ISTANBUL - May 18

We arrived safely in Istanbul last Thursday and it has been quite a change of pace. We went right from a bustling medina with alleys and donkeys pulling carts and camel butchers to a cosmopolitan European city with contemporary art galleries, designer clothing, and small passport stamps. In our travels, we have noticed that the grandeur of a country's passport visa is inversely proportional to their level of economic development.

We've visited all of the requisite sites in Istanbul, but unsurprisingly we have been enjoying its food the most. Faced with the fact that we only had three days left on our trip, we squeezed in a few extra meals per day. According to our calculations, we could indulge a little bit-- OK, a lot a bit-- and still come home without a net gain thanks to our intermittent travelers' diarrhea.

Here's how Saturday went down:

8:12am - Homemade museli and yogurt on the roof deck of our hotel. A modest beginning to a gluttonous day.

8:36am - On line to see the Aya Sofya. The doors didn't open until 9, but we wanted to avoid the crowds, so as to not waste too much time that could otherwise be spent eating.

10:12am - That was nice. Cool church/mosque. Hot mosaics. Let's get a snack.

10:14am - Snack time! Jillian's new friend from the day before, Elif, invited us for a cup of apple tea at his restaurant. Since we were already sitting, we figured we might as well have some fresh Turkish spanikopita with our tea.

10:36am - Left the restaurant with two cheek kisses and a bag of spanikopita for our afternoon snack, all from Elif.

10:38am - No sense in letting a bag full of warm spanikopita cool. Those were delicious.

12:20pm - In keeping our promise to have breakfast at a small restaurant we stumbled upon the night before, we sat down for our third breakfast of the day. The grateful proprietors prepared some special dishes for us in addition to the already generous breakfast bufe (buffet). With our stomachs already aching, we still couldn't refuse the tasty eggs, salad, savory pastry, cheese, olives, homemade breads and jams, Turkish tea and coffee, and cookies. The eggs were quite possibly the best we've ever had, and everything else was not far behind.

1:18pm - After chatting a bit, the zaftig cook provided us with her secret recipe and we rolled, literally rolled, out the door.

2:46pm - The afternoon boat ride would not have been complete without a few morsels of Turkish delight candy which we shared happily with the children sitting next to us.

4:11pm - After the boat ride, we took a photographic journey into the fish market. Ari reminded Jillian that wading through fish guts wasn't quite as much fun without the camera- it was just wading through fish guts.

4:18pm - The last fish stall boasted a big grill and small plastic chairs along the water. The fisherman in the big rubber boots (not flip flops, as we were in) pointed out his freshest catch, which soon became our lunch. Moments later, one plate overflowing with fried sardines and one plate with the biggest juiciest tastiest most succulent shrimp arrived and were delightfully devoured.

4:57pm - Thinking something green might pull us out of our food comas, we bought a bag of little green plums that we had been eying for days. Though tasty with a nice sour bite, we were still too full for words.

5:20pm - Oooh! Fresh corn nuts in the spice market. 200g, please!

6:36pm - Still walking off breakfast.

7:36pm - Waiting to be hungry for dinner. Pit stop for a Turkish coffee.

8:36pm - Still walking off breakfast.

9:17pm - Oooh! There it is. That first sign of hunger. Table for 2, please.

9:42pm - Three mezzes should suffice, thank you, sir. We've eaten quite a bit today and we're not that hungry. We'll just have the smoked trout, roasted aubergine, and yogurt salad.

10:11pm - Those were so good, we seemed to have found room for more. You recommend the taramasalata and the white bean salad? OK, those sound perfect. And, another round of raki, please.

10:50pm - Before the kitchen closes, we'd love to squeeze in an order for a lamb and pistachio kebap. We can't leave without trying the spicy walnut salad? OK, we'll have one of those too. That should just about do it for us, thank you.

We made it back to the hotel before the tram stopped for the evening and got a good night's sleep, resting up to do it all again on Sunday.

Lots of love,
Jillian + Ari