Hello Turkey!

As you can see we have arrived safely in Istanbul, Turkey. We got dropped off at Ben Gurion airport just befor 9am to fit in with our host in Israel, Sheryl. Our flight was to be at 12.30pm. We went through security and things real easy and had about 2.5 hours to fill in in the departure area. We read the NY Times. I wasn't going to put the next bit in writing but Helen dared me too, so here goes. I went for a walk up and down the terminal and when I was coming back to where Helen was sitting I passed close by the information desk. All of a sudden I heard the information lady call out, "Hello Mr Dunn". I went over and what she asked me next confused by brain a bit. "Have you lost your passport?" "No," I said, quickly reaching for my money belt where I keep my passport all the time. It wasn't there and of course she had it. I had dropped it and someone had handed it in and I felt very looked after, if you know what I mean. Been a perplexing day trying to work out how I did it, remembering also that I dropped my Israeli entry visa at border control on the way in last week. I have to declare I am having senior moments.

We flew Turkish airlines who were very good. The plane was about a third full and left 20 minutes early and arrived at Istanbul 45 minutes early which included flying in circles over the city a bit and then waiting for a gate once on the ground. We docked at gate 220. It is a very big airport. Went through passport control, no customs unless we missed it, to be met by our tour company rep, then a nice 30+ minute ride in a van with a very talkative guy called Ghengis Kahn to our hotel in the old city. Compared to the hotel in Amman, this is a palace - and the wi-fi worked first time and is high speed!

This evening we went for a walk and found a park that led us to a viewing place overlooking the Bosphorus Strait. We decided to eat there at an open air restaurant so the two pictures are from there. Being adventurous we went for hamburgers and chips because that was the only thing on the menu we could understand. They were a perfect choice on a beautiful cool evening overlooking one of the most influential stretches of water in human history. I also ordered chai and Helen would like to pass on the Turkish Tea and Turkish Coffee are in the "not again thanks" category. When it came to pay we couldn't undertsand the waiter until he started rattling off in other languages he knew. Helen caught it when he said it in German which she took at High School. We had been thinking of eating back at the hotel which has a roof top restaurant that also overlooks the Bosphorus as well as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. We were tempted by the fact that the hotel chef cooked for Robert Di Nero and Mick Jagger when they stayed at the hotel.

We are going to spend tomorrow looking around the old city which is old Constantinople, old Byzantium and now modern and bustling Istanbul of 17 million people. What we have seen of it so far is colourful, clean, and modern.