Thursday, February 08, 2007

Day One Istanbul

We had a wonderful first day in Istanbul! It began with a wonderful introduction to one Miss Bailey Johnson. And yes, for all who care to know, she is just as amazingly beautiful in person as she is on her website. I love her already. Mark does too!

Queen Elizabeth made a wonderful breakfast for us before we set out on our day's journey. We made our way to the office with Billy to give Mustafa Bey (my language teacher) a gift - a Dr. Pepper. He loved it of course. He says "selam" to Angie Shepherd.


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This picture was taken at the Hagia Sophia.

We then traveled to Sultanahmet, where we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and had lunch at the House of Medusa. Mmmmmmmmm, good stuff. Then, really by God's hand, we stumbled upon a dear friend of mine who used to work at the Grand Bazaar, Bektas, the calligrapher. I did not know where his new shop was, but Mark and I walked RIGHT by it on our way to the tram. I could NOT believe it. We took these great pictures from the balcony of his new shop. Soooooooooooo cool.


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Mark and I from Bektas's balcony; Blue Mosque is behind us.


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Blue Mosque

We then went to the Grand Bazaar and renewed friendships there too. It was so much fun for me to introduce Mark to those friends. I'll put more pictures up as we go.


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VURAL! and Mandy and Mark

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Mandy & Mark! Fun to see you and hear about your first day. I think come of your pictures (from the balcony) didn't upload . . . just wanted to let you know.

Nothing exciting is happening here of course! Have fun!

Jen

a likens said...

missing you two already, but so happy that you are able to show Mark around and hug our sweet friends that live so far away. Can't wait to see more pictures.

Stay out of the sea! Not a fun way to experience Turkey.

Love to you both.
Ang

Anonymous said...

SO jealous! SO, so jealous. Feeling bad about being jealous. Need to not feel jealous. Can't help but be jealous. Will continue to peruse the pictures that incite jealousy. Scheming to make a trip so that I'm not so jealous....