20 Year - Turkey Time

Often, our life tends to take us on adventures where Todd's work happens to need him....

Well, to be honest, I didn't think we would be 'going' anywhere for our 20 year Anniversary.  

I was ok with it, as we have had the opportunity to go to lots of neat places recently.

I do LOVE to travel though, and a 20 year anniversary is a pretty good excuse!

So, when Todd let me know he might have the opportunity to help out in Istanbul, and asked my opinion if I thought he should and if I would want to go... I told him ABSOLUTELY!  I really wanted to see Istanbul, Turkey!  I had heard it was an amazing country.  It also happened to be our 20th Wedding Anniversary.  Clearly the universe wanted us to go!

So, with pretty much no notice we were on our way!

We left Hong Kong at just before midnight on Monday night, and time traveled backwards and flew for just over 10 hours, and arrived at 5:45am on Tuesday.

We were sooo tired when we got there, but a beautiful day was waiting to greet us.

Todd had meetings Tuesday afternoon and Weds morning, and then he was free!

We had a lot of fun exploring Turkey.  The people are very friendly and vibrant.   The pictures are not currently in order.  I plan to organize them at some future point, but for now I at least wanted to record our Time in Turkey.

The first couple days we just explored Istanbul around our hotel on foot.  There was so much to see, taste and experience.  It is so strange, much like Hong Kong, Turkey sells things in 'districts'...   For example, if there is someone selling stuffed potatoes at a cart, then there are 5 more carts selling the exact same thing next to that cart.  It is so odd to me.   

We went to Princess Island for the day, one day and it was a fun experience....  The following day, because we are silly.  We decided we would see if we could find a Mexican restaurant in Turkey.  We really like the Turkish food, and that pretty much was the option and the only option, but we found a Mexican restaurant listed.  Listed in Taksim square.   Awesome!

We set out to go to Taksim and have lunch and explore the area.   We had a wonderful lunch.  Although, it looked like Mexican, but still tasted just like the other Turkish food.  :)   While we were walking back through the square taking in the many sites, people, and stores, we heard loud SCREAMING and then we saw a wall of people RUNNING and screaming toward us....   My first instinct was to get away from whatever they are running from and find safety.   So, I start looking down the nearest side street and there were little stores.  I turn around and see Todd pulling out his video camera and turn toward the screaming people and start heading toward whatever they were running from.  I screamed to him, of course, and told him to come with me!   It took me three screams, at which point I ran into a little juice shop and to the back of the store (away from the street), looking for Todd!  Luckily, he did come (although, he did look put out that I was ruining his fun!). OH my.    Could have been bombs, people with guns shooting everyone.  We didn't know.  Totally, freaked me out to say the least.  Just as Todd was walking in the store the big metal security door was lowered behind him and the scent of tear gas and the horrible burning in my eyes, nose and throat hit...   The onset, of what now appears to be a 'Civil War' in Turkey had just begun...  We were able to run down to the basement with the shop worker and a sweet lady and her two daughters.  They gave us some lemon to combat the tear gas.  They told us with mostly sign language to rub the lemon under our nose and eyes.  Totally helped!  

After about 20 minutes or so, we were able to go back up on to the street, where there were multitudes of people with swollen faces, noses and eyes.  It was awful...  We really had escaped the harshness of the effects of the tear gas.  It was really sad too because there were many elderly, disabled, and small children (babies even) trapped out in the tear gas...   

We had no idea that it was just the beginning of widespread chaos.   Later in the evening we were far away from Taksim, and still tear gas was in the air, as other protests were being combated throughout the city.  After that, we decided our next journey out would be somewhere far from the city....  We didn't get much sleep either, as the protests continued throughout the night.  I have a short video in which you can hear the protesters chanting.   

The following day, we took a tour that took us to some of the most beautiful areas of Turkey in the country.  Purely charming.  It was funny, our tour was supposed to have two other couples, but one didn't show (bet they took off and went home early).  The other couple that did show was the cutest couple from Japan.  We were pretty excited.   They have been married for 41 years, adorable!  The wife was actually born in Hong Kong!  Small world, huh?  She only lived there for about 10 months though.  

We decided to cut the trip a little short so the kids wouldn't worry, as it didn't appear tensions were getting any less and were actually intensifying.  On our way back to the airport after the tour, streets were jammed everywhere, and we took a path that was supposed to be far from protests, yet we ended up smack dad in the middle of one.Video from the car at the bottom.

