Arrived!

Monday I departed Seattle on an Air France Airbus 330 at about 2pm and arrived in Paris around 11pm Seattle time. About 90 minutes later I caught a Boeing 737 (much more comfortable) to Istanbul and finally arrived at Atatürk Airport around 4pm local time on Tuesday. The time difference is ten hours, so 4pm is 6am in Seattle.

Catching a shuttle into town, Robert and I were confronted with massive rush-hour traffic, and finally discovered - once we arrived at our destination - that the traffic was due to major security and roadblocks for Obama's last day of his visit to Istanbul. The shuttle and taxi drivers didn't initially recognize us as Americans, so we said "American - Obama?), and the universal response was vigorous nodding! On the local news, though, most folks being interviewed were more than a little put out that the American president was causing them to miss appointments, flights and other commitments! FYI, the photo above is from the 4/6 English edition of TimeTurk and features Obama with the Turkish president, Abdullah Gül.

To get to the home we are staying in, we had to get off the shuttle at the Bosphorus and take a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul, and then a taxi to the home. So now I can say I have been to Asia! The people we are staying with are very nice. Chetin is a professor of English at the Galatasaray University in Istanbul, and his wife works for HP and is a wonderful amateur photographer. They have a charming young son and they all speak fine English!

Tomorrow we'll hitch a ride into town with Chetin and begin looking for our first photographic subjects. Should be good!