Andac, Jill and me sharing a few beers at 2:30 AM after arriving at his apartment.
Jill and I boarded our next flight and headed off.
Jill is incredibly lucky in that she can sleep through any flight, anywhere, at any time.
I, on the other hand, barely ever sleep on flights.
I have no fear of flying, in fact I love flying, but I just don’t find it easy to sleep in those seats with lots of people turning on and off lights all the time.
Jill used to work as an executive for major corporations so she trained herself to fall asleep the second her butt hits the seat.
Who knows, with all the traveling we plan in our future, I might be able to do the same.
Either way, the flight was uneventful, and we arrived a bit early in Istanbul.
We grabbed a cab and enjoyed the sites in the moonlight as our arrival was around 1:30 AM.
Jill has a lot of friends in Istanbul, and one of them, Andac (pronounced An-DACH as the Turkish language stresses the second syllable of each word) had told us we could stay at his place.
We told him we could grab a hotel, since we were arriving so late, but he would not have it.
This is actually not surprising from the Turks I’ve met and that Jill knows: They are incredibly kind and giving people and love to have a good time.
Our cab driver did a great job and we arrived around 2:30 AM and rang the doorbell to Andac’s apartment.
He opened the gate and we climbed up the stairs to his place.
It was a great little 1 bedroom apartment and totally perfect for what we needed to do while we were staying in Istanbul.
Andac was everything Jill had said he would be: gracious, funny, smart, and very thoughtful and forward thinking.
He is actually running his own business selling these amazing Yoga mats/camping towels on Amazon and we used them for the whole time we were there and loved them.
You can also use them as clothes as you can see in the slide show. Honestly, it is one amazing product and well worth buying.
I want to give a shout out to his business and encourage anyone that wants to support him, and buy a superior product, to click on this link to Nagnalife.com and check them out.
If you want to order one, just click these links:
Nagna Serengeti with Travel Bag
Jill and I each have one and love them beyond belief! They are amazing comfortable, easy to pack, and are the fastest drying towels we’ve ever used.
We will be taking them on our trips with us everywhere we go.
After checking out the yoga mats/camping towels, we all talked for an hour or so and then Jill and I hit the sack ready to experience a full day of Istanbul tomorrow morning, bright and early!
Little did we know, the call to prayer would start at 3:30 AM that morning. It was a wonderful way to be welcomed into Istanbul in so many ways!