Departure for Istanbul

Up at 5 am. Breakfast at 6 on bus at 7. Went across from the hotel last night for some kebabs and a beer. Pretty spicy!!

Hotel was quite swanky. Not sure how Gate 1 delivers such nice hotels and great tour directors for the price but it is hard to resist. This tour covered some long stretches on the bus but we had plenty of breaks and the landscape and the social/history lessons from our tour director kept us entertained. Pretty nice bunch of people, no major whiners fortunately Not having to worry about luggage or much of anything becomes a blessing the older I get. Could we do this on our own? Absolutely, but could never have covered all that we did when you consider the logistics, language, etc

Drove past the presidential palace on the way out of town. Damn - makes the White House look like a shack. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Co…https://maps.apple.com/?ll=39.931130,32.798873&…

Janet and I are planning to take a taxi to a church to check out some amazing mosaics. Was thinking about Uber, then I read this - https://www.quora.com/Is-Uber-available-in-Turkey. Think we’ll stick to the taxi!

Spent some time writing out thank you notes in Turkish to our bus driver and tour director. Thank you Google translate!

The Chora Church we will visit this afternoon - https://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/istanbul/at…

As a commentary on what I’m seeing in tourism, I’m thinking of writing Apple and Samsung and suggesting that they develop software that limits the number of selfies you can take in a day to 5. I can understand someone wanting to have a picture of themselves somewhere but 50 in the same place? How do you find time to look at what you came to see? (You don’t). It would cut crowds down considerably because everyone would leave after their first selfie. I know I sound grumpy but it drives Janet and I both insane. I can see why tourists are annoying to locals. The tour director makes no comments about it but that must drive him (and other tour directors) a bit bonkers when he is trying to educate the group.

Some 50 miles east of Istanbul we are in the earthquake zone that killed 17000 back in 1999. ( see map with caption)

As we pull into Istanbul about 1:30pm, I spot Krispy Kreme so to my WINSTON friends, they are alive and well in Turkey!Read more