Playing catch up!

I feel like since our Turkey trip life has just been flying by! Somehow its May and I have no clue how.

The last couple of weeks of April had us playing catch up with school work and trying to figure out a schedule to get all our 2nd grade work finished before Stella's birthday. 

Some mornings we have tea time while we math...

We've started trying to play more games as a family instead of just parking it in front of the TV. We had a whole wine and cheese and trivial pursuit night and it was so fun! 

For Easter we got a little dressed up and headed to our favorite place to breakfast, Lumee! I didn't cook a full Easter spread, which was a little weird, but we were in the middle of spring cleaning and taking apart Stella's bed (we sold it) so it was easier to just make an easy day of it. But of course, I forced them into taking some pictures!

While this age is probably close to my favorite, almost-8 comes with a massive amount of sass and I accidentally got a picture of the face that we see on a regular basis. We call it the "God, my parents are so stupid." face. 

We attempted to bring the crazy ass cat outside and snap a family picture... she was none too thrilled. I had a death grip on her scruff...haha!

One of the perks of living in the Middle East is we randomly get movies before the states! A full day before "End Game" premiered in the US, our butts were in the seats in our advance purchased tickets! 

No spoilers, but the movie was AMAZING! It was so good that even the arabs in the theater were quiet- which NEVER happens.... they're the noisiest theater goers I've ever been around. But not that night, that night we were all silent and watching with open mouths and wide eyes! Awesome culmination to a fantastic series of movies! 

The end of the month brought with it an awesome care package from my friend Charlotte! She knows the way to our hearts... chick fil a sauce, snow caps, and coffee! 

She also got this gorgeous hot air balloon picture from an artist local to VA Beach! 

We're gearing up for a visit from Noni and Duke and for our first Ramadan here in the Middle East! The next month is sure to be an interesting one to say the least!

Last day in Turkey

Our last day in Turkey we all woke up a little tired and a little sore from all the ground we covered the two days before. But we (read: the grownups) popped some Motrin and got all of our goodies packed up and organized before we checked out and headed to breakfast. 

Not a lot of people that we know have been to Turkey. For a while the Turkish government wasn't accepting visas for US Citizens so its remained an unchecked place to travel for a lot of people. But the few that we do know gave us some food recommendations and we made it a point to search them out. 

Turkish breakfast is a big "thing" and the girl who recommended the breakfast place we headed to said she still dreams about breakfast from this place, so we knew we had to try it out! The hotel manager hailed a couple of cabs for us and gave them directions to drop us off close to the restaurant (still not sure why he didn't give them exact directions, but ce la vie). We didn't cross the Bosphorus but another body of water that separates part of the European side of the city. We didn't really expect much of a difference but holy hills on that side! 

They were SO steep! We definitely got a leg and butt workout in before our giant Turkish breakfast!

The Arada Cafe

We settled on ordering the Turkish breakfast for the table! I love traveling with foodies and adventurous eaters!

We giggled at the menu titles...

They brought out a massive tray and just started placing loads of food down in front of us... it was overwhelming in the best of ways!

Thats the face of someone stoked as hell to chow down on Turkish breakfast! (side note: all of it was vegetarian so my veggie heart was very, very happy!) 

Ya'll. The food. It was amazing. It was incredible. It was every amazing descriptive word you could put to food. Decadent, rich, salty, sweet, savory, unimaginably tasteful... even the simple things. I absolutely love Bahraini breakfast but Turkish breakfast takes the cake! 

These two cracked me up... they didn't eat much breakfast but played with their cheapy McDonalds toys from the night before, a beaded necklace Stella had brought with her, and a towelette package and were happy as could be. Not once in our lengthy, leisurely breakfast did either one of them ask for a tablet or a phone! Just proof that kids can manage without electronics every now and then!

After breakfast we headed to the tattoo shop that I had found... which, conveniently, was located on the side of the water we were on! 

We turned a corner on our way and came to this hub of activity and it was like a smack in the face that we were in Eastern Europe... the cobblestone streets, old European buildings, cigarette smoke lingering in the air with the early morning chill, and the sound of an accordion. Some things are stereotypes for a reason, guys....haha!

Thanks to google we found the shop! We headed in and asked if they had time to get us in for some small tattoos and they were happy to oblige. There were some small challenges with the language barrier, but it worked out in the end!

Yours truly went first... this guy was great! He didn't speak but maybe a word or two of English, but he was a wonderful artist with a very light touch. I barely knew he was tattooing me! He was also super fast- all of my other pieces have color and cover a lot of space so when he was finished in 25 minutes, I was shocked! (It was also one of my cheapest tattoos...maybe there's something to be said about small line work tattoos instead of giant pieces that take up a lot of real estate!)

