Paying my respects at the Blue Mosque.

Dave took this picture. He likes this food and it is better than in NYC. It just is.

I feel happy at the Sultan's Palace. Topkapi Palace.

Dave got someone to take this picture of us. Perhaps wishful thinking on his part that we are saying Welcome to our Home!

Me in the Grand Bazaar.

The textiles are divine.

My favorite vendor. This little old lady was knitting when I first noticed her sitting on the ground outside the GB. She makes beautiful slippers and also was selling delicate needlework trims made by her cousins. I told her -- with sign language -- that I also knitted but not as good as she does. She laughed!

Each shopowner offers you a cup of Turkish tea or coffee. The tea is just as strong as the coffee. There are back rooms and upstairs and balconies and unknown depths.

Welcome to the Spice Market!

Every possible nut. And the desserts...yummy. The baklava gets sold out by 1pm but the white chocolate/Turkish toffee with pistachios inside? Well, those are coming back to OM yoga for the teachers and staff. The brown things hanging in the picture above are dried eggplant which people buy and stuff with something to make dolma.

These sweets are called Turkish delight. One of the Yogashala teachers, Neslihan, who has visited and taken my class at OM yoga, gave us a bag of it for the OM yoga teachers.

There were so many people walking on this busy street on a beautiful April day. There are 20 million people living in Istanbul, after all.

Plus some excellent visitors like my friend, Soham, in the striped sleeves. He is the owner of Hamsa Studio in Copenhagen, where we will be visiting and teaching in two weeks.

This is why we were in that neighborhood. I insisted that I had to see the Whirling Dervishes so everyone came along. Dave, Soham, Simon, Mey and Can and me. We were all glad we did. Here they are doing part of the ritual preparations before starting to spin.

They don't go fast. They don't pull or push. They unfold into the motion of the centifugal force. One hand up. One hand down. A clear channel between heaven and earth.

This is the band. Sufi music. Unplugged. The soloist was an old man with the voice of an angel.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. My tall American husband and my very tall friend, Simon. Two silly beans.

Two elegant men: Can Malta, our host who is an absolute prince, and my brilliant, charming and handsome (if I do say so myself) husband, Dave on a cute side street in Istanbul.

Our hosts, Can Malta, owner of Yogashala, and his excellent girlfriend, Sada.

We were jet lagged but happy.

Finishing up with Turkish tea. Don't you love this traditional cup and saucer?

Nudgie at the Ottoman palace called the Topkapi Palace. It looks a little like the Disney castle to me. I know, I know, a provincial reference but...I am an American after all.

The man who wrote Midnight at the Oasis finally gets to visit The Harem.

Isn't it beautiful? Check out that ceiling.

Now it's time for yoga!!! This is Yogashala -- very cool, beautifully designed and well equipped studio. It has been a true delight to teach here.

Here is the lovely Mey Elbi, OM yoga TT graduate. She took OM yoga TT 10 years ago and now is a full-time yoga teacher in Istanbul, which is her home. We miss her at OM but it has been great to spend the weekend with her and her students.

I know, I know, I know...it's so wrong what with that amazing Turkish coffee right here and all. But Sada took me here and I liked it. It was fun to see the Turkish Starbucks after so recently being in the Japanese Starbucks. Here they have huge sandwiches and big, fattening luscious desserts.

Saturday night dinner with our Danish buddies, Soham and Simon. Soham owns Hamsa Studio in Copenhagen where we will be teaching in two weeks. He told us the workshops are already sold out!

Then, somehow the whole YBBM weekend workshop was over. It was Sunday afternoon and Mey took us all to have fish lunch by the Bosphorus.

In 5th grade I did a report on Istanbul and I've been dreaming of coming to this magical place and to the Bosphorus, ever since. And you know what? It is magical, indeed.

This is the down ramp from the balcony of the Aya Sofia. When you walk on this you really get the sense that we are talking centuries, here folks, not decades, but centuries!

On the way there is this magic wishing column. You put your thumb in and turn your hand in a total circle. I don't know what it means but I like this picture.

When I saw these workers outside the cathedral I got the sense that this has been going on for hundreds of year. Since the 1400s when the place was built there have always been workers here doing rebuilding, maintenance, restoration.

Now we are off to see the Blue Mosque.

It's a short walk across the park, which is lovely, especially since we are here during the Tulip Festival.

Street food -- chestnuts and roasted corn. Also, a traditional drink called Salep which, I think, is barley and honey and I don't know what else. David thought it was too sweet. I loved it and found it comforting, sort of like liquid oatmeal.

This is a real working mosque. Visitors are kept on the edge and inside are real worshippers. It is huge and beautiful and peaceful. I wore a scarf and if ladies are in short skirts, they must wrap a cloth around their waist to cover their legs.

Blue mosaic tiles. Heavenly.

Nudgie puts his shoes on and ready for the next stop....

the Hammam! The famous Turkish baths. We were vigorously scrubbed, soaped up and shampooed. Them nicely oil massaged and showered, emerging soft and fresh like babies. I love the raw cotton scarves they wrapped us up in and the olive oil soap. This Hammam has been here since 1584.

Then we visited the Yogashala Teacher Training anatomy class taught by Ken the Rolfer from New Jersey by way of Goa. He knows his stuff, for sure. Here he is demonstrating the rotation available in one of the students who is super flexy and Can, the owner of Yogashala who has a torn meniscus.

Aya Sofia -- a huge cathedral which is now a secular museum. Very beatiful and awe-inspiring.

This cathedral was both Christian and Islamic over the centuries. This is the first example of an Islamic stained glass window that I have ever seen before. Exquisite detail.

The large discs in the cathedral are under repair. Here is a worker in a head scarf repairing them. Makes sense that the painters should be Muslim.

This whole doorway frame is made of marble.

On the ceiling....

Here I am on the balcony in front of one of the restorated Muslim discs, an abstract representation of Divinity.

Nudgie is ready for take off!

Then, nearly 24 hours later, here we are having dinner in Istanbul. A cozy place called the All Sports Cafe with really great, delicious fresh food....

some dogs. This one is 2.5 months old, a little black puppy with a white face, white socks and white tip of tail.

Mayumi-san is very relaxed.

OM yoga Restorative Teacher Training, Tokyo, Japan, 2010

Then, it was time for dinner...and yes! yes! yes!....

Ramen! This is salt ramen, which Chama says is from Hokkaido. Oishi!

Kazumi making TKG.

She loves it!

Our ramen chef -- Arrigato, gazimasta!

Joe gave a terrific lecture on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and the endrocrine system - relating it all to restorative yoga.

Shoe etiquette is very deep here. You must even take them off in a dressing room in a store and you have to put a special bag over your head when trying on clothes.

We discussed the difference between meditation, relaxation and sleep -- but it's hard to tell which one Chama is doing here!

While the students are in savasana, Kazumi looks through the studio door.

Then we went out to dinner in Aoyama -- my new favorite restaurant in Tokyo -- it is called 45 Dav. Organic, cool music, great elegant food.

This was our waiter and chef. He is from LA but he is Japanese and totally fluent in both cultures. And, doesn't he look like Ethan?