12:45 pm -- It's too bad there's not enough time to leave the airport to go exploring the city, especially after all everyone has said about this place. I'm in the Dubai airport right now, sitting through a layover, and will be en route to Turkey in a couple hours. But at least the flight here from Doha was quick -- less than an hour in the air -- so we'll most definitely have to take a weekend trip here sometime in the near future. It should be lots easier now that we have our Qatari residence permits.Anyway, like I mentioned sometime ago, I'm off to Turkey and Bulgaria on this trip. The reason we get off work in the coming week is Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday after the holy month of fasting that is Ramadan. (A second Eid break, for Eid al-Adha, is going to fall around the time of American Thanksgiving this year.) At the moment, though, Ramadan is still going on for a few more days, so I was incredibly relieved this morning to find out that food is still allowed to be served on flights and within the airport. I left the apartment in a hurry this morning and completely forgot breakfast, and by the time I realized, I was already in the taxi and thought I was going to starve til sundown. Thankfully not -- I don't know that I've ever appreciated airplane food so much.
For today, it's just going to be me in Istanbul. The way our plane tickets worked out, I arrive tonight and am the first to get there. Susan, Noreen, Adam, and Aleks follow tomorrow, then Rebecca, then Jakob. I'm staying in a pretty cheap $14-a-night hostel and plan to just wander the Sultanahmet neighborhood (where the major historical and touristy sites are) on foot. Nothing intense, but should be fun, I hope. So begins our Eid break.
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