And I very happily filled in some space on my arm. 

Better picture after we got home and I cleaned it up and took off the protective plastic.

Next up was Christine

And then the newly minted adult went

Katelynn, who is Jewish got 18 dots on hers since 18 is meaningful number in Judaism. In Hebrew the letters for the word Chai (which means life) add up to 18. So the number 18 means life. 

I became the resident hand holder, placement checker, and picture taker for everyone at the start of their tattoos. It was awesome to see the beginning stages and everyones excitement (or dread, in Courtneys case!)

Courtney's 6 dots represent the 6 members of her family with the two larger dots in the middle representing her and her husband Mike. So it symbolized protection for her family. 

Meanwhile, the kids were absolute rockstars! They played and watched a little bit of a movie and didn't complain at all that they were spending their early afternoon in a tattoo shop! Though, I think Stella was more than entertained by the shop cat that kept coming in and out of the door looking for attention! 

We all got a Hamsa- not only are they a big thing in Istanbul (the symbol for the city is shaped like one), but they are a really cool symbol of a couple of different things. I've toyed with the idea of a hamsa tattoo for a long time and it seemed perfect to get it in Turkey. While I didn't get a Hamsa for religious purposes, its really fascinating that the Hamsa spans multiple religions. 

We left the tattoo shop and headed back to the hotel to get ready to leave for the airport. On the way I popped into a shop and grabbed some Turkish coffee for Christopher and found these gorgeous cups and coffee pots for him as well! What he doesn't realize is that I never found an ornament that I loved and that small little pot is probably going to find a new life as a Christmas ornament...lol!

After a failed attempt at finding tickets for the tram we took a chance and hailed cabs. We lucked out and didn't get scammed or taken advantage of and made it back to the hotel with a little extra time to spare before our airport transfer showed up. We headed to the hotel restaurant and enjoyed one last cup of Turkish tea before we left. 

While we were sipping our tea Courtney was checking her facebook and this popped up in her memories for that day. It seemed so apropos for our whole journey and just life in general. 

Soon it was time to check out of our hotel and head to the airport. 

This was crossing over to the Asian side of Istanbul where the airport is.

We had a 9:15pm flight booked so the hotel suggested us leaving no later than 4:30. We thought it was a little ridiculous, but good grief I am glad we listened to them! By the time we actually made it to the airport and stood in line for check in (hoping we'd all get seated together if we spoke to a human and didn't check in at the kiosk... which didn't matter, she spread us all over the plane), and then for passport control, we barely, and I mean barely, had time to grab food (another gourmet McDonald's meal) to take on the plane, before they boarded us. Long gone were our hopes for a leisurely visit to the lounge. We dashed through that place like we were cast in Home Alone: Turkey and our alarms hadn't gone off! 

But we made it on board and made the journey back to Bahrain. Bellies full, feet tired, hearts and souls happy. 

There really is nothing quite like traveling to someplace you've never been before. It wakes you up in ways you never realized you were sleeping and shakes you out of comfort zones and into adventure. I will never regret saying "yes" to travel and wandering this amazing planet of ours! 

~

Now for the logistics and the details....

Costs:

Plane tickets- $470 

Visas- $20 each so $40 total

Hotel- $141 (since Christine and I shared a room I got one night and she got the other) breakfast was included in this

SIM card- $30

Cash-$220 (this paid for most of my souvenirs, snacks, our lunches and dinners out, and the cistern entry fee)

Rug-$130

Tattoo-$100

Dervish show- $33

Hagia Sophia entrance-$10

Turkish breakfast at Arada Cafe- $18

total: $1192 

(taking into account the $340 I was out for the cancellation of the first flight, the total is $1532...which chaps my ass, but it was still totally worth it!)

In terms of thrift, if I had forgone the rug, the tattoo, and not cancelled the original flight, it would have been a much cheaper trip. But we live and learn, right? And the rug and tattoo are good purchases and I have no regerts (lol). 

Istanbul....or Constantinople?!

Turkey is a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and therefore has been a seat of power and intrigue for centuries. The country itself is rife with history and it would be naive of me to even try to touch on all of it on this little blog. Suffice it to say that everyone who was anyone wanted to control Turkey.

