KDs Adventures: Rain, rain go away...

I know I am still missing the update from the rest of Hungary. I will get to it, but first I wanted to write about our next stop on the journey. It is a wonderful Saturday morning in Istanbul... unfortunately the wonderful doesn't extend to the weather. It started raining late last night and hasn't let up since. As a result we are hiding inside the Wrigglesworth's amazing flat hoping it will let up enough so that we can run to our planned destination for the day.

We arrived in Turkey on Thursday. The flight was mostly uneventful except for the dump of snow we woke up to in Hungary (which also hit Austria and a number of other countries in Europe). Johnny, Max and Eniko got up early to see us off and John and Maxi drove us to the airport. We had such a wonderful time in Hungary visiting we were sad to leave. We hope they will come visit us in Canada soon (or we can go back).

The weather resulted in a slight delay in our flight. Mike arrived into Istanbul shortly before us and was kind enough to wait at the airport to help us make the journey to what is our home for the next week. Traffic in Istanbul is incredible. It wasn't too bad when we arrived so it was only a 45-60 min trip to the Wriggs (it can range from 20 min to 2.5 hours). Mike and Mel's place is amazing. They live in this gorgeous flat which has balcony's and views in a number of directions. We have a beautiful room with ensuite tucked away enough that our screaming baby doesn't wake up theirs (or vice versa :-)).

Emily is doing fantastic. The only current complaint is that she refuses to eat from her last early morning meal (5 AM ish) until after lunch! She will wake up between 8-9, but doesn't want to eat. Yesterday she went for 7 hours without food. However, she eats almost every 3 hours from the early afternoon until 5 AM again. I've actually figured that if we were at home she might sleep through the night without having to wake up for food. I felt much better after doing that math as I'd be very happy if that were the case.

Yesterday afternoon Mel and Oscar took us for a walk down to the Bosphorus river. We saw all sorts of neat things and had a snack and Turkish Coffee near the water. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from that walk. That night the entire Wrigg's clan took us to Taksim for dinner and to walk around. Taksim is sort of like 8th Ave in Calgary (walking street), but add a million or so people. The street was all lit up and they have a tram that goes up and down the street. We do have some pic's from that adventure (see below).

Getting the two families (4 adults and 4 children) to Taksim was quite the adventure. The best way to get there in rush hour is a taxi to the Metro and then the Metro. Mel called us a cab using her impressive Turkish. Mike and Mark were convinced we should have two taxi's, but Mel and I were confident we could do it with one. Each adult had to take a child. I should note, that many taxi's in Turkey don't even have seatbelts - I am not sure car seats are even sold in Turkey. When in Rome - so we took Emily (and all the kids) in our laps. It worked out quite well. And it wasn't that hard to get 9 people (including the driver) into a 5 passenger car. The metro was the next big adventure. As the train pulled up the people were packed against the doors. Mike instructed us to use 3 different doors (there is no way we would get two strollers into one car). We pulled Em out of the stroller and collapsed it. I had the baby and Mark took the bag and stroller. It wasn't as bad as I expected. It does help when you are holding a very cute, blond hair blue eyed baby. Everyone *loves* Emily here. Someone even gave me their seat! (Something that is apparently unheard of in Turkey).

I think the highlight of the night for me was walking down the narrow street which had cafe's lined along the street. There were tables with short chairs on both sides and only enough space for 2 people to walk down the road. It was really neat and would be a great place to sit and have a drink and people watch. Not exactly kid friendly. Getting down there with the stroller was a touch of a challenge, but Mark is getting good at navigating. I think driving a stoller in Istanbul is a good first step to learning how to drive here. :-) ... he probably only needs a year or so of practice before moving to a car. On a positive note it will make driving in the UK and Spain seem like a breeze.... AND Emily will even get to be in her car seat (although something tells me she is liking the freedom of Turkey).

OK, I think my novel about the first day in Turkey should suffice. I will write more about Hungary and the rest of our Turkey trip later.