We're here!

Whew, where to begin? We're here, and ummm, wow. (Hey, I can say ummm when I'm talking to you all!) I'll try to start at the beginning and fill you all in w/o making this post a novel (which yes, will be difficult for me).

Thanks again, Daddy, for driving us to the airport. Things actually went well. O'Hare isn't too bad as far as airports go. We were CLOSE on luggage though! 2 of our bags weighed exactly 49.5 lbs (the max is 50 before you have to pay $150 extra!) so there was a sigh of relief. (Becky, sorry about the huge mess we left at your house while whittling my bag down from 65 lbs to 50!) We also actually did pretty good for the plane! They did an upgrade for us, so Chris actually had leg room. And then I could relax :) The flight went pretty well, I guess we had strong tailwinds so it went faster? sure, sounds good. all I know is that apparently I don't sleep well on planes. talk about a loooong night.

Heathrow was ok, I guess. I was such a little zombie that I pretty much wasn't aware of anything going on around us. Thank goodness for Chris :) The flight to Istanbul went well too, and we had GREAT seats! (Not quite first class, but hey.) I do believe we have both picked up colds from the planes though.

Istanbul is insane. Really. For a farm girl from a town of less than 2000, quite overwhelming. Probably not so much so for anyone from NYC or something. Lots of traffic (of which they make their own lanes), pedestrians going wherever they want, little streets that should be one-way but are two (cars have to back up or go onto the sidewalk to let opposing cars pass), and so many ancient buildings, walls, and monuments it makes my head want to explode and my eyes pop out. I definitely stand out as a tourist here :)

We ate across the street at a place called Seven Dreams and had the most helpful host! I understood his English, and he was extremely helpful with directions (and with chatting, which endeared him to me right away). I think we'll be eating a few more meals there. We have to tomorrow, b/c we didn't know whether to leave a tip or not, and so we didn't, and ooops, apparently we were supposed to. However, for all of you wondering, NO, I have NOT said "ummmm" yet (at least not that I know of...), and YES, I have been picking up a couple Turkish words. Mostly having to do with food and apologizing. :)

Speaking of food, foodies read on. Those of you who don't care, you can stop here. I had one amazing meal today! Since I slept through breakfast and lunch (and only had breakfast yesterday), I was STARVING when we finally got food today. It is typical for a large meal to order a cold appetizer, and hot one, and then your meal. Chris and I ordered hummus, stuffed grape leaves, "cigar-shaped pastries filled with cheese" (I swear, that's the name of it on the menu!), and then he ordered lamb kebabs and I ordered Adana Kebabs (which our host promptly changed to adana wrapped in filo dough and fried crisp, assuring me it was better). I also ordered Turkish tea and coffee, and Chris ordered an apple tea, which basically tastes like hot apple juice with a splash of tea. Yum! Zeytin restaurant in Ada is actually pretty authentic, for those of you wondering. Many of the spices and flavors were the same, as well as menu items. Even if NOTHING else goes right on this trip, I can deal with it b/c the food will make it all better :)

Anyways, I am sure I have more to say, but believe it or not, I am tired after being up a whole 8 hours! I will try to post more soon. And make it more fun, this felt like I was just touching the surface. Miss you all!