Month: August 2011

I’m writing this from one of the several computer terminals in the Abu Dhabi airport. Pretty nifty that they have free internet for everyone. I just have to finish this post before I’m automatically logged off in 12 minutes .  .

So close, and yet so far. We started the day in Antalya, suffered through a trantrum, a wait at the airport and then flew to Istanbul where we had a 6 hour layover. Some very expensive Burger King ($50) for dinner while we waited and then spent the rest of the time trying to keep Camille happy, yet wear her out so she would sleep on the plane.

Took off from Istanbul — good flight except for the part that felt like an earthquake and had people sprinting to their seats to put their seatbelts on. Not a fan of the bumps. At all.

Anyway, Camille slept a good bit and we’re now in Abu Dhabi. It’s 3am and our flight isn’t until 8:30 or something wretched like that. And since Camille slept on the flight, she thinks it’s daytime now. The trials of flying on a budget. It’s not so bad because it’s at the end of our trip so I can go home and fall into bed if I want. Only one short flight between us and home. Happy day!

UPDATE to add photos:

3am, trying to sleep

winding down with some video games on the touch

Carter went right for the computer terminal

  
A few hours and some not very restful sleep later . . .

 
Josh walked Camille around until she fell asleep, then he became Caleb’s bed as well.

Just in case you thought the airport might be somewhat quiet in the middle of the night. It’s not.

We all made it home safely except for one of our bags (the baby bed) that is off having another adventure in between here and Istanbul. They’re tracking it down and I’m sure it will show up sometime soon. We had a memorable trip that I will have plenty of time to tell you about now that we’re home and stuck in the house because of Ramadan. We landed in Muscat and the flight attendant announced, “Remember during the month of Ramadan, eating, drinking, and smoking are not permitted in public during daylight hours.” Because of that, *everything* is closed during the daytime so I guess I’ll just be lying on my couch, recovering from our trip.
Ramadan Kareem, y’all!

We made it to Antalya — a vacation spot on the Mediterranean coast. I’ve realized that packing up and leaving each place makes me tired and wish we were heading home, but arriving in each new city energizes me and I get excited about exploring it.

After a long day of driving back to Ankara, waiting in the airport, and finally arriving at our hotel at 9pm, even though I felt tired all day I got a second wind and we went out exploring and in search of ice cream. It’s much more humid here, Oman humid, and we’re missing our 75 and breezy evenings in Cappadocia. But our hotel is located inside the old city walls and it’s the perfect place to explore on foot.

Now we’re off to bed to rest up for another day of adventure tomorrow. The boys are staying in their own hotel room tonight (in these old restored buildings they don’t have such a thing as adjoining rooms). Heaven help us.

I’ve never seen the one in Utah, but I’m guessing it’s not like this. On our way to Cappadocia/Urgup we drove by this enormous salt lake (we drove alongside of it for almost an hour). We were looking for a place to pull over and check it out up close when we came upon the place where everyone stops.

As we walked toward the water, the salt crunched under our bare feet and Calvin pointed out that if you shuffled along you could give yourself a salt scrub. He didn’t heed the lesson of the yellow snow as he commented, “ooh, it’s salty” while we were still walking over the stuff that had turned brown from contact with many, many feet. I explained that he was welcome to taste it, but should probably go for the white stuff instead. Thankfully the salt would have killed any nastiness it came in contact with. (right? right?)

footprints in the salt

Way out the water is still really shallow, ankle deep. The boys were wondering if you could walk all the way across or if it gets deeper way out in the middle. I guess we’ll just have to come back someday and see for ourselves.

  

The boys each picked up a small piece of salt for the road and we headed back to the car. It took an entire bottle of water to rinse the salty haze from our feet and ankles. If they liked this, I can’t wait to see what they think of the Dead Sea.

headed to Urgup. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but know that “ur – gup” isn’t it. Oh well. We’re driving through farmlands and low rolling hills. It looks a lot like central CA as you drive up the 5. Baby screaming in the back seat, an emergency vomit stop, and it feels like we should be in Monterey in a few hours. The only real clue that we’re in a foreign country is the signs all look like this: TESiSLERi HiZMET and lots of the letters have dots above them or squiggles below.

And the fact that gas costs $12/gallon is a big clue too. Americans would stroke out if they ever had to pay this much for fuel. We’re in a 4-door sedan and it cost $130 to fill up a 10 gallon tank. At least the gas costs come out of Josh’s travel budget or filling up would be a lot more painful.

The past few days in Ankara have been wonderful. We ate out one night and had the best meal since arriving in Turkey. All the food in Turkey has been delicious – really fresh tasting, wonderful salads, tons of roasted and grilled eggplant . . . yum. We’ve eaten a variety of Turkish dishes, none of which I know the name of except for pide (pee-day), Turkish pizza. But this meal the other night was over the top fabulous.
Our friends took us to their favorite restaurant and we sat out on the patio with all the kids and ate family style. First they brought grilled vegetables that were seasoned and dressed and served with yogurt. Red peppers, eggplant, summer squash, chilies, fried potatoes, and probably others, but I was caught up in eggplant love.

Next we had fried fish that was better than any fish I’ve ever had. It had to be fried because it had a very thin crispy crumb coating, but it wasn’t oily at all. It was light and buttery tasting (not fishy) and the crust crackled and then melted away in your mouth. It was served with a salad of baby mixed greens and a red pepper and eggplant salad.

The other plates arrived bearing kofte, stewed beef, fried potatoes, and white beans that tasted like a mix between baked beans and my black bean soup – savory and smoky with a touch of sweetness. Kofte is served all over the middle east (koff-ta). It is usually made with ground lamb and is seasoned and rolled into thumb sized logs, bite sized patties, or longer, hot dog shaped lengths. Then they are grilled on skewers. I usually don’t love kofte because the ground lamb has a tendency to taste “farmy” to me, but these kofte were well seasoned and didn’t have any gamey aftertaste.

We finished up the meal with this fabulous rice pudding that was creamy, sweet, and dense. It had been baked so it looked like crème brulee on top and then I broke through the skin with my spoon and had to fight for my fair share as many spoons descended upon it.

We finished the meal with tea for everyone and then Turkish coffee for those who are never too full for coffee (Josh). Turkey is not only cleaner than Egypt, but it has much more interesting food. I’m not including Oman in my comparison because there is no such thing as “Omani cuisine.” If we eat out at home the choices are mostly Asian or Indian with a few Lebanese options. Compared to here where all the food is Turkish, Turkish, Turkish. Good thing we love it.

We’ve been in Ankara for the past few days (pronounced AHN-kor-ah), relaxing and visiting with our friends who are finishing up their year in Turkey. We love it here too. It’s more of a normal city, not a touristy city like you have in Istanbul.

I’ve been doing a mountain of laundry over the past 2 days, getting ready for the last week of our trip. Tomorrow we head to the Cappadocia area (pronounced Cappa DOE key ah) where we’ll stay in the cave hotel for 3 nights, followed by 3 nights on the Mediterranean coast.

We did some fun sightseeing today and I got some great pictures, but the baby is crying and I have to finish packing. At this rate, I’m going to still be blogging about our Turkey trip in December.