the turquoise trail

{Sunday October 27th}  Didn't wake up until 8am this morning and had a wonderful sleep! Hopefully it isn't the quiet that keeps me up tomorrow night!  After getting ready for the day we went up to the terrace for breakfast. It was pretty much the same as yesterday,  except there was a really good smoked cheese!  We boarded the bus at 10am and were wished gunaydin (gun-eye-den; good morning)!   Topkapi Palace We headed again into the old city to Topkapi Palace. Once there we parked and entered the imperial gates through the main courtyard. Within the main courtyard is what is now used as a concert hall, one of the oldest buildings in Istanbul from the 4th century.  From there, we got our tickets and entered through the middle gate and into the middle courtyard. After Dr. T showed us around, giving us some history and showing us the highlights, we were free to explore on our own for 2 hours.  Topkapi Palace We went into the last gate, the gate of happ

{Saturday October 26th}  3:30 am now... Very tired and yet I keep waking up every couple hours. The windows here seem to be very thin as we can hear everything!  Going to try for more sleep now as we have a full day coming!   Sunrise over the Golden Horn We got up around 7am this morning and headed up to the 7th floor for breakfast. Above the restaurant there is an open terrace, so we went there to watch the sunrise. It was quite cloudy this morning, so not the best view of the sunrise, but still an amazing view overlooking the city. We can also see the Bosporus behind the hotel.  Breakfast here is interesting but still pretty good. Quite a selection of olives laid out, also cheeses, and tomato and cucumber. There was also a table of breads and pastries, fresh honeycomb, fruit and yogurt, and some hot food.. Eggs, "sausage" aka hotdog, and potatoes.  Quite tasty, and the beautiful view helps too :)  After breakfast we came back to the room for a shower and t

Seeing as this was the trip that has inspired me to start a blog, I will start by sharing my notes about my trip to Turkey.  Please note that the dates I was actually there was in the fall.  I hope you enjoy & if you are planning a trip to Turkey yourself I hope that it helps you to choose what you'd like to see.   { Thursday October 24th } On our airplane seat. Well we are getting things started in style on this journey.. We were greeted aboard our Turkish Air flight by a hostess and our on board chef. Waiting at our seats, we found a pillow, blanket, slippers, earphones, and a small case containing an eye mask, toothpaste, toothbrush, lip balm and socks.  We settled in and departed on schedule at 10:50pm.   It is now half past midnight and we've just been served dinner. This time change is quite odd already. I had salmon, zucchini and cheesy rice as my main dish, accompanied by hummus with chicken, salad, a dinner roll, cheese, and orange cranberry cake.

Hello all & thank you for reading my blog.  This is my first posting & my first blog, so I will begin by telling you a little about myself and my reasons for starting a blog.   I recently turned 25, and decided that for my birthday I would like to travel to a country that I had not been to before.  I ended up taking a 10 day trip to Turkey (an amazing country!) and along the way I kept a journal of my adventure.  Upon my return, I shared this with some family and close friends.  (I also realized that Turkey had been my 25th country I've travelled to!) My Great Aunt has always been a huge supporter of mine, and since reading my journal she has encouraged me to pursue photo-journalism.  I decided that a blog would be the easiest way to share my adventures and see if it really is for me...  So here it goes!   I am very excited to be starting a blog, however one of my biggest reservations has been the critical comments I see on the blogs of others.  Unfortunately, it seem