What to do on a rainy day...

Unfortunately the rain hasn't let up much in Istanbul today. Needless it has been a bit disappointing as it interfered with our plans to head to the old city and do some sightseeing. We contemplated ignoring the bad weather and sticking with our plan, but we figured that might not be the best for Emily. Determined not to stay home for the entire day we bundled up and set out for Ortakoy. We headed down there the day before with Mel so we knew were to go and it wasn't too far of a walk.

Special thanks to the Sills as they gave us a handy rain cover for our stroller. As I was packing it and while carrying it around Hungary I was wondering if I was going to regret lugging it around. After today I can say it was definitely worth it. Emily stayed warm and dry for the entire trip and she could see out. All in all it was a nice trip out. We went down to the Bosphorus (see pick below). We had a delicious lunch. We then adventured back up and did a bit of shopping. We went to this really neat store Mel took us to the day before were they have all natural soaps, nuts and dried fruits. We bought some dried mango and kiwi! On our way home we stopped in a little fresh food market and bought some cucumbers (which Mel wanted to get the day before) and some blood oranges. I can't wait to try them out. We finished off the trip by grabbing some beer (of course) from the local store.

I can now safely say that Mel must be in the most amazing shape. The hill up to her apartment is epic... particularly with a stroller and groceries and I know Mel does it on a regular basis. Apparently the complex has a car with a driver all day and you can just call him to drive you up and down the hill. I agree with Mel it seems rather silly.

Thankfully we managed to get home right before it got *really* stormy. Mike, Mel and the kids are out for the day for the kids activities so we decided to spent a bit of time relaxing on the couch. We wanted to sit upstairs so we could use the internet and decided to try to get some music on the apple TV. Unfortunately it wasn't linked to the sound system (too bad, Mike has a great music collection) so we decided to surf some YouTube instead.

This leads me to an interesting rainy day activity... investigating what others watch on YouTube. Mike and Mel's search history is what you'd expect... lots of Ulty videos and some biking video's. A neat highlight was the guy who made a clock out of lego. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2DSteBLDY . I don't really check out YouTube lots, but I think if you saw Mark's history you'd see lots of funny kitty videos. We have now overwritten their history with various searches for music. Turns out it is a bit harder than you'd expect. The tunes have improved significantly once Mark took over the video.

A few more pics...

Emily learning to hold things - and chewing on Sofie's bum

Emily bundled up for her adventure out on the cold day. Emily would like to thank her cousins Nadia/Anika for the toque and Zach/Oliver for the mittens!

Jill and Emily in front of the Bosphorus - yes, it was a bit rainy and chilly.