Challenging Trip to Turkey: Day 1 & 2 of Trip

When our group of 31 students, faculty, staff, and friends of Campbell University Divinity School gathered at RDU Airport on Monday morning, we had no idea that our best laid plans would have to be altered. We were to leave RDU at 12 for our flight to Washington, D.C. where we had planned to do some sightseeing prior to our 11:30 flight to Istanbul. However, those plans changed when our plane had a mechanical failure and we had to de-board the plan bound for D.C. We waited in the airport for about two hours waiting to see if the airline would be able to get us on another flight or repair the plane. By 2:30 when none of those had come to fruition, we had to make the call, along with our travel agency, to take a charter bus to the airport in D.C. When a bus was eventually rounded up, we finally left RDU about 4:30 bound to D.C. We did arrive in D.C. about 9:15, plenty of time to get ready for our flight.

I don't know if any of you have ever ridden Turkish Airlines before, but I have to say it is by far the best I have ever ridden in terms of amenities, entertainment, and all around service. As I type this, I am wearing the slippers that were given to us on the flight, along with our own personal toiletry kit, among other things. The flight was roughly 9 hours, and we arrived here in Istanbul about 4 o'clock local time (9 AM back home). Our schedule didn't allow for much today, but we did ride around the city somewhat, and visited a spice market downtown.

Crowd gathers along the Sea of Marmara

Istanbul is such a unique city, mainly because it is located in not one, but two continents. I am on the European side today, but will be visiting the Asian part of the city tomorrow! It is a city of 14 million residents, but due to the recent influx of refugees from Syria, the people here estimate the number is more like 15 million. Tomorrow we will visit notable sites here in the city like the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar, the world's largest and oldest market with over 4,000 shops.

One of the shops in the Spice Market

Tomorrow after the day in Istanbul, we will be flying down to Izmir (Biblical Smyrna). The unique thing about this trip is that it requires more travel and packing/unpacking when compared to other trips, as we will be staying in a total of 8 hotels over the course of our 12 days here. I hope to be able to continue to keep everyone updated through this blog. Thanks everyone for reading and for your support/prayer.

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