Using Utensils

Take me back to Constantinople

Both Jay and I have worked from the Israeli Google offices before and while we haven’t seen all of Israel, it’s not often that we’re this far from California. We tried a trip to Cairo for the weekend but it was a bust so at the last minute we booked flights to Istanbul, Turkey.

Israeli airport security grilled us both pretty intensely… apparently they frown upon buying tickets five hours before the flight with limited luggage, international passports, on September 11th and during Ramadan. 

However a few hours later we were at the Ararat Hotel and we had a great show going on in the Arasta Bazaar across the street with the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in the background:

I wish we had more time, but we still had a blast and saw the city from both sides of the European golden horn as well as the Asian side of the water in two days.

However I have to admit that the They Might Be Giants song, Istanbul (not Constantinople), popped into my head more than once:

…Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks…