Turkey!

Relocating from Israel to Turkey went off without a hitch.  A bus, a plane, and a taxi delivered us to our new digs in the center of Istanbul.  We met our Canadian friends Stephen and Jim at the airport, right on schedule (how amazing is it to be in Israel and Canada and say "we'll meet you at 3:00 in Turkey at the baggage claim?"  Stephen and I have been friends since our days at Asbury Seminary, more than twenty-five years ago.  He's an Anglican priest in Toronto.  Jim, Stephen's partner, is recently retired from the banking industry.  They will travel with us through Turkey and parts of Greece.

Looming over our neighborhood is the massive, 220 foot-tall Galata Tower.  It was built at the top of a hill in the 1300s and is an important, very visible landmark in Istanbul.  Surrounding it is a piazza and narrow, cobblestoned streets.  Our 150 year-old building is just a few steps away from the tower.  The third-floor apartment is quite large, with bay windows looking out at the street - with buildings across the street looking back from about 15 feet away.  Wood floors and ceilings and lots of quirky period features make it a perfect place to live during our several days in Istanbul.  Our landlord, Fatih, has been super-helpful and gave us a tour of the neighborhood.

It's hard to know where to start in exploring the city.  Istanbul is a sprawling urban area of 15 million people.  Several bridges cross the Bosporus, the waterway separating Asia from Europe.  In ancient times Istanbul was known as Constantinople, named after the Roman emporer, Constantine.  Today we will likely cross the nearby Galata Bridge by foot and start our explorations at the Haggia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.