The Byzantine empire held it for a long while and Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to what was then known as Byzantium (which was established around 660 BCE) and renamed it Constantinople in 330 CE. It is one of the most important cities in history. Due to Constantine's conversion to Christianity, Constantinople was a vital city in spreading Christianity during the Roman and Byzantine times.

The Ottomans overthrew Constantinople and its Christian influence, converting the city to Islam, renaming it Istanbul, and thus became the seat of power for the Ottoman Caliphate in 1453 CE. And thats your little history blurb for Istanbul (or is it Constantinople) for the day!

Istanbul is not only the largest city in Eastern Europe, but it is the only city to span two continents! The Bosphorus straight separates the Asian and European sides and connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea and, fun fact; is the narrowest straight in the world used for International navigation. 

~

On our second day in Istanbul we had breakfast at our hotel, loaded up on Turkish tea and coffee, and headed straight for the Hagia Sophia. The line for tickets and the entrance was nothing short of utter chaos. People pushing and shoving and walking in just masses of people instead of lines. Some jackass Italian guy got pretty nasty with one of the ladies in our group, Anna, and was just an absolute jerk. But we finally got tickets and made it to the entrance!

Right at the entrance 

The narthex, if you will, of the Hagia Sophia- the arches were unadorned but beautiful.

And right as we stepped in... absolutely stunning! 

The Hagia Sophia was a wooden structure originally constructed in 360 CE by Constantine's son Constantinus II and was destroyed by a fire in 404 CE during a series of riots. It was rebuilt again in 415 CE but burned down yet again by a fire caused by even more riots in 532 CE. Apparently the Byzantine's and Roman's were big rioters...

Five years after the church was destroyed for the second time, the Emperor Justinian ordered it built and it was finished in December 537 CE. The Hagia Sophia is the largest and most well intact example of Byzantine architecture and art in the world.  

The Hagia Sophia has passed hands a lot. Originally a Byzantine Christian Cathedral (from 537-1054) it was then a Greek Orthodox Cathedral (1054-1204) then the Romans took over and made it a Roman Catholic Cathedral (1204-1261) and the Greeks took it back (1261-1439) and then the Romans took it back (1439-1453) before the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and converted the cathedral into a Mosque. (The first president of modern day Turkish government called for the Mosque to be turned into a museum in 1935 and remains that today).  

While the Hagia Sophia itself isn't included in the list of Wonders of the World, columns from one of the Ancient Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, were used in the fortifying of the cathedral. 

The sultan in charge at the time of the Ottoman conquest, Mehmed II, ordered the Christian artwork not all be destroyed, but instead just whitewashed or covered with plaster or islamic art. After restorations were done (and are still going on) to convert the Hagia Sophia into a museum, more and more of the original mosaics and art work have been uncovered. What you see today is a museum of Byzantine Christian artwork married with Ottoman Empire Islamic art. It is beautiful! 

The wishing column (also called the sweating column or perspiring column) is one of 107 columns in the Hagia Sophia and the only one that is damp to the touch. Allegedly St. Gregory blessing is imbued in the column and people come and touch it in search of healing. 

So, of course, we all had to touch it. 

Katelynn's turn

Christine joked that it looked like a belly button from all the people who had rubbed and worn a hole in it...

(she wasn't wrong)

It wasn't wet to the touch, but there was a dampness there for sure. 

We climbed to the upper gallery to get a closer look at the ceilings. This stone work reminded us all of zebras!

The ceilings were gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen a church or cathedral with yellow ceilings before. It was striking!

The top part of that arch is all mosaic tiles... it was gorgeous! 

Looking out into the main space of the Hagia Sophia

Walking, er...dancing,  down the long, steep ramps that went up to the upper gallery. When the Muslims took over and turned the Hagia Sophia into a mosque the women were segregated into a separate section from the men to worship (though typically women don't go to the mosque and worship as often as the men do). Instead of steps they had to walk up these winding, steep ramps. They also used the ramps to bring materials up to the upper floors when they were building. The sultans wife refused to climb up the ramps and had stairs installed for her use (can't say as how I blame her).

So many different styles of columns 

As we were leaving I noticed the reflection of this mosaic in the door and turned around to see it. I am so glad I did! It was gorgeous and so detailed! 

Group photo! It was such a gorgeous day the Blue Mosque looked like a backdrop.

We headed to the Blue Mosque and found out that they closed during prayer time. 

So we headed to the Basilica Cistern to check it out!

The cities water supplies were held in several hundred cisterns around the city and the Basilica Cistern is the largest. It was constructed in the 6th Century and the water that filled it was brought in from the Belgrade forest which was nineteen kilometers away from the city.


