Day 1...or is it 2?

Merhaba!

Greetings from Turkey! We arrived safe and sound after about 14 hours of travel. We got into Istanbul about 10:30 on Friday morning. Since the airport is on the European side of Istanbul, we got to ride a sea bus across the Bosphorus to get to the Asia side. I think it took us about 2 hours to get to our flat in Istanbul... first we took a bus, then the sea bus, then a train, and then we had to walk a few blocks... phew! This is a big city!! We got kinda settled in, and then took a nap for a few hours. We had a team member meet us here again to take us to another team member's house for dinner. They surprised us by also giving Ty a birthday cake! We had really yummy Thai chicken and rice for dinner...yummm. After walking and taking the train and walking again it took about an hour to get back to our flat. We all went right to bed! The boys slept in pretty late this morning; Dev didn't wake up till 10:00! Jon had to be out the door pretty early to go to band rehearsal, and the boys and I had a pretty lazy morning. We watched a little BBC on TV... the only English channel! After lunch, another team member came and took the boys and I around our neighborhood to show us the grocery store and stuff like that. We also did a little grocery shopping for us... quite an experience since all the food looked strange to me! But, I managed to find stuff to make spaghetti, or at least something like it! This afternoon Ty, Dev and I also went for a walk down by the Sea of Marmara. I think that is where it hit me, "wow, I am actually in Turkey!". Since it was Ty's birthday we let him pick where we were eating dinner tonight. He picked a local outdoor cafe. The whole time we were walking there, he kept saying, "finally real Turkish food!", and then he ordered a cheeseburger! Go figure. He did order Ayran to drink, which is Turkish... kind of a salty yogurt drink. He said he liked it and did drink quite a bit of it. Devon ordered it also, and after his first drink said,"not a big fan of this Ayran stuff!". He also ordered a hamburger. Jon and I went a little more Turkish with chicken kebabs and rice. It was very good! We also tried the Ayran, and I think we agree with Devon. We will see if Ty actually orders it again! Well, it is almost midnight here, and I am tired. Tomorrow we are having a lazy morning and then spending the afternoon with friends. I think we get roommates as well. Hopefully they will like living with 2 not so quiet boys! Keep checking back, I am hoping to post regularly!