more lively after this time... We got back around 11pm and then stayed up, of course, until 3ish ;). Ah, to live like a Turk.