Forty two years ago Shane and I left Istanbul with a bag of puzzle rings a box of meerschaum pipes and a couple of quite 'interesting' embroidered goat fur coats. Today we spent a lot of time in the Grand Bazar and found one place selling puzzle rings (a lot of people puzzled when I asked them about the rings), one stall in the antiques area selling the pipes and no one selling those nasty flea bitten coats we loved for years. Guess things have changed around here!  
As you can tell we have arrived safely in Istanbul tough I can't say the journey here was good. The plane left at 11pm and arrived here at 5am local time. One consistently crying baby meant no sleep. However, the airport here was great and there was a sign with my name on it which meant we would be taken care of. After a riotous ride to town we were dropped off as close as the van could get us to our guesthouse....two blocks of rolling our luggage over centuries old cobblestone waking up every peacefully sleeping tourist in the vicinity brought us to our new home for the next three days. Having no place to put us (because of course our room wasn't ready at that time of day) they whisked us away to another family owned guesthouse where we managed to get a few hours sleep. Breakfast was on the terrace onlooking the Sea of Marmara....truly delightful!
We are now truly settled in to our original room and have enjoyed roaming around the old city. Everything is within walking distance. The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the many bazaars and of course the water added to the crazy twisting streets and the magic of the East makes this an amazing experience. Sure the puzzle rings aren't there and the men no longer wear white dresses with a bright red tasseled Fez on their heads, still I kind of like the progress. Much is the same and with every turn comes a new memory. The smells of the spice market, the call of the muezzin (now over loud speakers), the ships heading off in all directions and the secretive women in their dark burkas....added to cell phones and scantily clothed tourists makes for an assault on the senses.
 Tomorrow we are going on a cruise of the Bosphorus by local ferry then the next day we are off to Cappadocia. Tonight we are going to find some street food and a cold local beer.
Gotta love retirement.