Turkey Day 1.

Oh my gosh, I'm finally in Turkey! I've wanted to come here for so long. After I got off the plane, I was hit by the cold. I was expecting it to be in the fifties at least, but the temperature here in Istanbul was in the mid forties. Luckily I was prepared for the worst, and I brought some heavy duty sweaters along with me. The first thing I did after I got set up in my hotel was go out and explore my neighborhood. I was getting hungry so I stopped off at a small cafe that was serving Döner Kebab. It smelled so good with the rich aroma of spices and lamb, it made my mouth water. They also had coffee, Turkish style, which I had heard of but had never tried. It was like sipping rich hot chocolate, very thick and very sweet. There were still coffee grounds in the cup, which I found odd, but not bad. It was piping hot when they gave it to me, and I sat for around five minutes letting steam waft over my face at a tiny checkered table in a random cafe in the middle of Istanbul Turkey. What a life! After lunch, the whole country went home for a collective nap, called a siesta. I didn't nap however and suddenly found myself the only person still awake at two in the afternoon. I walked all around the little area I was in and happened to stumble on a very old mosque. It was closed (siesta time, remember?) so I didn't go in, but I was amazed by the intricacy of the outside alone. There were carvings of geometrical patterns everywhere, stone lattices of star shaped cut-outs that somehow fit together perfectly, and bass reliefs of different scenes from the Koran on the walls facing the street. I was awed. By this time my feet were getting sore, and my jet lag was kicking in, so I decided to gab a quick dinner, a kind of sandwich in pita bread, I headed back to my hotel and went to bed. Döner Kebab the mosque I saw