Hi Everyone!

I've been having several action packed days and I have given myself very little time to work on putting together these videos - sorry about that... only a little bit though ;)

Istanbul is HUGE - about 16 million people. It took me 1.5 hours on the subway just to make it in from the airport alone. What a sprawling ginormous place.

My hostel was right in the heart of the ancient city of Constantinople and just 2 minutes away from the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque which were both stunning.

I decided also to take a trek over to the giant space needle-ish building and I'm glad I did as the views up there were truly breath taking.

My way out of Istanbul was another flight to a different airport on the complete other side of town and was going to take about 3 hours to get there. Based on that, I decided to make that trip the night before and to stay out there right on the Black Sea in a little town called Yeniköy. There were countless wandering dogs in the town - all with ear tags and all seemingly being well looked after. There was little going on in that small village, but I was more than happy just walking up and down the beach and taking it all in. Got what are likely the most spectacular drone shots yet thus far on this trip.

Highlights maybe not fully captured in the video

• It was just weird to see women in burkas, hijabs, or wearing head scarfs... who were then all over their iPhones taking selfies and posting on TikTok etc. To each their own, but it just struck me as strange that people can be so hardline in one specific aspect of life, in this case religion, but then so liberal in other ways. I guess I would have thought that the hardline would continue with almost everything

• Is it bad of me that I can't quickly tell the difference between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque? lol

• The Grand Bazaar was pretty cool but I quickly got sick and tired of all the pressure salesmen trying to force me into a conversation.

• In the main tourist parts of town, I could not actually look on my iPhone without being interrupted constantly by grifters trying to help me, for a price, get the rich tourist wherever he needs to go. Annoying.

• The weather was very Vancouver-like at this time of year. 18-22 degrees, wind off the ocean had some cooling mist in it.

• The Black Sea is way more colourful than I pictured in my mind for my hole life until now. Shocker - I thought it would be pretty black. Instead it was a magnificent array of greens and blues.

• I got a taxi driver for the first time of this Europe adventure. It was super fast and not cheap. I'm going to stick with the public transit unless mess something up and am pressed hard for time. I really actually enjoy figuring out the subway/metro in each new place and seeing the sites along the way.

• I stream local popular music now when I am in each city walking about, it's very cool to feel the vibe of the city while listening to it also.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Eric