In a city of 13 million people covering 2000 square miles how do you know where to begin? Istanbul is one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and it is easily the largest city in Turkey. It’s been growing since the 1950’s when migrants from Anatolia flocked to the city in search of economic [...]

Four weeks in Istanbul means a lot of photos!  Here are some of my favorite more obscure shots from some familiar and not so familiar parts of the city.  When I can travel slow and have the time to really live in a city – I enjoy getting out and seeing the local life outside [...]

I’ve slept in some really weird places – trains, gers, tents in the middle of nowhere, cars – but a little apartment in Istanbul was the strangest I have experienced to date. In fact I’m sitting in the living room of the shared apartment now and I can hear the drilling – a constant hum [...]

Everyone talks about wanting to find local experiences when you travel – strangely one of my best local finds in Istanbul was a place where the locals tried to convince me to stay away from.  Were they trying to hide it’s greatness?!  I honestly don’t think so – instead they were simply trying to ensure [...]

As we wandered through the market I was finally able to ask all of the questions that had been consuming my brain in Turkish markets. What’s this? How do they make that? What is this used for? When do people eat this? And the list goes on and on. Whenever you explore a new country’s [...]

I look at the walnut at the end of my fork and inspected it closely. It wasn’t just the nut part that we normally crack the shell to get to – but instead it was the whole shell poised on my fork prong. How in the world did the Turkish make this impenetrable nut into [...]

My hands vibrate, the noise is deafening, and there is so much dust I can hardly see the dirt path in front of me. My lips are tightly pursed so as not to take in too much dust in my lungs – but even though my lips are sealed – I am smiling inside. Yesterday [...]

At 5:30 AM we had liftoff – and it was then as we started to slowly rise above the trees I realized that we were not alone. We were 1 of 55 hot air balloons as far as I could see and count. They looked like marbles floating beneath me – brightly colored and designed [...]