Tour Day One: Flight and Arrival, JFK -> Rome-> Istanbul

I hate advertising so I won;t use andy names, but I love these {brand name} headphones I bought before the trip. Our flight was packed. There were close to 15 babies on the flight, so no one was exempt from a bit of extra noise. Also, the parents weren't very sensitive to some customs. Like holding on to your baby: a woman behind me set her 12 month old girl down in the aisle moment after takeoff. We were still on a steep angle and I see a baby crawling up the aisle towards first class. That's where I wanted to go too, but ...

So it was a loud flight, and those headphones made it peaceful. I could listen to jazz on the plane and hear all the instruments... Also I read that some of the effects of travel are caused by the constant stimulation of the noise. I feel pretty good.

Arrival. 13 of us didn't get our luggage. Bummer.

It's Andy's first tour as manager and he's getting a good primer. Lucky John is on the trip, to talk him through...

Hotel. Great hotel. Modern, clean, with one of those cool overhead shower heads.

Dinner last night: I started with a delicious salad of diced tomatoes, eggplant, onions and pomegranate. I scooped it up with fresh bread. The others all got salads to start with too, arugula and chick peas with lemon/coriander dressing; a similar one to mine with hotter peppers. I got lamb and peppers and eggplant and yoghurt on fresh bread as a main dish. Again, Excellent food. Savory ...

Then it was back to my room for some reading and drifting into that deep jet lag sleep.