Back from Turkey

First of all, I want to say "Happy Prophet Day" to everyone. Not surprisingly, we do not get Easter off, but we did get today off because it is the Prophet's birthday. Not to worry about Easter though because even though I have to work, one of the ladies in the office is having an "Orphans Easter Celebration" at her place so we are all going over there for Easter after work.

So, you might ask what I did on my day off...well I will tell you that I will no longer have an excuse for bad photography because I bought a digital camera! Good times. I also bought a new piece of luggage. It is a carry on with 4 wheels. Let me tell you that when you are in a region where people have no concept of "me space" (see grocery store story in previous post) it pays off to have a bag with 4 wheels that is not constantly getting stepped on or kicked. I learned this the hard way on my trip to Istanbul.

Istanbul? Yep. It was amazing. I will put some pictures on the bottom of this post from the place where we ate breakfast each morning. Whomever can e-mail me back with the proper name of the body of water in these pictures will get a beer from me when I get home.

Talk about a country with a sense of pride! Holy cow. I cannot imagine trying to drive in that place without knowing Turkish because all of the street signs are in Turkish. I saw a really great car billboard, but I had no clue what kind of car it was because I couldn't read the sign! And speaking of driving, the traffic is horrible! These taxi drivers drive down a street that is probably no wider than my living room at 40 miles an hour with cars on both sides! And the hills! It is like San Francisco. I am not sure how they get their little Euro cars up and down them when it snows! Anyway, back to the pride topic. One of the first things that the client said to me when she was explaining the company was that, "We don't like foreigners." Wow! She did not mean it in a bad way at all, but that tells you how much they love their country. I cannot wait to go back when I have some more time to explore. I plan on staying over a weekend and seeing some of the sites. It is amazing to think about the history behind that country and imagine how these structures are still standing. It was absolutely a great trip. The food was great too.

Here are some of the pictures. I did not have video on my Blackberry, so these are a piecemeal panoramic view from the top of our hotel...

Also, another great part about traveling in and out of Dubai...duty free! You know what that means?!

Answer:

I hope that you are all well! Thinkin' about you.