Istanbul - June 23 Arrival

Arrived in Istanbul and straight away greeted by customs and Emre Sunu, Teaching Assistant at UCSD, Eleanor Roosevelt College, Making of the Modern World Program, not to mention our Turkish tour guide extraordinaire. Changed my plane ticket back to my Luftansa flight after a difficult 18 hour journey and then shared a cab with Jason. Very smooth getting checked into the Golden Horn Hotel. Showered, settled in, and then our first dinner out. There were eight of us and we got a bit ripped off, but nothing too bad. At dinner were: Amanda, Johana, Kelly, Jason, Rob, Anthony, and one other. Unfortunately, no sleep that night at all, but an incredible moonrise over the Blue Mosque and some more friendly faces on our deck.