I fly out tomorrow morning for Istanbul. Where better to go (other than my beloved Bangalore) for some pre-holiday shopping time?! (only 127 days until Christmas!) I have stopovers in Detroit and Amsterdam before I gain entry to the Promised Land. [And the Amsterdam stop is barely two hours, so please hold your recommendations for Space Cakes. p]
This trip is 100% vacation – no work duties this week. One of my yoga buddies (Lee) was going to be in China and suggested we meet up in Istanbul on her way back home… and it took about four seconds for me to start arranging travel plans! I have been to Istanbul once before (many many moons ago at the end of a Mediterranean cruise with a short-lived “other”… “significant” purposefully omitted p) but was only there for a day and half. This time – 12 years later – the information now readily available online has opened the planning process. We have every hour booked… from tours of the city, to cruises along the Bosphorus, mosques and palaces, whirling dervishes (http://youtu.be/n3UWjV-DHXE) and a lotta lotta lotta shopping. Heck, there may even be a Turkish Bath before it’s all over with. After all – this is vacation! Thanks for joining in the fun… See you next from the 2010 European Capital of Culture… ISTANBUL!