Big Turkey

We flew into Istanbul, which we try and avoid as overland traveling is obviously cheaper and more interesting.  See my post on "Food on the Road".

Turkey is our second biggest country after China and getting around is a breeze due to bus connections, which exist throughout the country.  Istanbul is a massive city of about 20 million people but hanging around Sultanahmet, all the big sites can easily be covered on foot, since we never take taxis anyway.

After groggily finding our way out of the airport because we had a late night flight and spent a majority of it at the airport since the train had stopped running made our usual route to try and find lodging. 

Istanbul being expensive, it was a little difficult to find a suitable place but we did after walking around a bit. 

It is nice to see beautiful mosque with missile like minarets piercing the skyline, a modern city that still has vestiges of the old, and the surroundings of the beautiful Marmara sea with its fleets of boats and the far away Bosporus.