What a birthday! I warned RobO that if these great birthdays keep up I’m going to start expecting a trip every year at this time! (If you can’t remember last year’s Quebec City awesomeness your homework is to scroll back and read it.)
This morning started out with a walk to the painted steps. The story is that an Istanbul resident wanted to make people happy so he bought a few cans of paint and painted a staircase. The city painted it grey the next day, which caused a political revolt. The result? I guess you can see…
I met up with robO and we went to a Turkish Bath. This place was built 300 years ago and is in the ‘1000 places to see before you die’ book. Anyway, picture a big marble room filled with naked women soaping each other down. Before you get too excited, my woman was named Inge and she was exfoliating dead skin off of my body in little lint-like rolls. This was followed by a wash down and an oil massage. My skin has never felt so good! Check it off the bucket list! You can Read robO’s report for the full man experience.
Sorry… no pics of me in my birthday suit!
Next we visited the Bascilica Cistern, which is an underground water storage made with beautiful roman columns. And we got a special treat… a dress up like sultans and have a photo taken. Who could say no to that?!
The rest of our afternoon was spent eating amazing Turkish food and checking out the beautiful Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia.
We finished off the night with a birthday dinner and rooftop patio views of the sights. Not too shabby for the first day of my 36th year!
Looking forward to checking our the bazaars, then flying to Cappadocia tomorrow!
Yeah!! Double blog – been waiting for one of these to show up. Sounds like good times and a great birthday. Great pics. Keep them coming : )
Wow! Looks like you had a great BDay!
Amazing!!! Looks like it's living up to the pre-trip excitement!