What the other girls drink in the mornings. Turkish coffee. Notorious here. I overheard someone say (thanks Lyle),"If you like caffiene, it's like nectar." They come in teenie little cup and saucers and evidently pack a punch.

What I drink in the mornings. Afternoons, or heck, whenever it's offered. Hot apple tea. It reminds me of the wassle that my English friend makes every New Year's Eve. Minus the rum. And not near as good. The weather has been chilly and damp so far and apple tea seems to make it a wee bit better. This comes in also a teeny container. But a small curvy shaped glass. I see servers carrying these on a tray frequently and very randomly throughout the city. I wonder where they go as they are not in a restaurant!

The food here is quite wonderful so far. I am a very picky eater with a limited palate and I was grateful to find meals here to be a small step in adventure instead of the leap of faith I had feared.

Tea time every day at 4. Be jealous.

Food is clearly the theme today and I feel sure may be repeated again this week but I do want to mention our adventures yesterday and today. We met with the director of the ISTANBUL academic (see me for the Rome summer 2015) study abroad program here in Turkey and she was a wealth of information for not only her program but the "New City" portion of ISTANBUL as well. We received a walking tour that was beyond amazing. Cold rain and all.

Be sure not to miss Nikki's blog posts too, as she is a wonderful writer and is very detailed and articulate with our experiences. She'll even use correct grammar, complete sentences and sometimes uses correct spacing.

There were these fantastic abandoned buildings outside the gallery window where the exhibition was. I only had my phone today so any prints will be really small, like 4" or do but I am in LOVE with them. Taken through glass. Enjoy.

*note, for your instant viewing pleasure these photos are from my phone and I shoot almost all black and white. For my schmancy Big girl camera images, they will be uploaded later.

Needing to walk off our fabulous Turkish breakfast, the Hippodrome is just about 2 blocks from our door. The call to prayer was just as we got there so we had to wait in the hippodrome until the mosques reopened.

The Blue Mosque was just breath taking. I mean you see this stuff in books and videos and you just can't get a clue as to what this is all about. You must enter the inside without shoes and your head must be covered if you are a woman. The Koran (Quran) is read 24/7 by someone who has memorized each and every page.

I don't think I moved at all last night. Slept so well. Breakfast at the hotel was fabulous. Thanks to my friend Mary who is also here this week who took this photo. Because by the time Nikki and I woke up it wasn't near as pretty!

We are off to explore!

The easiest customs to get through ever. Just sayin'. There are A LOT of people here. Like a lot. Our hotel and our room is fabulous so far. The staff is fantastic too. Met with us as soon as we arrived and will set up everything for us if we need help getting around, tours, taxis, diner reservations, etc.

We've been up like 36 hours now so we are turning in early!! Good night from ISTANBUL!

Well I am totally one of "those" people. clumsy enough to drive normal people insane. The list is long but it's from the ridiculous things like getting earbuds tangled in my shoelace to serious things like leaving my laptop on the plane. Thank God for the honest people in the world.

Flight mentionables...watched 3 movies, 2 new ones and sky fall for like the 400th time. Ate crap food and the most exciting moments were when I had to let the person beside me out of the aisle or use the powder room so I could stand.

Amsterdam mentionables... Although we are only being able to visit the inside of the airport, people here are really really tall. Hoping to get a few winks in before our final flight to ISTANBUL. But the gate seats seem more uncomfortable than the plane!

It's a cold rainy morning at the airport restaurant at 8am here in Amsterdam.