First Few Days in Turkey

We arrived in Istanbul safely on Sat. afternoon. With sleeping only
about 1 hour total on the flights here I am still trying to recover, but
after a good long sleep last night and a quick nap today I am feeling
pretty good. On Sat. afternoon I went for a quick 20 minute run before
dinner in a nice forested park by the apt. I ran hill sprints and did
pull-ups. After dinner we hiked up to the 2nd highest point in Istanbul for a great view of the city. Yesterday we went to church in the Netherlands (in their
embassy). After church we went to a Flying Flugtag event by Red Bull
where they pushed these huge winged contraptions on wheels off a pier
into the water. It was pretty funny. Only a few "flew" more than a few
feet. There were over 100,000 people there watching. We put our bikes
together last night and went for a quick test ride around town before
my friend Emily Prien came over and went to dinner with us. We ate at
this nice Turkish cafe where our friend Phillip (we are staying at the
apt where he and his wife live) knows the owner and employees and is
great friends with them. The owner talked with us the entire time and
made jokes (in Turkish). We had a great time and ate a lot (I was
staaaarrrving!). Tomorrow we begin our Tour de Turkey with an 80 mile
bike ride out of Istanbul. Please pray for our safety as Istanbul is
full of narrow, steep streets that curve a lot with tons of traffic and
aggressive drivers who don't stop for anything. Some videos of the
Flugtag are on my Facebook page as well as some pics from the town that
my teammate Tim posted.