Istanbul. Land of black clad women and call to prayer. The sound is haunting, and the sight of the men touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer really cements the fact that we are in a very different place.

We landed without incident and there was a placard with Neena’s name on it as she had pre-arranged pick up at the airport. Thanks Neena! It’s always friendlier to have someone pick you up and deliver you to your new destination.

We are staying at the hotel Sari Konak. Our room is pleasant, not that we ever spend much time in it. We checked in at about 11:00 and were out exploring by 11:30. The gang all wandered about with Mark and his GPS brain in the lead. He’s amazing with a map!

No surprise, we had to find food. Some of us (no names need to be mentioned) were getting hangry! Mark had us rounded up and eating balik ekmek (popular and tasty grilled mackerel sandwiches) at a small stall near the Galata bridge. Lunch for 9 cost 40 Turkish Lira, or about 20 bucks Canadian. Tasty AND cheap! This will be a good holiday!

Much of the rest of the day was spent wandering around window shopping and checking out the Grand Bazaar. It indeed lives up to its name. There’s separate streets inside – gold street, knock off purse street, knock off shirt street, Turkish Delight street, leather street – you get the idea. The place was built in the late 1400’s and is still a going concern. Vancouver is SO young!

Made it back to the hotel by 5:00 pm, showered, and headed up to the rooftop patio for a sundowner gin and tonic. Except that I don’t know what time the sun actually goes down here. Whatever, it’s still a great excuse to enjoy a drink outdoors with friends, no?

We learned that although the outdoor patio LOOKS like we should be able to enjoy our own freshly purchased duty-free gin, we weren’t supposed to. Thankfully the staff kindly looked the other way (and brought us glasses and ice!) We probably didn’t really need the drinks since we had been up for more than 24 hours and were all giddy anyways.

Dinner out ended in extra drinks at the bar next to the restaurant where we got to witness the craziness of a hookah. The staff torched the bowl of the hookah (and I mean torched!) where the apple flavoured tobacco goes, and the next door table had it delivered to them. The aroma was lovely.

Mona and I decided to have just one more raki (lion’s milk – it makes you roar like a lion according to the server) and that gave me my second (or third wind). Vanda, Mona and I left the gang at the hotel and wandered the streets for a little longer. The roads were packed with locals, which was a nice change from the decidedly touristy feel of the Grand Bazaar. Finally ended up in my cozy bed at around 1:00 a.m. This would be 35 hours after I woke up in Vancouver. Crazy right?