Getting to Istanbul

We didn't have internet access during our trip. So here are a few offline entries :

May 3 4:00pm. At the airport in Minneapolis. It feels real now that we are actually on vacation. I feel almost giddy. I was getting another project done until 20 minutes before our car arrived.

A big shout out to our daughter Jenny for bringing us to the airport! Thanks for the ride and thanks for helping us clean out the fridge! Jenny has already teased me about blogging. But she was impressed with my little bag. Yay!

I found my June book club book in a store here. “The Latehomecomer,” by Kao Kalia Yang. She's a local author writing about her family's odyssey from Laos to Minnesota. Will have plenty of time to read it, alternating with the Turkish phrasebook and New York Times crossword puzzles.(My big treat. I have saved the puzzles for the last three or four weeks and have them all ready to solve. Geek heaven!) I'm missing the May gathering, so am not going to bother reading “Nixonland.” It sounds good, but not the right tone for vacation.

Jan here, going there. Seats together on the first two flights, and we were early, so we get to watch Tiger putt like me. My first ever 3 week vacation since I got my first job at the gas station at age 15. What will it be like? I am ready to see old stuff that makes me feel young.

May 4, 10:55 am On the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, we sat in the first row behind first class. Their seats reclined into beds. They got champagne, hot moist towels and real silverware. I was so envious. We sat upright with no leg room and tried to sleep as they showed “Yes Man” and “Horton Hears a Who.”

Now in Frankfurt with a two-hour layover and starting to have jetlag. It is 10:55 am here. But our bodies think it is 3:55am. I have been trying to review the Turkish phrase book but have not had much brain power. This is the part where we are tired and disoriented.

We are flying from here to Istanbul on Lufthansa. I'm worried that I told the hotel Turkish Airlines and that they won't find us at the airport. Yikes

Angel's Home Hotel in Istanbul. May 4 8:05 pm. We are here and feel much better. The driver paged us as soon as we got through customs and all went great. We decided to slightly upgrade our room when we got here. The first one was so tiny we couldn't walk around the bed. I got my first lesson in bargaining. He offered us a sale price to upgrade. I counter-offered and he accepted. Dang! I should have gone lower!

Now we have a balcony and robes! Of course a fun dog was in the lobby of the other building. (Someone tell Kathy Purcell to read this!) This is a boutique hotel -- a few rooms in each of two buildings. Those of you who know me know that I have to find a dog everywhere I go.  I will visit Tavlo each day when I go to breakfast, so it's okay.

The muezzin is calling people to prayer right now from the Blue Mosque. It is huge and amazing! And it is right down the street. Will send pictures tomorrow. Now off to dinner!

Thanks to all of you who are following and have commented!