Turkey! Greece!

In exactly one week and one hour, I will board my United flight from Dulles (IAD) to Istanbul, Turkey (IST) via Munich, Germany (MUC). As you can tell by the last blog entry, it's been almost exactly a year since I left the country. Far too long! The catalyst for this next exciting trip is my good friend Rod's birthday. He's turning 30 and wanted to celebrate in a big way!

Along with about 10 other friends, we'll be in Istanbul for 5 days - all staying in a flat we've rented there. Because my life has been beyond crazy the last few months between my day job and all the new work associated with getting my restaurant and coffee shop, Pound, to a good, profitable place...my planning for this trip has been severely lacking. But this I know - I'll be in Turkey from Wednesday to Monday and then flying Monday morning to Athens, Greece. Only about half the group is making the second leg, but even then they're only staying for two days. Since the Greek islands are a-whole-nother world from Athens, I've extended my trip two extra nights aside from what everyone else is doing.

So many things to see, do and, most importantly, EAT! I just watched Bourdain's show on Turkey a few weeks ago and I'm still hungry from it. I am going to eat well on this trip! As if I don't on all of them. Right.

Hopefully I will get another update in before I actually take off, and I haven't decided how I'm going to do updates from the road. But most likely, my writings will be limited to the time I can find to hang out at net cafes around the area. I will definitely be taking tons of pictures and will be packing my new, super special Nikon D-SLR!

Now I just need to find the time to get as excited about this trip as I should be. I've got the Lonely Planet Turkey book, so I'm half-way there. TURKEY HERE I COME!