After buying our tickets we headed down the steps into the cistern. It is made up of walls that are four meters thick and constructed in a special way to be waterproof. The roof is held up by 336 marble columns set into twelve rows. The way the lighting and sound are made this incredibly eerie. My mind was racing with plots and scenes of stories just begging to be told.


Stella reading all about the cistern. It covers 9,800 square meters and the cistern has an estimated water storage capacity of 100,000 tons! In short, it's massive.

Christine snapped a picture of me and Stella... there were so many teaching moments on this trip! It was amazing! It was also really awesome that we'd taken the week before to study up and learn about Istanbul and its history- Stella tends to respond really well to educational things if she's heard a little about it and then can see it with her own eyes and touch it with her hands. Being able to have that tactile experience really helps her connect things from books and stories and makes them a lot more accessible. 

The cistern has been host to a few movies in its time- most notably, James Bond From Russia with Love and the Robert Langdon film, Inferno. And I can see why... as I said before, the feel of that place absolutely begged to have stories told about it.


This is the crying column. There are texts that claim it took over 7,000 slaves to construct the cistern and this column represents the many lives lost to its construction and the blood, sweat, and tears they gave for the cistern and it is the only column that is wet (and it was).


All but two of the columns in the cistern are just normal columns. But there are two that use a carved head of medusa from a Roman era building as supports. There doesn't seem to be a solid rhyme or reason for why the medusa heads were used as supports- there is no evidence that they were used as pillar support previously and, like I said, they are the only two that aren't plain. Rumors and myths about why they're in the cistern run rampant.  

Right behind us (so what Medusa's eyes were facing) was this dark, closed off area. Christine went to take a picture and in the camera light she could see this floating white misty things that showed up in the picture. We tested it out throughout the other parts of the cistern and the only time you could see it was right there at the Medusa head... creepy!

After the cistern we were all pretty hungry and ready for a break. I got online and looked up restaurants close to use and this place had good reviews (thanks for always coming through trip advisor.com) So we headed over to the Medusa Cafe which happened to be right around the corner from where the cistern let out! Christine had actually seen the sign for it as we were waiting in line for the cistern.

We were seated outside on the covered patio and it was so cute! The trees were decked out in crocheted attire and there were hanging lanterns and Turkish flags everywhere. They definitely won points for decor.


Turns out it was a cafe and hotel!


Stella's cherry juice and my apple tea. Both were delicious! Her juice was absolutely divine. My tea was like warm apple juice and a weakly brewed cup of tea had a baby. Not my thing, but not bad either.


My first course- lentil soup! This was so good- creamy and delicious and I loved the drizzle of spicy oil. Lentil soup is a fixture for Bahraini cuisine, but I liked this one better.


My main was called the Imam bayildi (which translates to the Imam fainted)- its a cold, cooked eggplant stuffed with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and simmered in olive oil. This one also had pine nuts and some other things. It was absolutely delicious! I loved it and will absolutely be recreating it at home! (Stella had grilled chicken and rice and was happy as a clam... Turkey was a little more difficult than average to find special foods for her... rice and grilled chicken or French fries were easy to find, but she didn't really have anything out of the ordinary the whole time we were there- though she did try my eggplant and she liked it).


One of the many restaurant cats waiting for someone to drop something. This guy was super cute and had the most expressive face!

Even the upstairs and the bathroom of this place were cute!




We loved these wildly colored buildings!




Seriously, I love European architecture. Just walking down random streets feels like something out of a novel.


Some of the clay pots used for stews


The mosque right by the bazaar.  According to wikipedia, as of 2007 there were almost 3,000 active mosques in Istanbul alone!


So the Grand Bazaar is the largest covered shopping market in the world. Its consists of over sixty different streets with thousands of shops and takes up an impressive amount of space in the city. Hundreds of thousands of people visit it daily and it's become one of the must-see spots in Istanbul.

Its original construction began in the 1400's after the Ottoman takeover of Constantinople. In the 17th Century after its completion and after the Ottomans had a more impressive land holding, it became a hotbed for mediterranean trading. In the 1700's there was a devastating fire that destroyed most of the original wooden structure of the bazaar so it was rebuilt with brick and stone and more stringent laws against smoking or having fires within the walls was instated (although people seem to have forgotten this- there were a lot of people smoking inside the bazaar!).

The Grand Bazaar has always been incredibly large and impressive and had a massive variety of things to buy- according to notes from travelers a few thousand years ago, there was nowhere else like it in all of Europe. So, needless to say, its impressive and absolutely worth a trip!


