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).