December 18th, 2013 – January 11th 2013
It’s been almost one month since Graham and I left for Europe and the Middle East. I’m sitting here in the Dubai airport with one eye over my shoulder as it is actually illegal to download social media such as Facebook as per Arabian law. If you already have it you are exempt but it still keeps you on your toes. So, for those who are interested and have time, here are some of the highlights of our trip.
Istanbul, Turkey
Our first stop was the bustling city of Istanbul, Turkey. We did the fast track version where we ran around the city to see every mosque, museum and market. There is so much going on at all hours of the day it was hard to take a step back to really appreciate the beauty of it all. When looking at the statues of Alexander the Great, all I really noticed was that he was missing part of his nose. The mosques were beautiful to look with gorgeous details and often with detailed gold leaf mosaiques. Each time we wanted to enter we had to take shoes off and cover my wild perm under a headscarf. Graham was more excited about seeing the original bowl of Abraham, sword of David and staff of Moses inside the Topkapi Palace Museum than learning about the prayer rituals. My favorite ‘must see’ was exploring the underwater caves of the Basilica Cistern and wondering why the architect decided to put the two stone Medusa heads upside down and sideways. In general Istanbul was very busy and loud. Every few hours loud prayer to Islam would flow through loud speakers across the city, even at night, which really didn’t help the sleep and jet lag situation.
One of my favorite days was when we went on a Bosphorus cruise. It’s not everyday you get to visit two continents within the same afternoon on the way to entering the Black Sea. We stopped in Europe for lunch and afternoon tea in Asia. The cruise was super peaceful. The water in the Bosphorus was as clear as glass to the point where you could see the propeller under the boat of a 100 tone vessel. Fishing was also plentiful, while Graham is used to pulling in big Grouper and Tuna, these guys were going for the opposite end of the spectrum- sardines!!!! It was also in this boat ride where I was re-introduced to the squat toilets. While I was very familiar with these while traveling through Asia, a rocking boat and saturated walls was not my cup of tea to do the number two on the boat and was a very funny laugh at the time.
Istanbul really is a city that has everything to offer. So much history, beautiful sights, night life, shopping and delicious baklava and Turkish delights. By the third night, with still no sleep due to both excitement, Islamic prayer and jet lag we spent our evening relaxing and smoking a strawberry Shisha. As you could have guessed, we are now carrying home a four foot Shisha ourselves. Later that evening however after googling to see if we got a bargain on our Shisha, we also found out that one hour smoking a Shisha is equivalent to 100 cigarettes. I guess this social smoking machine will be for rare occasions only.
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