Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Istanbul, Turkey part II

We spent a quick 3 day vacation in Istanbul, Turkey. We went last November 2006 for 4 days and liked it so much we decided to go back. It is about 6 hours by bus, with a delay of about 2 hours at the border of Bulgaria/ Turkey.




We traveled with a colleague, Jonathan, and two friends we met in Sofia- Dave and Naomi, who are both from Washington and studied at Evergreen University. We went to the Grand Bazaar and a Turkish Bath on Saturday to receive massages and steam baths. We walked about town on Sunday and met our housemate, Ebru, for lunch. We went to a shopping mall and then walked about the downtown older district. On Monday we went to the Topkapi Palace, where the Sultan's lived during the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to the early 1900's. Topkapi has amazing architecture along with national treasures and artifacts- such as an 86 carat diamond.

Gordon and I bought five Turkish carpets. We each bought one for each other as gifts for our first wedding anniversary, to be celebrated on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007. They are beautiful! Mine is the one on our laps above and Gordon's is the one we are sitting on, to the right. We also bought the one we are sitting on to the left. It was very difficult to make the final decisions, they were all so nice!

3 comments:

  1. Looks like the two of you are having a great time! You have been to so many wonderful places and ecperienced so much! Hope all is well.
    Crystal

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  2. dusty! Yay! Happy Anniversary! Has it been one year already? I miss you, but I'm also so glad that you are having these experiences.

    Jessica

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  3. COngratulations on the anniversary, folks!! well done, i hope everything is going well in Bulgaria and I hope you guys are loving life. great to hear from you. please do not stop sending the photos and messages. Hey Gordo, did you buy that beard at the same place you bought those carpets?!?! un abrazo chau

    Lee OB

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