Istanbul. The Hippodrome.

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rom the Aya Sophia, Lei and I made our way to the Blue Mosque via the Hippodrome which lies inside Sultanahmet Park.

Back in the day when Istanbul was known as Constantinople, the Hippodrome was a race track where chariots races were held. To raise the image of his new capital, Byzantine Emperor Constantine brought works of art from all over the empire to adorn it. The monuments were set up in the middle of the Hippodrome. Today, little remains of the original track and only a few of the monuments have survived the years.

Istanbul. The Magnificent Hagia Sophia.

I took this iconic photo of the Hagia Sophia from Sultanahmet Park.

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reetings from Istanbul.  We arrived yesterday and today was our first full day exploring Istanbul.

Some people say you should save the best things for last. Well, maybe that's true for somethings in life but for me, as a tourist, I always want to see the best things first.

The packing begins....

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nce again, my "suitcase" will be my trusty Eagle Creek backpack - small and lightweight which makes it manageable for me to carry. This will be important as most of our travel within both Turkey and Croatia will be by bus. I can't imaging lugging along a 26" pullman suitcase around as we schlep back and forth between pensions/hotels and various bus stations.

I have grown to really love my backpack. Only problem is that deciding what to take with me is always a challenge since space and keeping the weight down are major considerations.

Soar like an eagle....

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r maybe that should be "scream like a banshee" .....as Lei and I each hurl ourselves off the edge of a mountain and soar above open waters.

Yep. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to convince Lei to go paragliding. It's going to be hard for most of our friends to believe that we're actually going to be doing this. If you were to line up a bunch of people and ask any of our friends to pick out the two that you thought would want to paraglide, we would NOT be the ones picked...I can guarantee you that!