The first day of our tour was a rainy day! We went out for some coffee and pastries early in the morning, then went back to the room to enjoy breakfast. We had a meet & greet with the tour at 2pm, so we had a lot of time to explore Old Istanbul prior to the tour. The Turkish doorman of our hotel was quite impressed with our raingear and our desire to sightsee in the weather.
At the meeting time, we went up to the 4th floor and met the group. The tour was split between Gen X/Yers and Baby Boomers, quite a bit different demographically than the Japan tour (all GenXers except one). Most everybody was Australian, although there was one Brit, one Frenchie, one Canook, and the two US bums (Dennis & I).
Our tourguide, Margeux (pronounced Mar-go), was the French one. She had a fantastic sense of humor, a little brash, but way entertaining. She could be course at time, but like sea salt, courseness adds extra texture & fullness to a dish in a way that is often unexpected and delightful.
We all discussed the trip notes, with an extended question and answer session. I enjoyed her discussion of the culture, what to expect, what not to do, etc. She has a very thorough understanding of Muslim culture, being that she just got off a long stint in Morocco. After the meet & greet, we all took off for a walking tour in the rain.
My favorite part of the tour was walking by the Very First Turkish Delight store (in business since 1777)! I found this rather intriguing. I would have liked to have taken a tour of a Turkish delight factory, or wherever they make these delicacies. I just love Turkish Delights!!!
Margeux knew a lot about the walking tour we took, but not as much about the history of the other towns we travelled to on the tour. She was a bit discombobulated the whole time because she was staying up quite late talking on line with her girlfriend. I think it’s unfair of us to expect a bohemian such as her to exceed expectations on the job AND be in LOVE at the same time. 8^)
I thought it was cute the way she went on about her girlfriend, but a little annoyed that things weren’t better planned for our trip. It seemed like an aweful lot happened at the last minute (whereas in our Japan tour, our guide was in clear command of *all* aspects of our trip). I think she’s new to this tour, relatively speaking, so maybe that had an influence as well.
After the walk, we went out for dinner. We sat outside under a canopy (which shielded us from the rain). By 7:15pm it was coming down in BUCKETS, and Margeux had picked out this great little restaurant. Dennis ordered lamb, and I ordered an Orange Fish dish (which came out whole)! Lucky for me, Margeux was a PRO at cleaning fish. She had all the meat off in seconds flat, it was WAY impressive!
It was a very long day, and we were excited to see what the rest of the tour had in store!