After what felt like a million hours of travel, and a near fiasco at JFK airport where we were told that we weren’t actually booked on a flight to Turkey (to which I replied “well we better be, because you took my money two months ago for that ticket”), we managed to make it to this fantastic eastern capital of Istanbul (or Constantinople?).
Totally randomly, two different sets of people we know from our ‘real lives’ back home are here at the same time as us! We met up with one of them tonight for a lovely traditional dinner and ice cream before they had to leave to jet back to NYC and I have to say, there is a real danger of me gaining 100 pounds here. The food is delicious! Loads of eggplant, an abundance of lamb, olives galore. The only downside so far is that most things are sprinkled with pistachio, which I am allergic to. I’ve already taken to carrying around a little note in Turkish that reads “I am VERY allergic to nuts!” to try and avoid any mishaps.
We’re excited to start exploring this part of the world and we hope you continue to follow us as we make our way through the Middle East and into Asia!
The Parallel Life 
I told you that you’d love the food!!!!! And you won’t gain a ton of weight b/c you’ll constantly be on the go! Enjoy:)
We certainly walked all over today, so hopefully you’re right because we’re about to go have ice cream. Again.
Yes, PLEASE protect yourself from the nuts. Glad you have a Turkish translation already. Talk with you later, and it’s bizarre that you’ve already run into people you know in Turkey. Now you can’t tease me about knowing “everyone in the world”. You do as well!
I’m fairly certain it’s an inherited trait 😉
Have an awesome trip guys! I can’t wait to see Turkey! Hopefully we can catch up with you all somewhere along your travels!
We had a great time in South America, but it is so refreshing to be somewhere totally different! Istanbul is already right at the top of my ‘favorite cities in the world’ list, you guys are going to love it!
I have always wanted to go to Istanbul…it’s on my bucket list. Take loads of pics and share details so I can make some notes for the trip I hope to take one day. Enjoy that side of the world ! And my gosh, that food looks delicious !!!!
You definitely need to make it here, we stayed for 7 days and feel like we could have spent months. It literally has everything – history, food, seas, lovely people….I could go on forever!