Arrived!

Ready to go!

We arrived in Turkiye safely at 1am this morning. We almost didn't make it though. Last evening Philip and I happily made the trip to and through the airport in Tel Aviv, then onto Istanbul. We went through to passport control but hadn't checked if we needed a visa. We did. We had to go all the way back to the visa counter, but realized we didn't have enough USD on us. Our Visa cards didn't work. We were stuck and desperate, stuck in a no man's land between international and domestic sectors, and no one would let us go out to find an ATM that worked. Philip started asking people in the passport line to trade USD for Shekels. No one needed Shekels, of course. Finally, a very kind man just gave us $30. As we stood again in passport control, we realized our plane was boarding. We dashed through, ran like crazy to our plane, making it minutes before the gate closed. Closest call we've ever had. SO thankful to be here.

Beautiful breakfast with Laura.

Ekmek! I remember this delicious Turkish bread!

It is lovely to be here again. After living in Israel for some time, we are really enjoying differences and similarities between cultures. I (B) am also really enjoying remembering my time here as an 18 year old!