Welcome to Istanbul Day 1 & 2

Warning: Long post with Lots of Details
We left Salt Lake City 2 pm June 16 and arrived in Istanbul June 17th 6pm. That included a 9 hour time difference (So in Salt Lake it would have been June 18th 3am) and 2 layovers in Calgary and Amsterdam. The flight was long but went as planned except for a small lighting storm in Calgary. On the flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul Brad and I had separate seats and I sat next to a Turkish man who had been living in Texas the past while and was now returning home. When we landed in Turkey he gave me his contact information and said his family would be pleased to offer us a Turkish meal during our stay. Brad commented, "that's Turkish hospitality for you." We hopped on the metro (which is above ground) and made 1 transfer and then arrived an hour later at the stop "right by" our hotel. All the while I was looking out of the window like a fish out of water. My first impressions of Istanbul were a mixture of NYC, San Francisco (bay area), and pictures I have seen of Greece. The stop "right by" our hotel translated to a half our hike up a huge bustling hill with bikes, cars, and kids playing soccer (yes on the hill) zooming up and down and out of side streets. We checked into our hotel and happily I washed off all of the traveling while Brad made arrangements to meet with our possible landlord. So we were off again walking to meet our contact and culture shock hit me as I started asking Brad "why are there so many people?" "why are there cats everywhere?" and "how do all these little shops stay in business?" At this point we came across the steepest hill ever and another city came into mind to describe Istanbul- Jerusalem or at least what I have heard of it. For all of you Salt Lakers this was literally like hiking Ensign peak. Steep!! So to sum up the evening from there- we met our contact, saw the apartment, and arranged to move in the next day. Our landlord then took us on a short tour of the area. At this point the best I could compare it to was Soho in Manhattan- shops everywhere, outside restaurants everywhere, clubs everywhere, Taxis in traffic jams everywhere, and people walking everywhere. During this tour the realization of living here for two months hit me and I experienced these feelings in order: overwhelmed, afraid, homesick, shocked, and then lucky for Brad, while he was working out the rent agreement I saw a makeup shop and looked up and saw the familiar label MAC. It was my makeup shop just the same as found in a Nordstroms at home. Only this wasn't just a kiosk but a huge store- imagine Sephora. Funny how the MAC brought me back to reality but seeing something familiar gave me a sense of relief and then excitement as I looked around with a sense of wonder instead of fear. With more hope in my eyes and heart we tried to find our way back to our hotel and then once again hiked up the steepest hill ever to get something to eat. We stopped at a soup cafe which was just delicious and then walked back to the hotel where we crashed. I don't think I've been more mentally or physically exhausted since pioneer trek. 4:30 am we awoke (mostly because of jet lag) to people talking outside our window, birds yaking, and then this siren of something like "Yah sha ra la ma la...." going off. Brad said this happens five times a day. It is the Islam call to prayer. I heard it the night before also but despite the stereotype of everyone dropping and praying towards Mecca, most people ignored it and kept about there bustling. Thankfully we fell back asleep for a few more hours. Our hotel served a traditional Turkish breakfast of watermelon, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, real olives and fresh bread. We packed up hiked up the steepest hill ever this time with some of our luggage and moved into the apartment. I am now sitting in our nice air-conditioned apartment writing this blog while Brad hikes back down to the hotel and hikes back with the rest of the luggage. What a sweet husband! I will post pictures of the apartment later but it is a chic furnished one bedroom apartment that even has a washer-no dryer. This will work out just great. And the air conditioning and wireless internet is probably the greatest part.