Istanbul!!

We're here, we're here! After months of careful planning (okay, maybe not months, nor careful), we're finally here at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, where empires have risen and fallen -- Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul...whatever you want to call it!

The day's been pretty slow since I got in in the early evening. I was greeted by tons of traffic and pouring rain, not to mention a cab driver who didn't know where the hotel was. The W Istanbul is located in the newly restored Akaretler rowhouse district, where they basically restored a bunch of old rowhouses into a new trendy shopping and commercial area, anchored by the W. It's the W Hotel's first branch in Europe, and I have to say, other than the former W Sydney, this is definitely the nicest W we've ever stayed at (most of them are pretty tired by now)-- not that we're jaded or anything.

Dinner was at Spice Market -- yes, I know, we copped out, but with the rain, fatigue and jetlag, we wanted to stick around close and eat some comfort food. In this case it was samosas, tempura john dory and chicken curry. All washed down with some of Turkey's own Efes pilsner.

Off to bed now, but much much more tomorrow as we head to Sultanhamet aka "Old City"...


İyi Günler (that's good night in Turkish) and sweet dreams! (see below)