Although I have known that I would be going on this trip for several months, it is hard for me to believe that it is already here. I got dropped off at the airport at about 8:30 p.m. for a 10:30ish flight from Detroit to Frankfurt. I met up with Jana while checking in and we then found Mark and Angie at Chili’s. Scott joined shortly after. We all headed to the gate together and the flight was not that crowded. I sat across the aisle from Jana and Scott with two empty seats next to me. Mark was sitting one row ahead of us and since Angie is on crutches (with a broken foot) she had her seat moved forward in the plane. We chatted a bit before take-off, but once we were in the air, I turned on Enchanted, watched about 30 minutes and fell asleep and slept the rest of the almost 9 hour flight – missed dinner, missed breakfast, which were served in the middle of the night our time.

We didn’t have a lot of time before our connecting flight out of Frankfurt so we hurried off of the plane and on to the bus to get to the terminal for our next flight. There was an announcement made that it would be a full flight so please check any extra carry-on bags. I’m not sure which flight they were looking at, because this flight was even less crowded than the one before it. This time I had a window seat with no one on the aisle next to me. Jana was a couple of rows behind me. The captain announced that there would be an hour delay. I don’t think that it actually took that long, but I am not too sure because I slept again and woke up just after missing food. So, not knowing when my next chance for food would be, I went and asked for my meal. It wasn’t great, but for airplane food it wasn’t too bad, so I ate most of it.

We got off the plane (now in uniform), bought visas and then went through customs. We got our luggage without any problem – except that I can’t believe I packed so much. I am not sure what I was thinking but I am also not sure, if I had it to do again, what I would have left behind. We exited the baggage claim area to find Mehmet Inal waiting for us. Mehmet speaks English extremely well and asked us if we wanted to drive to Bursa that night (about 4 hours since we had missed the last ferry) or if would we like to spend the night in a hotel in Istanbul, tour Istanbul the next day (Tuesday) and leave for Bursa Tuesday evening. We had all wanted to see Istanbul and weren’t sure how we were going to be able to do it (since it is not in the same Rotary District as our Host District). So, we were very excited about being given the chance, and while trying not to look too eager, we jumped at the opportunity.

Mehmet and his wife run a private school in Bursa and he had their school mini bus at the airport to transport us - which was good because I am not the only one who seems to have overpacked. We were taken to a hotel in the historic section of Istanbul. We dropped off our luggage, changed clothes and headed out. We went to the main street in the modern part of Istanbul. It looked a lot like streets Adam and I had walked through in Amsterdam. What I was surprised by, however, were the number of people out on a Monday night. The street was packed! We walked a bit and then decided that we were hungry. So, Mehmet brought us in to a restaurant he likes. He ordered for all of us – to start with lots and lots of different appetizers called meze. We had eggplant in tomato sauce, cream sauce with spinach, little shrimps, beans, hummus type spreads, etc. We also tried Raki – yuk. It is liquor that tastes like black licorice. Not a flavor I like, but being a good sport, I gave it a taste (then tried to quickly find something to get the flavor out of my mouth).

Mehmet’s sister-in-law, Esra, joined us at dinner. Esra also speaks beautiful English. She is a professional tour guide in Istanbul and was going to be taking us sightseeing on Tuesday. While we were eating a man playing an accordion came to play at our table and sing for us. We found out that Mehmet knows how to play the accordion and, in fact, he did play for us later. We were at the restaurant several hours, which we learned was the norm for Turkish dinners out. And just when we thought that we were done, more food came out. This time it was two different types of lightly breaded whole fish – heads, tails… Mehmet picked one up and ate it – head and all. Well, actually, he left the tail. He then wanted us to do the same. After some back and forth, Angie ate one. I picked up a small one, cut the head off and took a bite of it. I was not a fan of the taste or the bones I was chewing. Jana handed Scott the biggest one she could find. He hesitated a minute and then went to it. He got it all in his mouth and then was chewing for what seemed like an eternity. I will give him credit though, because he didn’t give up and spit it out (although we encouraged him to do just that).  We later found out that there were two types of fish and both Scott and Angie had eaten the larger (and incorrect!) one. 

After we had gone through this, Mehmet showed us the real way to eat the larger ones – holding the head and the tail and just eating the meat off of the spine. So, not only were we not really supposed to be eating the head, we weren’t supposed to be eating the spine either!!!

During the meal, we also learned the Turkish word for wine. Mehmet, being a good host, was trying to keep glasses filled and at one point, looked at Jana and asked her if she wanted more – we were all sure he said ”Shut up.  You want more wine?”  But he explained that he had used the Turkish word for wine: sarap (pronounced sharap). It was probably funnier if you were there, but we all had a good laugh over it.

Next, they brought out an order of what looked like ceviche in from a Spanish/Mexican restaurant at home. It was very good – shrimp, peppers with cheese. Mehmet said that he was going to order the main course then and we were all stuffed. Luckily for us, the next thing that came out was a fruit tray – bananas, strawberries and apple and a warm dish that was melted Halvah. I recognized the flavor before Mehmet told us what it was. It was interesting to eat a warm spoonful of Halvah.

When we were finally ready to move on, we exited the area of restaurants we had been eating in Mehmet stopped to buy us some sweets. Although we were stuffed, they were very good. We had a rolled up thing that looked a bit like sushi with marshmallow and chocolate inside and pistachio coating. The next one to try was also marshmallow, this time with some berry and pistachio filling and coconut coating.  Then we had Turkish Delight. Not sure how to describe it - chewy with pistachio inside.

We started walking back towards the car and decided to go for one last drink before calling it a night. We went to a building that had a bar on the top floor, but the bar was closed. They let us go in and take a look at the view, but no drinks. Finally, we headed back to our hotel and got ready for bed. It was well after midnight and our next day would come soon with sightseeing at 9a.m.