Our tour of Europe began when we left the U.S. on Monday afternoon after visiting Daniel and Abby and little Anna. We took a 7 hour flight from Chicago to Amsterdam where we had a 5 hour layover. Being the Flemings that we are, we took advantage of that time and decided to walk around the Dutch city. My first thought was "Wow it's really quiet!" But that opinion changed around 10 AM when people finally started showing up... on bikes. It seems like everyone there rode a bike as their main means of transportation. My mom and I also got to tour the Anne Frank hide out which was also pretty cool because that had been Mom's dream. Then we finally went back to the Airport and finished our travels.
If you were to ask me what city I would want to go to before this trip Istanbul would not have been the first city on my list. However, to my surprise, it was a beautiful city. People and Mosques are every where. After all it is a city of 17 million people. In case you're wondering, yes they do pray 5 times a day, and no not everyone wears the full berka. Even though it's a very Islamic country, it's also a very westernized city. We saw everything from a full berka to shorts and a tang top. While there, we got to see the Hagia Sophia which is a museum that was once a mosque but beforehand it was a byzantine church. To see the mixture of the two was pretty neat. We also went on to see the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, and an ancient fortress. The history behind the whole city is fascinating as both the Ottoman Turks and the Byzantine Empire dwelt there when it was formally called Constantinople. I wish I could get pictures up for you, but somewhere in the transfer from my camera to my computer, all of them were deleted =(. I guess I'm not as good with technology as I thought. Hmm. Well... I would tell you more, but so much has happened since I visited Turkey (which was only 4 days ago) that I really can't remember. Now we are in Greece... but that's for another blog.
If you were to ask me what city I would want to go to before this trip Istanbul would not have been the first city on my list. However, to my surprise, it was a beautiful city. People and Mosques are every where. After all it is a city of 17 million people. In case you're wondering, yes they do pray 5 times a day, and no not everyone wears the full berka. Even though it's a very Islamic country, it's also a very westernized city. We saw everything from a full berka to shorts and a tang top. While there, we got to see the Hagia Sophia which is a museum that was once a mosque but beforehand it was a byzantine church. To see the mixture of the two was pretty neat. We also went on to see the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, and an ancient fortress. The history behind the whole city is fascinating as both the Ottoman Turks and the Byzantine Empire dwelt there when it was formally called Constantinople. I wish I could get pictures up for you, but somewhere in the transfer from my camera to my computer, all of them were deleted =(. I guess I'm not as good with technology as I thought. Hmm. Well... I would tell you more, but so much has happened since I visited Turkey (which was only 4 days ago) that I really can't remember. Now we are in Greece... but that's for another blog.
Good to hear about your trip...we will look forward to pictures as you are able to share them, and as always love to hear what you are up to...so write as often as you are able!
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