Arrived in Turkey

The flight from LAX to Heathrow was really good- quick and smooth. I was at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow. It was really quick getting through security and I had hours to kill which I mainly spent people watching.

There were so many cute shops and they were all tax-free and with sales. I restrained myself from even looking at the cute shoes and clothes and purses...until my flight back to LAX.

The flight to Istanbul however was late taking off and then we circled above the city for about 40 minutes waiting in queue to land. But getting my visa, getting through the passport check, and grabbing my luggage was all pretty quick. My host dad Emre was waiting among the huge crowd outside the arrivals area. It suprisingly wasn't as cold as I was expecting but I think it was 5 degress Celsius. The airport is over on the European side of Turkey and we had to cross over to the Asian side to get to the apartment. He was saying most of the businesses are on the European side but people mainly live on the Asian side so the bridge connecting the 2 sides gets really busy during commuting hours.

I've heard the call to prayer over the loudspeakers only twice today, but I believe people pray 5 times a day- maybe only at dawn and dusk they announce it over the speakers. I don't know what they are saying but it sounds like singing to me.

Here's the view from my room and the apartment which is really nice, spacious, and warm. The family's really nice too but I haven't spent too much time with them as we got back home after midnight.

The main street you can see is Bagdat Street (Bagdat Caddesi in Turkish) which is a popular and prestigious street in Istanbul with a lot of cafes, restaurants, shops and famous brand name stores.

Where we are kind of reminds me of Taipei- busy, crowded, lots of cars and buildings, but I guess that is just the formula for big cities! You can see some water- it's the Sea of Marmara . And the stadium is for one of the 3 futbol teams- Fenerbahçe.