our weekend in istanbul

and the week had just begun...

we had a fantastic visit with lydia.  she was up for anything,which is what we like!  she kept busy in ankara during the week while we worked - and we of course took her to kalbur one evening to meet the fish nazi.  

he was skeptical of this stranger in our house, until he learned she would share her breakfast.

on friday morning we were off to istanbul.  this was the first trip outside of ankara for emre and i since december - so we were both ready to get the heck outta dodge for a bit, if you know what i mean.  

we arrived and were very pleased with the flat we rented for the weekend.  the only drawback was that the bar below was rather loud on saturday night - but otherwise it perfectly suited our needs (in my favorite neighborhood) and was much cheaper than a hotel.

lydia's pic: the view from our flat, at nişantaşı flats

tasting the truffle fries at aşşk kahve (not enough truffle oil!)

they made up for the lack of truffle oil with amazing strawberry, melon & basil mojitos

yummy!

sharing his edamame with aunt lyddie - they bonded over food.

we spent friday afternoon lunching & then walking around nisantasi, so by evening we were pretty much ready to put on our pj's and stay in for the night.  we had picked up some mezzes and fresh bread (and tomatoes!) from a local market, which made for a perfect supper after emre went to bed.

a melange of mezzes... and wine, of course.

on saturday morning we were up bright and early - ben grabbed us starbucks from around the corner (turned out to be our morning routine) and we ate breakfast before splitting up.  ben & emre headed to aunt ayfer's house for the day while lydia and i walked down to the bosphorus & then took a cab to sultan ahmet.  

blue mosque

turns out peak tourist season has begun & we hit a lot of traffic in the cab, and then even more pedestrian traffic in sultan ahmet, preventing us from going inside haggia sofia (the line was, literally, around the entire square). BUT we did find some great iced coffee (and rather strange conversation, with an expat who owned the coffee shop & hijacked our coffee time), and then a new mosaic museum.  this turned out to be perfect, since lydia really wanted to see some mosaics, and the place was empty because i don't think anyone knows about it yet.

after the museum & some shopping, we had a lunch of mezzes while gossiping conversing about everyone we went to high school with.  fun to sit in such a different part of the world while remembering we come from the same, very small place.  we then jumped in a cab to beyoglu & istiklal boulevard.  we hit a LOT more traffic - it probably took us a good 45 minutes to reach our destination, in a hot, hot cab - and were glad to be on foot for the rest of the day.  we, of course, stopped at the richmond hotel for cocktails with a view, before walking up istiklal.

lydia's pic: view from the top of the richmond hotel

in front of the church of st. anthony of padua, the largest roman catholic church in turkey

we took our time & stopped for pictures before reaching taksim square, where we took the metro back to nisantasi.  

that evening, we reunited with ben & emre, and had a quick & easy meal in the neighborhood.

had a great day with daddy

lydia's pic: enjoying his spaghetti & meatballs

emre's first paparazzi experience: this total stranger came up to us & asked us to take his picture, with his phone, of him & emre.

after dinner we took a walk through the neighborhood.  ben had brought along some special cigars & paused to light one while i looked on & emre played with the cigar case, giving lydia the opportunity to snap a priceless family photo...

balkayas, being balkayas.

we then walked through 'cat park,' as we named it, while ben sat on a bench & enjoyed his cigar.

that boy was tormenting the cats.  not cool.

lydia, donig what she does best - photography!

boys petting kittens in front of the cat house

on sunday we decided it was time for a walk on the bosphorus.  and walk we did!  of course, having emre (and not wanting to carry around his car seat) limits our options for transportation, so we had to rely on walking and public transportation, which led to a LOT of walking and a unique route.

lydia's pic: waiting for everybody to get ready & go

after we walked down the hill to the bosphorus, our first stop was the cafe at dolmabahce palace, for some coffee.

lydia's pic: ben trying on my hat. tee hee hee.

lydia's pic: after a brief nap, emre laughs with daddy

the cafe at dolmabahce palace

lydia's pic: mommy & emre on the bosphorus

lydia's pic: emre kissing mommy

a great day to be on the boğaz

after coffee we headed north to ortakoy, where we stopped for some shopping & lunch.

lydia's pic: food face, up close

kumpir!

lydia's pic: love my little guy

lydia's pic: my face after she pointed out a seriously mangy cat

this poor guy was working hard to refinish this boat in the hot sun

we then walked all the way up to bebek - totaling about 6 miles at this point, i believe ben calculated.  we were exhausted, so we sat in a shaded park and enjoyed some gelato and sorbetto from cremeria milano before our sea taxi picked us up.  lydia's mojito & my melon sorbetto were incredible!  

the sea taxi is relatively new in istanbul, and since we didn't have a car seat for emre, it was our only option at that point for continuing our journey.  it turned out to be a great experience, highly recommended!

lydia's pic: emre & dad on board the sea taxi

lyd on board the sea taxi - we were just so glad to sit for a while

emre was a little scared at first!

the taxi left us off in eminonu at the end of the galata bridge.  this bridge is somewhat famous because below it is a long row of fish restaurants.  while i've crossed it many times, i'd never been below before.  we of course had to stop at this point for cold beers & calamari.  

underneath galata bridge

tired emre, who refused to nap

lydia's photo: tired balkayas

lydia, with the delicious cold beers

view of galata bridge & 'new mosque'

we then walked over to the tunel, which is an underground funicular that runs back and forth between galata bridge and the end of istiklal boulevard.  i had never ridden it before - it was quite fun!

tünel

after that, we walked allll the way up istiklal to taksim, where we took the metro back home.  ben calculated that we walked a total of 8.5 miles.  needless to say, we were all EXHAUSTED by the end of that day.  we put emre to bed & ate the rest of our mezzes for dinner while watching 'anchor man' (which lydia had never seen. i fell asleep about 30 minutes in).

i was sad to say goodbye to lydia at the airport on monday morning, but it was a great weekend away. the kind that leaves you feeling like you really did & saw a lot.  we got to visit with lydia and experience some parts of istanbul that we hadn't before.  by monday we felt almost ready to return to dusty old ankara.  almost.

on the plane, almost home