Day two and hopefully the last in Istanbul (for this trip). We woke up to cloudy skies, mist in the air, and word that snow was coming tomorrow. Normally I’d be disappointed at missing it, but in this case I didn’t want any “special weather conditions” getting in-between me and my home.
We had another excellent Turkish breakfast with olives, cheeses, yogurt, cucumbers, tomatoes, and deli meats with a large side of scrambled eggs that they must put out for the western tourists. Yum, the best of both worlds.
Then we headed back to my favorite store to buy a few more towels. Well, we intended to just buy Josie a robe as a gift, but then a few more towels jumped into my arms and the kids all found personal favorites, so why not? Who knows when we’ll be back. Retail therapy indeed.
My pretties — well, the kids’ pretties and one of mine.
Then we walked around, bought a few simits (Turkish pretzels)
and laughed when we realized that Carter’s pants were sliding off because he didn’t wear a belt to fly home (to make airport security easier) so he’d been struggling with his too big pants on his skinny hips for the past 2 days.
And in response to my instruction that Caleb open his eyes for the photo because he has his eyes closed in 50% of the shots I take, all the kids gave me crazy wide eyes. I love this view from the rooftop patio of our hotel. Two years earlier this is where we watched New Year’s fireworks (and Camille cried).
With his Turkish top. Caleb is actually pretty good at it.
He can flip it from the ground and catch it in his hand, still spinning.
One last stop to visit our friend Josh in his art studio and one last masterpiece created by the kids.
Calvin even got in on this one — his is the blue whirling dervish in the bottom right corner. Pretty good.
Then we headed to lunch to eat fantastic Turkish food — stuffed eggplant, mushrooms, grilled meats. Comfort food. After lunch we stopped at our favorite dessert place for ice cream, knafeh (a sweet cheese baked with crispy phyllo dough and honey), and Turkish coffee. Then we picked out some Turkish Delight to take home and headed back to our hotel.
The only rain we got on our entire trip. Just a light sprinkle. Perfect for walking.
The end. Halas. Time to go home. Finally.