My first day traveling is almost over, and it’s been a long one. I started out on a 19:00 flight out of Newark, to Paris (CDG). The plane was delayed by the winter storm getting out of Newark, so on landing in Paris, I had already missed my flight. I was actually somewhat hoping I would have to wait a day for the next day’s flight out so I could spend a night relaxing in Paris, but it turned out Air France had a flight with open seats to Turkey half an hour later.

The flight from Paris to Istanbul was uneventful.

I finally got to Istanbul, and took the local bus out to Taxim, the part of Istanbul where Kirk lives. Kirk and Steph came out to the square to pick me up, and the three of us met up with another friend, James at this traditional Turkish restaurant, where we ate a bunch of plates or appetizers, and drank a bottle of Yeni Raki, an Anis flavored liquor – good stuff! After that the four of us went off to what amounted to a vast beer garden for another drink.

On our way back to Kirk’s house we passed a giant backhoe trying to drive down the smallest one way street – quite amazing seeing all the cars try desperately to drive around it in the middle of the night in the rain.

We came back to Kirk’s house and drank some gooey Yefa Bozakisi, a drink make from Bulgar wheat, then went to bed.

This morning we’re up bright and early – Kirk is going to meetings all day, and Steph and I are going out to the grand central market in Istanbul.. more soon!

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