Queen Valley AZ, A day downtown Istanbul

April 10th we went shopping and eating.  I really like the eating part:)  Overcast and rainy did not stop us from having fun as you can see.

popping into Mosquito for a coffee

love the colorful and "aromatic" street markets!

decisions, decisions

a classic, a dog staring longingly into a butcher shop window. awwwww

Queen Valley AZ, Cistern in Istanbul

We are back in the US, Queen Valley, AZ, to be exact.  Will still be putting pics of Istanbul up though.

The trip back was pretty crazy.  It was an hour and a half taxi ride to the airport.  Once in the plane, it was an hour and a half before we were cleared for take off.  Couple of hours into the flight we made an unplanned stop due to a security issue in Dublin, Ireland.  An 11 hour flight turned into 16 hours and we missed our connecting flight in New York so we spent the night at a hotel near JFK then took a flight yesterday morning to get us back to Apache Junction.  We drove Paradise to Queen Valley today and will stay here till Sunday morning.  We will be attending Pat and Cathys daughter, Brenna, and CJ's wedding on Saturday.....and the weather forecast is 100 degrees for Sat.!

On Apr 9th, we went downtown Istanbul to The Cistern.  It is the only known fully excavated cistern known to exist even though once there were hundreds underground all over Istanbul.  These huge underground rooms were built to store water for the city.  It was very interesting to see the carvings on the columns even though the people then never did as they were under water under ground!

We were close to the Blue Mosque so a couple of pics......

The German Fountain presented as a gift to Istanbul

Inside the Cistern

medusa heads at the base of these columns....no one knows why

back out in the square

dinner that night at Sema's, Pnars mother

Sema, Ulfet, Pnar, Paul and Mike

Istanbul Turkey, Walk about town

We leave tomorrow!  It's been a great 2 weeks here with Paul and Pnar in Istanbul but we must head back to the US.  I have a lot more of Istanbul and the island we visited this weekend but it may be a couple of days before I can continue as we will be flying back tomorrow morning and it's a lonnnngggg flight!

Here are some pics from a walk around this area of town.  This is what it looks like in the residential section of Istanbul:

everyone has a washer but most don't have dryers, hence the clotheslines everywhere!

You can not look anywhere without seeing at least one minaret in the picture

Istanbul is built on hills like San Francisco

we stopped here for a beer

all the buildings have some identifying artwork to make them unique

a local street market

nothing quit like the smell of freshly baked bread!

these 2 girls asked to see their picture on my camera

Istanbul Turkey, evening on Istaclau St.

The evening of the 6th we took a minibus to Istaclau St. to attend the opening of a dear friend, Oslum's, cafe.  It is right down the street from the Galata Tower, a landmark and tourist attraction.  Hopefully the location will be a good thing for business!  We had a lovely evening with perfect weather!

we took a trolley down the very crowded street!

at the cafe

The Galata Tower

street musicians everywhere

winding down the evening with a little desert...rice pudding for Mike!