One of the first stops we made was into a rug shop. Theres a type of Turkish rug called a Kilim thats a hand woven carpet that Christine and I wanted to check out. We picked a shop and popped in only to be blown away by the guys prices! They were exorbitant! Stella fell in love with this pink and purple beauty that was $1500!


More meerschaum


Watching a man repair a rug in front of his shop


We found a Turkish towel place run by the sweetest old man. We talked to him for a bit and picked out some towels and as we were leaving he pulled a little pink hand towel for Stella and told us that when his dad had opened the shop he always gave a gift to any children who visited and he had kept that tradition going. It was so sweet!


Two pillow cases I had to have! Funny story, my friend Shannon used to live in Russia and on one of her travels she came across these gorgeous handmade pillow cases that had pomegranates on them. I've threatened many a time that they were going to go missing one day and she joked I just needed to go to Turkmenistan and get them myself. As luck would have it, they're a Turkish design as well! So now I have a pomegranate (and tulip) pillow all to myself. And I'm kicking myself for not buying more... they are so gorgeous!


At that point, the rest of the group was in the maze that is the bazaar so we headed off in search of them. The maps and location things weren't working the best in the bazaar. After a few minutes we gave up the search for Courtney and crew and stopped for a pick me up. I'm not a huge coffee fan... I drink it now, but its definitely more for effect than enjoyment. I am, and will forever remain, a tea girl. But when in Turkey, you have to have Turkish coffee. It is thick and strong but not bitter at all! They served ours with a small piece of chocolate covered Turkish delight and a cup of water to wash down the coffee sludge at the bottom of the cup. It definitely packed a punch, which was awesome!


We came across a different section of the bazaar on our hunt for the group. I loved these high, domed ceilings!


We finally found them (and with them, some rug shops...) Christopher and I both have really fallen in love with carpets since we've been here and I knew if I could get a decent price, I wanted to get a Turkish Kilim in Turkey. I talked this guy down over $100 less than his original offer! And now we have a kilim to add to our collection!


Courtney wanted to head back to our towel guy so we started back through the bazaar and stopped and shopped as we went.


Aiden fell in love with the mini Fez's


Stella had to try one too!


Even baby Mary got in on the fez action


Back at the towel place! These two became big buddies this trip and did an amazing job at playing together! They had an ongoing game that they'd pick up as soon as we stopped anywhere.


We headed out of the bazaar after realizing we had been there for almost five hours and found the sun was going down and it was dusk! We started walking towards another shop that Katelynn wanted to go to.


We stopped and grabbed the kids some Turkish ice cream called Dondurma. Along with normal ice cream ingredients what makes dondurma special is a rare orchid that is only found in Turkey. The ground up orchid makes the ice cream starchy and stretchy- almost like cold taffy. It's slower to melt and has the oddest texture. Christine and I likened it to the gummy sort of ice cream at the bottom of the carton after its been left in the freezer too long. Aiden and Stella loved it! The grown ups really didn't....lol


Also, it should be noted that at this point it really came in handy to have the gluten free/celiac reference cards from the hotel with me! This ice cream guy had those cups next to the ice cream but flat out refused to put Stella's ice cream into a cup. It wasn't until I pulled the card out to show him that he would do it and even then he had to send someone off to get spoons for us. It was weird...lol! The cups were literally right there at him, next to the cones. We still haven't figured out why he made it a big deal. But the girl got her ice cream and thats all that matters.

After walking for what felt like forever we were all tired, hangry, and just in need of sustenance. So we found a gourmet dinner place and sat down for an excellent meal....kidding. We McDonald's it and everyone was happy and fed quickly and for cheap! We took our time and chatted and the kids played and relaxed and I think we all just needed some time to sit and rest after such a busy day!


After our fancy dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We passed by the Hippodrome again and the obelisks were lit up for the night!


Passing by a garden of tulips we found these giant snails! The kids loved them!


We made it back to our hotel and crashed. Stella was fairly wound up and insistent that she wasn't sleepy, but the minute she finally rolled over and stopped chattering, she was out! (I don't think I realized quite how much we had seen and done that second day in the city until I compiled it all and started writing this blog out!)

Christine and I had joked about a tattoo shop next to the McDonald's we had dinner at and decided that maybe a tattoo wasn't a joke after all. We got Courtney and Katelynn (who just turned 18 last month) on board so we spent a little bit of time before we turned out the lights looking up tattoo shops and figuring out what we wanted and planning for the next day. Spoiler alert: we found a shop.