Our last night in Istanbul included being woken up by a thunderstorm and later a crying baby in the room next to us. But we were still able to get some decent sleep before another night of plane rides.

After packing up our bags and storing them in the lobby for a few hours, we headed off across the bridge again for breakfast. Grant found a quaint little spot where he enjoyed an omelette and I tried the Turkish breakfast. This included two pieces of toast, two jams, boiled egg, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and various cheeses. Obviously not our typical breakfast spread in America but was still delicious. You can definitely tell the blend of cultures within Istanbul between European, Asian, and Mediterranean influences.

After finally feeling full from a breakfast this week, we headed down to Galataport. This is a large outdoor shopping/business area. You had to walk through metal detectors in order to get into the area. One of the first things we noticed was a Popeyes, Burger King and Starbucks all located together in one of the buildings. The amount of American brands and fast food places we have seen here is crazy. We’ve seen the following:

• Arby’s
• Burger King
• KFC
• Pizza Hut
• Subway
• Starbucks
• And then saw Shake Shack, Sbarro, and Carl’s Jr in the Istanbul Airport.

Now it’s time to head off to Uganda where we have a chimp track and gorilla track planned! And finally some warmer weather!