Our dinner on day one in Istanbul

Doreen had found a famous Turkish food place called Hamdi, and we decided to walk there.

While walking past a large Mosque, a shoeshine guy dropped a brush. I told him about it and he was very grateful.

So grateful that he wanted to shine my shoes. After a pitifully desultory attempt at a shine, he wanted 10 YLT (almost US$7!) I said no, and besides, I only had a YLT20 and 50 notes. He kept trying to grab my 50, and say he would give me change. We ultimately walked away without giving him anyway. He was bringing down the curses of his ancestors on our heads.

The food at Hamdi was great. We started with a couple of Kibbe and some Artichoke hearts, and then had some sort of ground meat on skewers. One had paprika, and one had pistachios as the flavoring (the doner kabob was finished)

Then we walked back to the hotel, and almost got lost.