It is funny, because I told Todd that all I wanted was to spend a few 'un-exciting' days with him, maybe on a beach to celebrate our 20 years of marriage!  Apparently, we don't do un-exciting.  Watch out if you invite us over for a visit.   Jut kidding.   I am sure it will be just fine...

Ultimately, we loved Turkey.  It is truly unique and beautiful.  It was not like anything I had experienced before.We would definitely go back in the future, once they work out the political stuff of course.

Happy Anniversary, Todd.

I love you! 

Like I said.  Out of order...  

Sorry.

We were off!

  

The ferry! 

LOL, random dude photobomb. 

Beautiful bridge that connects the two continents. 

Ferry to Princess island. 

 Lunch

They had horse drawn carriages! 

Random girl taking it in on the ride home.

A boy flying a kite. 

I have missed sea gulls.  Haven't seen any in HK, yet.

The sun with the haze reflecting off the water made it look like the ocean was full of milk!

Dogs everywhere. 

Yes.  You can feel America's influence a little.

The book store mall.

People even smoke IN the stores there... Yuck. 

Emergency crew in action.

Taksim

Our attempt at Mexican. 

Our tour ...

Hi again! 

400 year old fortress

One of my FAVORITE parts of the trip.

We got to be inside a 700 year old living tree!

 We had lunch there.

I would have LOVED to explore those caves!

Yay! Beach!  YAY!!!

Cute river boat tour.

Duffy LOVED it!

Our hotel room. 

Ha! 

Cut to the chase.  The workout room title. 

Much like HK, matching is totally optional.

If Kayla was in Turkey, this is where you would find her.

Two things that EVERYONE does in Turkey.

1. Drink Turkish Tea in these little glasses.

2. SMOKE ...   even if it is unintentional and just because of proximity.

So, since there were these strange baked potato carts everywhere of course I had to try one.

I ordered the works. 

It was interesting. I am not even exactly sure what was on it.

Hotel hallway.

(Where is the disco ball?) 

There are stray dogs and cats all over the city.

The dogs have their ears tagged. 

Narrow city streets, make parking more creative.

Round Sesame Pretzel carts can be found everywhere.

They are really good!

No Bus stop.  Just stop in the middle of the street and people jump off and on.

Traffic! (and this was before the protests)

Now I liked this cart.  They had these little donut things dipped in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.  YUMMY.

All potato carts.

Wish I could get a better pic of these kitties.  I had never seen this kind before.   

Being silly.

 We took a night ferry around the bay...

Beautiful.

You can see the bridges that connect one side of Istanbul Middle East Continent with the Asian Continent.

One city on two continents.  Crazy cool.

Fox TV - Turkey style.

Ok.  They have these little ladies that make FROM SCRATCH what I can best describe as a SUPER sized quesadilla.  They are called Gozleme.  So good.  You can choose what type of cheese and add potato.  YUM.  

Our new friend!  Hi!

Turkey - downtown is VERY densely populated.

They have a metro!

Baby Sea Gulls, never seen babies before! 

BRAINS!!!!!! Brains were being served cafeteria style...  :O

I thought Asia was weird. 

This lady was feeding the birds on the ferry in front of us.  

She was so cute.  I couldn't help but capture a little of her joy.

 How did the hotel know?

HONEY!!!! 

Since there are dogs everywhere, the trash cans look like this! 

 More Taskim (out of order, I did mention that, right?)

Meat was everywhere. I think Todd was constantly salivating.   

  

Todd is NOT bulling the one-legged man playing and singing for money.

He is really giving him money, I swear.

Really? 

  

 Cat in store window

The Juice shop that let us hide out, during the gassing. 

How can you not love a country that has Psychic Bunnies that tell you your future?! 

The 700 yo tree had been hit by lightning and they gave it a little support.

yay... 1 hour on the beach!

sun burn!

 Our journey back into the city was greeted with this... 

Interesting, huh?

Police officer walking with the protesters.

I happened to snap this shot...  Looks so mild .... 

The protest went on for at least a mile.... of walking families...

Finally on the metro.  Where we discovered that the teen boys there think deodorant is totally not necessary.  This is false!  It is NECESSARY!  Todd and I almost died.

At the airport.  The carts were speaking to us.

Glad to be home safe and sound, and have a greater appreciation for the usually stable political climate in Hong Kong!