Oh what a night.....

11:09 p.m. Istanbul time on 7/13/09

As soon as we arrived to the hotel, Orhan informed us that we had just 45 minutes to be upstairs for the welcome dinner. So I took a neckdown and raced upstairs with my roommate Adrienne to find that dinner was on the rooftop terrace of the hotel. Squeel! See the pics above to understand why the view made me want to stare for hours. You should see the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Bosphorus Bridge and Sea of Marmara. By the way, when the sun goes down, they are all lit like nothing you have ever seen. I will take more pics tomorrow. Dinner was fantastic. Vegetarians welcome, especially those with sweet tooths. I just can't take my eyes off of the view to even notice anything else. It is so beautiful and surreal. After dinner, we Texas folks decided to go mingle with the locals and check out the streets of Istanbul by our hotel.....as a group Mom! We wandered a bit and experienced a lot in a short time period. I should get used to that sensation. Istanbul is bustling with busy shopkeepers, patrons, families and tourists. And none are too busy to stop you to learn about you. I love how they pronounce "Tex-Ahhs." Now Turkish men are a whole new group of people! The good news is that I have in no way been offended or creeped out by any of the comments I have heard so far. They just like to make you laugh. James, the one guy in our Texas crew, laughs harder than anyone else at some of the lines thrown my way tonight. All the girls got our share of compliments and one liners. Here are my favorites.

"Miss, you dropped somehing. It was my heart. Marry me now!"

"You are so beautiful I can't look at you. Wait, yes I can!"

"I hope you are looking for me because I have been looking for you my whole life."

Finally, the guy at an ice cream stand convinced me to try a sample of Turkish ice cream, only to make a 5 minute spectacle of the ordeal by dangling and then jerking away the mini ice cream cone 50 times. It never got old to him, no matter how many times I rolled my eyes and reached for it again. Now I understand that I fed into this by participating, but that cone looked good. It was worth it when I finally got a hold of it. Walking back to the hotel, we passed 6 guys on bean bags on the sidewalk smoking a huge hookah. This place is incredible.

Turning in now. Have to load the bus at 7a.m. tomorrow for our cruise over the Bosphorus. Good night Texas:)

Blog Playlist: Good to Sea You by Pinback; Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston; Beggin' by Madcon

Factoid: Istanbul is the former capital of 3 successive empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.