ARRIVAL TO TURKEY

Ok, I'm back. Where was I? Oh yes, my mom and I took a 4 AM flight to turkey on a rinky dinky plane (goodness, the 854 even feels safer, ha!) but we landed safe and sound on the Asian side of Istanbul. My sis was there and so was Jim, the sweetest guy in the world and quite the tour guide. We crossed the bridge to the European side (over the Bosphorous Straight that starts off at the Black Sea) and were treated to a delicious breakfast at one of their friend's cafes.

The first is a pic of Jim, mom and sis at the cafe (I took the pic) and the next is my plate. This is a typical Turkish breakfast, except that we are eating a bagel with it, while usually it would include Turkish bread or the taco style bread they eat a lot here. On the side there was real cream cheese, butter, jam and honey, as well as olives, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and ham. Notice also the Turkish tea, Chai (not sure if that's how you spell it, but that's how it's pronounced). They drink this all day! It is black tea made in a special way and served in these special cups - and it's pretty strong.

From there we head home. The flag of Turkey is waving everywhere because we're nearing the feast of sacrifice. We could see truckloads of cows being transported into town to be sold for the sacrifices. This is when they celebrate the occasion where Abraham almost sacrificed his son - but in their book it was Ishmael, not Isaac, that was the promised seed and was almost sacrificed. Interesting, no? Last, you'll see a picture from the car of a fisherman fishing on the Bosphorous Straight as we drive on the coastline.

Oh, I almost forgot - I had the bright idea of asking my sister how people greet each other here, since I saw Jim talking in a friendly manner with the parking guy and I was about to give him the usual two kisses and maybe a hug. Well, good thing I asked. Here the most people do is shake hands, and even then you have to wait until the guy offers his hand, as some of them can't touch women due to their religion , ha! Good thing I asked.