Home Sweet Home

This is the view tonight from poolside. Below left is the soon to be metro station for the Palm Deira.

A Night at the Horse Races

The Shaikh owns most of the horses and you can't actually bet but you can pick your horses and if you're right you can win money. Who cares? The horses were beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Istanbul Market

Friday Night Shopping

Tuna and Kingfish are very popular. Note the propped up fishheads.

The Dubai Fish Market

A short trip to the fish and vegetable market next door to our hotel was our latest adventure. The place is the size of a Walmart and is a mass of humanity, fruit, vegetables and all kinds of local sea creatures. Not many women venture here so Danica was a true sensation much to her chagrin. It's impossible to capture the true experience without a camera with an olfactory lense. I still have the smell of fish up my snoot!

Ayasophia(Greek) ... Hagia Sophia(Turkish) ... 532 AD

Holy Wisdom. Here we are inside this magnificent structure which was first a Byzantine Christian church, then an Islamic mosque and finally a museum. Although over 95% Muslim, Turkey is a secular country and western style dress dominates. You will find some women wear some form of headcover. The huge discs were made of stretched camel skin. Scaffolding on the left is for a cleaning project.

East Meets West

Istanbul is the only city that sits on two continents. Behind me, that's Asia on the right and Europe on the left with the Bosphorus between the two. This shot was taken from the back of the Topkapi Palace and museum where we saw a diamond the size of a plum and a golden shoebox filled with golf-ball sized emeralds. Fortunately for me Danica is not into jewelry!

Inside the "Blue Mosque"

Note the blue windows. The electric lights you see replaced the original olive oil candles. Although a spectacular tourist attraction for us, all of the men took this visit as an opportunity to perform their evening prayer. If you squint your eyes, you can see them way in the back on the right side. In Islam, prayer is more powerful when done as a group with one person leading the recitation. No shoes allowed and Danica was sure to wear a head scarf.

Danica and Osaz Ali from Hatta

After shopping in the Grand Bazzar, we stopped for apple tea at this small outside cafe'. Ali was a genial host and the only male who wore his traditional dress the entire time. This served him very well in Istanbul as all of the vendors assumed that he was a fabulously wealthy sheikh. His English was very good and he loved to tell his colleagues to "chill out" whenever they got excited.