Y3W35 - Istanbul

So, my friend calls up a couple weeks ago and says that she is thinking about taking her two oldest daughters to Istanbul for the weekend. She asked if Bailey and I might be up for accompanying them. I was first a bit apprehensive but Greg thought it was a great idea. So, we booked our tickets and plans began to be made for our most interesting trip to Turkey.

It all started to be weird when my friend tried to check in for her flight and couldn't. We realized after much confusion that the tickets we had booked on Turkish airlines (US site mind you) were for 1:15 AM instead of PM. This is the day of travel by the way. So we called up, tried to figure out what to do, and alas we got it figured out to leave around 3:30 PM. Great, we got there with no problems and then found out our flight was delayed an hour, then two, then more than two. But, they wouldn't tell us what the problem was. We had to have somebody translating for us from Turkish to English. There was a rumor going around our gate that a German plane bound for Turkey had a bomb threat. I called Greg and asked him to look up on the Internet and see if there was any truth to this. The main headline for MSNBC said there were 120 terrorist suspects rounded up in Turkey. We actually considered cancelling the trip but Sally's nephew was meeting us in Istanbul from Barcelona. When he text paged us that he had landed, there was no turning back. We can laugh about this now that we are home safe and sound. We finally got out of Germany and arrived in Istanbul. Thank goodness Sally had her blackberry with her so she could stay in constant contact with the shuttle service/hotel. We felt so blessed to have our shuttle guy there with a sign with our name on it when we walked out of the airport.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel, the White House Hotel. I highly recommend it. The staff was incredible. The location was awesome, about two blocks from Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. We had good food every time we ate, which seemed like a lot. Saturday morning we were up and out early to take a tour...Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, slight detour for carpet presentation, and ending at the Grand Bazaar. Our tour guide totally knew what he was doing when he took us to the "carpet presentation, because the children would enjoy seeing how the rugs are made." Yes, we ended up making a purchase or two. Then, we moved on to the Grand Bazaar. While we knew bartering would be the process for anything we were interested in buying, still it was tiring to have everyone try and get you to buy things. They kept calling the girls "Barbies" which was very funny to the girls.



We had to take a break at Starbucks, not very authentic, but it was a blizzard. No Joke. I think it was the most snow they have had in a long time. Figures. There were so many people (grown-ups) playing in the snow. Snowball fights, building tiny snowmen, etc. You typically don't see this kind of behavior from Michiganders who have snow every year for months and months and months. Fun none-the-less. The girls had a blast in the snow. We finished out the day at the Spice Bazaar, which was a more quaint food oriented Bazaar.

Back at the hotel, the girls decided to put on a fashion/dance show for us. It was most interesting and fun for them. The adults found it quite entertaining and humorous.

Sunday came too early as we were all a bit tired and slow moving. We started at the Basilica Cistern which is an underground water cistern that the Romans built. The water was brought to the cistern via aqueduct. Really cool. We had to go back to the hotel to drop Mike off (Sally's nephew), his return flight was a little earlier than ours. In the afternoon, we debated about what to do. We did lunch first at a great authentic place with very memorable baklava. We decided to go the the Archaeological Museum because they were supposed to have an Alexander the Great Sarcophagus. Turns out, it was a sarcophagus with scenes from Alexander the Great's life but it was not the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. The big highlight of the Museum was a huge Trojan Horse that the girls were able to climb up into. We didn't have time to go the the Topkapi Palace after we exited the museum. And to be honest, we were all a bit tired. I'm not sure we could have handled another site. Next time we are in Istanbul, we will still have a couple of things to do. Since I have been home, people keep asking me if I felt safe. I can honestly say that I never felt any anxiety whatsoever about our safety. We felt perfectly at ease walking the streets of Old Town which is where we spent our time.

Definite highlights of the trip include the absolutely amazing Hagia Sofia (Church turned into Mosque). The call to prayer we would hear from the Mosques several times per day was very cool. The Mosques, themselves, were so huge (so much bigger than I ever imagined). And, just being in a city with such a long, rich history was truly a Humanities Major's dream. You can't go anywhere else in the world to a city that borders two continents, and has been a capital city of three different empires (Byzantine, Roman, and Ottoman). Another huge highlight was the opportunity to have some mom/daughter time with Bailey. We rarely get to spend some time together away from the other kids.

I would love to go back in the summer to see if the city seems different. I think there would be a different energy to the city in the warmth. However, if this was my only opportunity to see Istanbul, I'm so glad I had the chance. Thanks to the Conleys for inviting us along because I really think this was one of the most unique travel experiences thus far. And, a big thanks to Greg, who held down the fort with three little ones while I was away.