Crossing the bridge
The traffic was awful but we made it to our hotel no problem.
It was kind of intimidating at first because the streets are so crowded and everything is so different, however, now that I have had 24 hours to adjust I am feeling more relaxed. It is a new sensation to be so obviously a tourist. No matter what we do we can't blend in. There's no hope of speaking any of the language. Luckily, people are friendly and some speak a little English so it works out. The men here are very handsome. The women dress very very modestly, quite a few burkas, but also lots just wearing a headscarf and a knee length jacket over pants. There's really a wide variety. Nobody wearing shorts. Lots of women have their head uncovered on the street.
A few times a day the speakers on the minarets play the call to prayer.
Outside my window there are a few neighborhood guys playing backgammon in the evenings.
My room is on the third floor up three grueling flights of spiral stairs. Thank goodness I have air conditioning and a private bath. Another good thing is that we are located walking distance to all the sights AND they are having some kind of world culture expo here just two blocks away. We have seen some awesome performances by Korean dancers, break dancers (from where I could not understand), and an incredible performance by a Korean musical group. Now I wish I could go to South Korea!
The dancers were wearing shorts!
The South Korean Musical group had these long ribbons (8ft long maybe) on a swivel thing on their caps. When they nodded their heads a certain way the ribbons flew Round their heads in big circles. It was cool! You can kind of see it in the third picture.
Location:Istanbul, Turkey
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