I know, we said we would post while we were in Istanbul, but that did not happen...sorry. We are now home and settling back into our somewhat normal routine. That means, we are not waking up at 3am wide awake and falling asleep at 8:30pm every night. Tye has done the best of all of us, though. He did not seemed phased by the crazy 8 hour time difference. Anyway, we had a fantastic trip full of fun in the Turkish sun, sightseeing in Istanbul, and many laughs. Much thanks to Ryan and Laura for their fluent Turkish that helped us survive in the country, and their wonderful hospitality, as well as a playmate for Tye while we were there.
There was no rest for the weary because we flew to the beach the morning after we arrived in Istanbul. That means...we evacuated for Ike on a Wednesday, came back into town with no power the following Tuesday to pack. Thankfully, my cousin, Troy and his wife, Alyson let us stay with them to do a little laundry and get a good nights sleep and then we flew out on Wednesday. Our 8.5 hour full flight to Paris, then 4 hour layover, and another 3.5 hour flight to Istanbul...not fun, but hey, we figured we can do anything for 1 day. We got into Istanbul that evening and flew out to Kusadasi (the beach) the next morning at 8am. Whew...after settling into our villa, life settled down a bit. We were a short taxi ride to the beach, and about 30 minutes from Ephesus. We enjoyed them both, and as you will see from the pictures...the docked cruise ship tourists enjoyed Ephesus the same day as well. It was sooo crowded! We tried all week to take a ferry to Samos, one of the Greek Isles, to get Laura her much anticipated Greek Salad, but never made it bc the Port workers were on strike all week...bummer. The beach water was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular.
After a week, we flew back to Istanbul. We had a babysitter for the kids the first day and had a chance to do some sightseeing in the historical European side of Istanbul. We visited the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sophia, the Basilica Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar. Let me say...us pregnant women were TIRED! We were there during the last week of Ramadan, so that was an interesting sight to see the festival atmosphere they had set up for every evening. The people there were so friendly and often enjoyed a cup of "chay" which is like a very strong hot tea. We spent most evenings, enjoying fantastic Turkish dinners, hanging out at the house playing cards, their wii, and lots of laughs since there were 2 one-year olds and 2 pregnant women in the house, we layed low by 8:00pm.
Okay, so that was the trip in a condensed nutshell...I will put a slideshow up as soon as I can, but here are a few pics to get it started.
Blessings...
Bethany
