5/7/15. First day in Istanbul

Turkish Airlines is fabulous. The food was great and I like having Joanne to sit next to. But i wish I were better at sleeping on a plane. I took Melatonin and did everything possible to sleep on the plane. I slept a little  then I realized  I should listen to podcasts and that helped.  Then we landed in Istanbul. We had the Saruhan hotel arrange transport from the airport for us. We got to the hotel a little past 6 PM. (We left DC at 11:30 pm the night before - with the 7 hour time difference.) At the airport, we each took 1000 Turkkish lira from the airport ATM. I gave the driver 25 lira in tip. Then when we got to the hotel they calculated what we owed per room. It was 1090 per room for the 4 nights + the 2 airport shuttles. ( to the hotel in Istanbul and then back to the airport on Monday). We all went to rooms to clean up and met in the lobby at 7:30. Then we walked around. We went by the blue mosque. Then we got dinner and 3 bottles of wine at a restaurant near the hotel. We had a great time. We then came back to the hotel and went up to the roof a little. There's a smell of sea Iin the air. It feels like being at the shore. We will meet on the roof for breakfast tomorrow.