Its Raining Hairy Men in Istanbul

Nothing like easing into life away from sailing by heading off to rainy Istanbul. Land of hairy men... 'Hello, how are you, where you from?? I give you my business card..' are echoed as you walk down the streets of the Sultanahmet area. Forget being traded for boat goats and having your skipper rescue you... here you better have a husband (or at least a pretend one that you are meeting in mere minutes!). Istanbul is huge. Pretty too, at least the small area that we have seen so far. We got to our hotel late Thursday night after a LONG travel day and immediately collapsed.

Yesterday we took a ferry ride up the Bosphorous river (we thought that getting on another boat might cure some of our boat-sickness), to see some of the sights and get an impression of the city, to the suburb of Sariyer. We ate at a small seafood restaurant on the river, but it was rainy and cold so we decided to forgo figuring out the bus and take a Taksi back to Istanbul (yay me for figuring out what was being said and being able to communicate a rate!). Forget traffic in Calgary, if I had to drive in Istanbul there would be some serious road rage! Every three seconds it was slamming on the breaks with horns honking! In the afternoon we were proper tourists, checking out the Blue Mosque (amazing) and Aya Sofia. We probably didn't get as much out of Aya Sofia as we could have, as we were both tired and suffering from some major boat withdrawl, and Jill was getting really sick and we needed to just go have a nap. We ate dinner out last night but it was interupted by a torrential downpour, and Jill's guts calling her back to the hotel.
Still rainy out today, but we will actually bring the umbrellas (ella) with us this time! Today we hope to see Topkapi Palace, the Basillica Cistern and then spend the majority of the day SHOPPING!