Joey, Have You Ever Been In A Turkish Prison?

Packing is easier when you don't have Gabe pulling stuff out of
your suitcase faster than you can put it in

Yesterday was our final day in Istanbul.  Gabe woke us up at 7:30 sharp, as he always does, and we showered and packed and had breakfast at the hotel.

The A-Team on the Hippodrome track

Then it was off for one last round of sightseeing and souvenir-buying before we had to catch a ride back to Ataturk Airport and our flight home.  Istanbul was totally different on this last day, because it was Saturday.  The number of tourists hanging around exploded, and with them the number of street vendors, store-hawkers, and everything else.  Istanbul gets pretty crazy on the weekend; I can only imagine what it's like when it isn't winter.  We hit all our old favorites before heading out to new frontiers.

Gabe and Io at the Blue Mosque

Your narrator at the Hagia Sophia

After one last look at the main sights, we headed off to the Little Hagia Sophia.  That's right: The Little Hagia Sophia.  See, when the Ottomans took over Constantinople (which was, at the time, probably the most Christian city outside of Rome), they started a long program of converting all the churches into mosques.  Part of that meant renaming them all, and apparently when they got to the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, their creativity ran a little short.  Since this church was actually the model for the vastly larger and more impressive Hagia Sophia, they just named it the Little Hagia Sophia and called it a day.    This is what LA gangmembers do when someone already has their moniker.  Apparently there's a long history behind that.

The Little Hagia Sophia is the oldest building that we saw in Istanbul, built in about 1506.  The inside was very nice, but as far as King Gabriel was concerned the best thing about it was outside the building itself:

DUCKS!

At the Little Hagia Sophia we said farewell to Jason and Rachel.  They were heading off to the aqueduct and old city walls, and we only had a couple of hours before it was time to catch our flight.

So we said our goodbyes and then Io and I headed off to the bazaar, where we almost immediately ran into Jason and Rachel again.  Awk-waaaaard.  Then Io somehow convinced me that a traditional Ottoman linen kaftan would be just the thing on hot LA days around the house.  

It seemed like a good idea at the time

I am just saying

Io likes this kaftan and says it makes me look like Jesus.  In the Bible it says that Christ's second coming will be preceded by the archangel Gabriel appearing and blowing a mighty trumpet.










I actually like my kaftan quite a bit, though.  It's super-comfy, light, and it does make me look like Jesus.

Io showing off her new pants and our new rug

Buying the kaftan was another fun exercise in haggling.  Again I'm sure I got the worst of the deal, but whatever.  I enjoy the haggling, especially since for me there isn't that much at stake because the amounts aren't that large to begin with (except for the rug).  Although I am constantly handicapped by Ioana, who couldn't bargain her way out of a paper sack.  When the rug guy brought out an obviously expensive rug that we both loved, I was like, "Hm, might be OK," and Io says "I love this one!"  As we wandered around on our last day buying souvenirs and gifts for people, I stopped to buy toys from a street vendor for a couple of kids we know back home.  He starts at five lira, I start at two, we're going back and forth, and eventually I pull 3.50 out of my pocket and say "Three and a half.  That's all I have."  Io immediately goes "Oh, I have more!" and pulls out a heaping handful of money.  "Five!" the guy says, pointing at the money that is practically falling out of my wife's hand onto the ground.

After one last spin through the bazaar, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and headed to the airport.  There were no cabs available (apparently every single cab in Istanbul changes shift at the same time every day), so the hotel arranged us to get a private car for the same price, and we left Istanbul in high style.

Gabe was fairly fussy on the plane ride back, but at least he wasn't screaming and crying.  And the trip was short, so that was good.  I was paranoid that I was going to get stopped by customs and asked why I didn't declare the rug, and then get thrown into a hideous Turkish jail.  But we sailed through same as always. Somehow my dreams of being an international smuggler never seem to go anywhere.

Overall I have to say the Turkey vacation was pretty awesome.  The Hagia Sophia was an experience of a lifetime, and the Bosporus cruise was also really really cool.  I liked seeing the various mosques and other old buildings, and the feeling of walking the same paths that so many towering figures of history -- Justinian, Suleiman, Constantine, Mehmed II -- had walked.  I also loved in-the-present Istanbul, with its friendly culture, straight-out-of-an-old-movie Middle Eastern merchants, and delicious food everywhere.

Traveling with Jason and Rachel was also fun.  There's a lot of work trying to mesh schedules and slow down or speed up to each others' pace, but it's totally worth it to be seeing all this stuff with people you love.  And Jason, who was a history professor before becoming a lawyer, was a wealth of information.  Plus it was handy for each of us to be able to hand off various planning tasks to one another: you figure out a good restaurant, we'll find out how to take a cruise up the Bosporus, etc.  

And they were great with watching Gabe when we needed so that Io and I could go see some things where kids or strollers weren't allowed.  They were good sports all around for this whole experience -- traveling with a one-year-old, even someone else's one-year-old, isn't easy, but they handled it well.  Thanks guys!  See you back in LA!

Ah, young love

And now we're back in Bucharest.  We've got a couple of days on our own, and then my parents fly in to visit everyone and to be here for the first anniversary of King Gabriel's reign.  I think that's the Silver Jubilee. While they're here we're going to go to Sighisoara, but mostly just hang around Bucharest and visit with each other.  Can't wait!

Moment of Zen: