It's been a week since my trip to Istanbul. I almost caught up on laundry and other chores. Alyssa is done with her preschool and now staying home and telling me what to do during the day. Katelyn now learned how to get cleaned up all by herself if she has an accident. But as I promised I am going to tell you about my amazing trip to a beautiful and a fascinating city Istanbul.
I wanted to go to Turkey right when we arrived to Bulgaria. We are so close to it that it would be wrong not to go. First year went exploring Greece and Bulgarian cities. Second year went partly in London and then catching up with a newborn.
So when I asked Matt to go on a trip to Istanbul before we depart our post he wasn't very willing to go. And I really understood him why. It would have been a stressful weekend with four children in a crowded city. Plus, hotels suddenly became very expensive as the tourist season started. So instead of dragging my whole family on a trip I really wanted to go on, I went with a friend (and Sonia came of course as my attachment).
Aside the fact that our GPS took us through some construction nonexistent roads, we made to Turkey with no problems. In Istanbul we hit a pretty heavy traffic and when we got to the old city we got stuck on a wrong way of a one way road. It was so narrow that we couldn't back out of it. Thank goodness people were very patient there and also very very helpful.
The next day we had scheduled two tours with this company. On the first tour we walked around the main square, went into the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. The tour guide was very informative and I loved that there were only three of us on this tour. She was also willing to answer all our random questions including questions about the muslim religion which always fascinated me because I know nothing about it.
The Mosque was grand and beautiful. We had to take our shoes off to enter it and I had to wear the whole robe-scarf thing to cover up. It took a little juggling with the baby and a camera to put everything on and zip it up. The scarf kept falling off my head and I was afraid I would be asked to leave for not being modest enough.
After the Blue Mosque we went to Hagia Sofia. It is also huge and beautiful. It is now a museum and thank goodness we were not required to cover up. I loved learning that Hagia Sofia served as a church or a mosque in different periods of time. On top of that it was destroyed and then rebuilt couple of times during its existence. It started as an Orthodox church, then was turned into a mosque, and then was turned to a museum by the first turkish president.
After Hagia Sofia we walked to a turkish restaurant and had a very nice meal and relaxed a little before our second tour. The food was very delicious and we ended our lunch with real turkish baklava. I've tried it before and liked it but it being an authentic one made it even better. Our second tour was much easier. It was a boat cruise and a visit to the Spice Market afterwards.
I love boat cruises as you can see a lot without walking. Ha. So we sat on a boat soaking up the sun and looking at the beautiful mansions on the banks of the sea. We cruised by the european side and on the way back by asian side. Did you know that Istanbul lies on both those continents? How cool is that?!
After relaxing on the boat cruise we went to the Spice Market. It was so very crowded. I did manage to buy some real turkish delight for Matt and some dried apples for apple tea for me. After that it took us a while to get out of the market. The crowds were huge and having a stroller with a baby in it did not help. Turkish people (especially men) cannot go by without touching a baby's foot. I wonder if Sonia's foot is really lucky and I should try rubbing it too.
That actually happened everywhere we went. People just loved Sonia. She was the center of everyone's attention. At first I was weirded out by it but quickly got used to it. It is such a cultural thing. I saw how genuinely they love babies and my mother tiger's instincts calmed down. Every time we went to a restaurant or a cafe waiters or owners wanted to hold her and take pictures with her. They were all so nice. And I got to eat in peace every single time. Maybe or maybe not a restaurant and a store was even offered at some points of out trip for her.
Upon seeing my blue eyed baby about every person we passed exclaimed "Mashallah!". Which I was explained means 'May God protect/bless'. The turkish people say that when they see a cute baby. So I've heard it quite a lot over the weekend.
And then everybody who held Sonia told me to get an "evil eye" charm for her. You know, those traditional turkish blue and white round charms that look like an eye and are believed to protect the person wearing it. When we went to get an evil eye charm the nice guy who was selling those gave Sonia hers for free. As i said before turkish men are nice.
We also walked to the Grand Bazaar to check it out. As I expected it was crowded. And there were a lot of jewelry stores and evil eye charms. We walked around, haggled a lot and bought some souvenirs for our families. Haggling was an interesting experience and it seems like we found a good strategy. As long as you tell the seller your final price and show him that you can easily walk away if not agreed on price you'll get what you want. It worked like a charm.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the carpet/kilim shop just to see how much their rugs are going for. I need a turkish rug after all, right? One wool kilim was very colorful and beautiful but also a little expensive. For some reason I thought I could buy a rug for cheap in Turkey. Also, my haggling system did not work that well in that shop and so we walked away without me buying that beautiful handmade rug that called my name.
That's okay though, because next time when I come back with Matt I will find an even better flying carpet rug and buy it. Because you know, we will be back. As I tend to bring my family to every place I like. And I definitely liked Istanbul. A lot.
