We started the day at an outdoor cafe for breakfast. A huge meal. The restaurant across the street from a marina near Andrea and Salih's apartment. I can't remember or even pronounce the name but my favorite was bread, slathered with curdled cream, butter, and drowned in Honey! Yea, honey. The bread was marvelous. A terrifying ride through narrow, crowded, tree lined streets along the waterfront in Salih's little red bullet reminded me of driving along the Frenc...

Jet lag hit us one more time Friday after Andrea came home from work. We slept for another 3-4 hours electing to stay home for the evening. Bakki, Salih's brother, came to dinner. It was fun talking to him again. Bakki works for Microsoft here in Istanbul. Take out/delivery food is different here. They have a service on the Internet where you place your order which can be from a number of different restaurants. One spot with hundreds of restaurants. You can orde...

We arrived to Istanbul's rush hour traffic. Quite an experience. The Turks drive worse than Parisians but Salih got us home safe. Andrea and Salih live in an apartment on the European side of Istanbul within walking distance of the Bosporus. Salih tells us that in a city of 16 million - 95% of the people in Istanbul live in apartments. The hills surrounding Istanbul are littered with ten story apartment buildings. Quite a sight! On our first full day in Istanbu...