Amsterdam to Istanbul

This was the trip where I stopped being a tourist and started being a traveler. Atlanta to Amsterdam, then Casablanca, Rome, Istanbul, and home. Five countries, four flights, ten days.

Casablanca was Africa — my first time on the continent. The Mövenpick Hotel, the Hassan II Mosque, the medina. It was loud and chaotic and completely unlike anywhere I’d been.

Rome was the Colosseum, the Forum, the Sistine Chapel. I stayed at the Hotel Medici on Via Flavia and walked until my feet hurt every day. Istanbul closed the trip — the Hyatt Regency Atakoy, Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar. I’d come back to Istanbul twice more in the next year.

This was the trip that taught me I could build a route across multiple countries and make it work. The template for every big trip that followed.