Istanbul, Turkey

Aug 23- Istanbul, Turkey

Holy exhaustion setting in...big time. Spent all day yesterday traveling and got a bite to eat when we arrived at a small pub down from our hotel. Per Euro standard, we  are on small single beds that sleep apart (not ideal for honeymoon), although they might be onto something because I sleep pretty hard. Plus it's so hot here that you have zero desire to cuddle or be close, add exhaustion, and the beds serve their purpose! 

Anyyyywho, we spent all day today touring the city (professional tour guide which is the ONLY way to go) and learned about much of the history if this land and saw a lot of beautiful mosques and buildings. It all was really fascinating as Istanbul is so rich in history. Detailed play by play on those locations later.

Immediate impressions upon arrival of Istanbul; wayyyyy too many people. We drove in from the airport at 10p last night and the entire 20 min drive to our hotel people were lined in droves cooking out and hanging out like their was a festival going on, but it was totally normal to be out at that hour lining the waterfront with their families. To give you an idea of size, there are 20 million people living in Istanbul alone, Columbus, less than 1 million. Being a woman visiting Istanbul, it is pretty intimidating as I am very much the  minority here. Most women are covered entirely or dressed very conservatively, and although I made sure to pack ankle length sundresses, I also make note to pack my scarves when leaving the hotel to cover my shoulders and chest up with as well. Not everyone does, and of course their are plenty of tourists, but I feel like its disrespectful to them for starters, and second off I stand out like a sore thumb & feel uncomfortable, like im on display. It's very very different then anything I'm accustomed to and I'm 100% out of my comfort zone, but sometimes thats good to do. I cannot express how grateful I am to live in the United States. Hardly anyone here speaks any English (in Greece there were mostly French, Germans and Greeks, and we heard very little English but at least most knew enough English when we would need to ask a question). Sidenote: As I lay here typing this, it's 5:30p here and what we could compare to tornado sirens going off back home are prayer/chanting sirens that are signalling that it's time for prayer. Very unique. It makes you think, a city this large & everyone just stopping their day at the sound of these sirens, 5x daily for this. It really is fascinating. 

Tomorrow we do a half day boat tour and will get to enjoy the Turkish Bath before dinner and packing up as we depart at 330a to travel home; it's a long haul. 12.5 hours back over the pond and 2 from NYC. I'm really looking forward to getting back to the U.S at this point after being gone from home a total of 3 weeks. My dogs are going to make me pay for it, I'm sure! :)