Pazar

Olives!!

My first day here was wonderful! We visited Nine (great grandmother who's real age nobody knows, best guess is 107). She is quite a beautiful woman and you can tell she is right in the threshold of the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit. Grandma (in Turkce called babaanne) and grandpa (dede) were both in the room visiting as well so I got to meet a lot of family at once :) We had a relaxing day and I fell asleep quite early.

Tuesday we went to the Tuesday bazaar (pazar) which is pretty big, historic, and crowded :) There was a lot of fresh produce as well as a variety of clothing, art, and household wares. I wish we had more places like these in the U.S, but I guess that's the whole point of Eastern Market so it's just a matter of time before we have more and more markets as a part of life.

After the Tuesday bazaar we walked to a beautiful little street where we had some lunch. The lunch was absolutely delicious! It's a common Turkish food called Kumpir and it's a baked potato filled with your choice of toppings. The atmosphere of the place was what attracted me to it and the people. The owner's wife was there and she was such a sweet lady! The whole little cafe had a very family like feel and it was cozy. Then we went to a nargileh place (hookah tobacco) and met with a few of Atilla's old high school friends. It was a lovely evening and his friends are all so sweet and interesting!

Departure- Arrival

First of all I'd like to report that we are here in Istanbul! We made it after all!

Our adventure to get here was amazing, incredible, and quite unbelievable. If you've already been following our trip, then you know we've been delayed 1 week for our flight to Istanbul. So we can start from the following Saturday which was our 3rd attempt to fly to Istanbul. We made it into the airport, had a very easy breezy check-in, and arrived very early. Then, as we sat we realized that flights around us were being delayed and cancelled left and right due to the foggy weather. We braced ourselves for another cancellation, but tried to hold on to our hope! Our plane arrived late because of the weather and because the plane's weather radar device was malfunctioning. When the plane arrived they had to get a new weather radar device flown in from Cincinatti which delayed our plane even more. Since our plane was delayed we were going to miss our connecting flight in Paris, so we had to reschedule for a later flight.

Everything was taken care of and we took off for Paris. Our plane ride was great and we arrived to Paris ready to have a little bit of time before our next flight to get to the gate, freshen up, and leave. Our flight number was called and everyone lined up for the boarding, but no less than 1 minute after the announcement, we were told that we needed to wait 15 minutes because there was a delay. At this point it was unclear why there was a delay and how long it was going to last, so the stewardess frequently updated us. We then found out that the Air France workers decided to go on strike at that very moment, so we would have to wait. It turns out that in France you may have a strike for an hour if you please and then you continue working. So after an hour of much sleepiness in the Paris airport we boarded the plane and then landed in Turkiye.

Once we arrived I easily obtained a 90 day tourist visa, went through the passport line, collected our luggage and we met Atilla's dad (Melih) and brother (Can, pronounced Jon). We were told by them that their car broke down 5 times on the way to get us (which had never happened to them before) and so they called Atilla's uncle for help and picked us up in his uncle's car. Then we headed to home. Atilla and I pondered the spiritual reasons for such a trip and it certainly seems that our spirits needed some purification so we received our tests. I think this was a very valuable experience for us and I feel very grateful for our chance to grow :)

It is very late here right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we are here and happy. I have a lot of pictures from today and much more to share, so I will try to write again tomorrow. Tomorrow night is Feast so I'm sure I will have so much more to share after my first Feast in Istanbul.

Marisa