And we're off. . .

After waking up at the crack of dawn to be at the airport in plenty of time for my 6:00 flight, we were on our way to Istanbul! ... and the drama was already beginning. Unfortunately, Jameson--one of the guys from our group--didn't realize what day we were leaving and missed the flight.

We made it to Newark for a 6 hour layover before our next flight, and decided to make the most of our time by catching a train to Manhattan for lunch. We ate at Pizza Supreme, rated one of the top 10 places in the city for pizza, and it was wonderful! We got to see Madison Square Garden, meet some fun Italians, and make a Starbucks trip before taking the train back to the airport.

The 7 and a half our flight to Amsterdam was less than comfortable, but I did have a window seat with a nice view. All of us were tired by this point, but we couldn't fall asleep. We finally landed, and had another 6 hour layover to endure.

Luckily, we found some really comfortable lounge chairs and crashed for a few hours. We also payed way too much (in euros) for some necessary breakfast to have the energy to keep going. We thought our last flight was going to be the worst yet because there were soooo many children crying on the plane before we took off, but we all managed to get some rest before arriving in Istanbul.

We had to get our visas and go through passport control, which added up to about an hour of waiting in various lines. By this point we thought the worst of traveling was over (and for the most part it was) and we found our tour guide and got on our bus.

Traffic. I thought that traffic was bad in Australia. I thought that traffic was bad in Spain. But neither of those even come close to how bad traffic is here. There are lines on the road, but they're purely for decoration. The cars might come with turn signals, but no one knows how to use them. They just use their horns instead. And on top of the cars going everywhere and coming entirely too close to each other, people just roam around. In the middle of the road. Selling flowers, papers, breakfast, whatever.

But we finally made it to our hotel after 30+ hours of traveling, with just enough time to put our luggage down in our rooms and head to dinner.

Fortunately, the food was worth it. We walked down the street to a classy little Turkish restaurant for a 5 course meal. Chicken salad, yogurt, eggplant, stuffed bell pepper, mushrooms, a salad, potato wedges, chicken kabob, rice, baklava, Turkish Delight, and tea.

I went home happy and full, took a shower, and fell into bed--ready to catch up on a little rest before starting my first full day in Istanbul.