Please Tip Your Waiter

After a long day of walking around the city we're all hanging out in the hotel terrace restaurant right now with the hotel staff which is actually a ton of fun. The barman actually has his daughter here who is just a little younger than Maya and we are all having a great time talking and watching the girls play with Maya's dolls while we all learn Turkish. A quiet way to spend the holiday but I feel like I'm surrounded by family and it's making for a wonderful holiday away from home. I don't think I can think of a better way to spend this night while here in Istanbul.

Today was a long day of shopping at the Bazaar, walking through the back streets of Istanbul and seeing more of this wonderful place. Maya did well with some of the walking but I think she's starting to get tired of the trip. Hopefully she will sleep well tonight. I will try to post more pictures soon but until then check out Josh's Flickr pictures

So Many Things to Do, So Little Time

I've only got a few minutes to post because we're off again. The past two days have been busy, busy, busy. We went to all kinds of gorgeous mosques, went for a cruise on the Bosphorous, saw the last palace used by the Ottomans, went to the Asian side of Istanbul, and now we're off to the Grand Bazaar. I even went to a Turkish Bath which was incredibly amazing and totally embarassing all at once. I loved it!

Maya has held up well thanks to using the scarf as a sling when she's tired. It really helped out yesterday during the tour of the Ottoman palace because she fell dead asleep. She really seems to be enjoying the trip, even though she complains every now and then. Overall, she's behaved herself very well. Unfortunately, she's broken out with her HSP again so we're trying to keep her from doing too much walking today because of it. Hopefully her knees won't hurt her too much.

Tonight should prove to be amazing. I have no idea what we will be doing but spending New Years in a place like this will be wonderful no matter what. I'm really looking forward to it. I hope everyone else has a wonderful holiday!

The Beauty Within

We had a busy day today even though we ended up not making it to either of the mosques. Josh found time in the evening to take some great pictures of them, though, and we plan on seeing them and the Grand Bazaar tomorrow. We did, however, make it to the beautiful Topkapi Palace, the main palace for the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries. The expanse of the palace was incredible and was only rivaled by the beautiful tile-work and gilded calligraphy adorning the many buildings. Maya handled the palace fairly well though she fell dead asleep about half-way through. Thankfully one of the scarves I had packed to use as a head covering in the mosques saved the day and I was able to use it as a sling to support her while we walked around. I had used a sling religiously to carry her around on trips when she was smaller and it proved once again to be one of the best inventions ever created by woman.

After the palace, we went to the incredible Basilica Cistern, a breathtaking columned water reservoir located underground adjacent to Hagia Sophia. Maya especially loved the huge fish that were swimming around in the water and Josh was in pure heaven with all the photo opportunities. It's amazing that something so simple as columns and two feet of water can be as dazzling as the cistern is, but it will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip.

We finished the day off with a belly dancing show. It, of course, was the canned tourist trap type place but Maya was mesmerized. I looked over quite a few times to see her completely in a trance watching the dancers. Even though the food wasn't the best and some of the acts had more cheese than France, the whole experience was a lot of fun and well worth the price. Now I just need to get Maya to stop hiking up her shirt so she can be a belly dancer.

We Made It!

I don't have much time to post anything of real value because we're about to head out but we did make it here safe and sound. Our hotel is small but it does what it needs to do and there was even a wonderful continental breakfast this morning.

Today is sure to be one of our busiest days. We're off to see the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Basillica Cisterne, the huge open market and we'll end the day with a belly dancing dinner show.

Well everyone is waiting for me to go so I'm off. I'll post later today if I can with all the fun things we did!

Trixie Saves the Day!

Excellent! Maya's inflatable bed fits right in Trixie with almost no squishing! I was surprised because that bed is generally a big pain to deal with and I didn't think it would fit in there but, bust my buttons, it did! I'm going to look through our bags tonight and find a suitable carry on bag that can fit both her things and my things since I'm losing out on the space in the Trunki for toy storage. Considering the fact that we have enough bags for a small third world nation, I think I'll be OK finding something though so no worries on that front.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Maya got all kinds of great things to take on the plane for entertainment. My mother sent her several write-on, wipe-off books to teach her her letters and numbers which should be fun. We really need to work on her letters and numbers and the flight will be a great time to bust out her new books and work on those since I'll have her trapped. She asked me today if she could take her new Bratz doll which I said she could. Hopefully that wont go the way of her last blanket and end up under a seat somewhere far away.

I mentioned yesterday that Maya tends to be a bit of a thrasher in bed. Here's the proof. This is how I found her last night


Try sleeping next to that for 10 nights. BAH!

Now I'm off to do about twenty loads of laundry to get ready for leaving tomorrow. Ahh a mother's work never ends.

Suitcase Jumble

So Josh and I realized today that we will have to take Maya's inflatable bed with us on the trip because our hotel in Istanbul only has a queen sized bed. Yes, yes I know boo-hoo a queen sized bed. Well, let me tell you, it's no fun sleeping with "The Thrasher." Generations of the women in my family have all gotten the thrashing gene. Basically, we flip-flop around more than a fish out of water beating anything within arm distance to a pulp while we sleep. Maya's sleeping habits are quite impressive. She's worse than I am when it comes to sleeping positions. Sometimes I'm amazed she can even sleep with the formations she gets herself into. I swear, I've caught her sleeping upside down like a bat a couple of times. Anyway, with all that said, we have to figure out how to pack her bulky inflatable bed into all of our stuff because if we don't none of us will have any hope of getting sleep while we're gone.

*Sigh* I may just end up doing a test pack tomorrow. Josh thinks it will fit into the good ol' Trunki. Normally I put her toys in her Trunki but if the bed fits in there that would be awesome. I'll just have to figure out how to handle all of her other stuff. I may have to *gasp* take a larger carry-on. NOOOOOO! I've always prided myself on taking very little on the planes. It just makes life easier when all you have is a backpack to take on and off. If I can't fit her bed in Trixie though, I'm going to have to take up valuable suitcase space which is worse than taking a bigger carry-on. If all else fails, I may end up just taking less clothing. Lets see 10 day trip, that would be 4 sweaters, 2 pairs of jeans, one nice outfit (just in case), one extra pair of shoes and *ahem* all the under bits. Frightening isnt it? I promise, it is humanly possible to survive on that lol. Maya tends to take more because, well...four year olds like to "wear" their day.

Anyway, Christmas is fast approaching, though, and our trip is just a few days away! We bought an extra guide book today to add to our collection. We usually take 3 or 4....or more. (Yes, we're guide book junkies.) We've had some time to look at them a bit more and it's just so overwhelming! So many things to see. I hope we don't miss too much. Once Christmas is over it will be time to seriously hunker down and get ready for our long days of traveling. We leave late late on the 26th then arrive in London only to have a five hour lay-over! (I KNOW, isn't it AWESOME?! I bet you wish you could have a five hour lay-over in Heathrow!) Then we finally fly to Istanbul in the afternoon, spend a week there, fly back, take the train to the Midlands to see friends, take the train back to London and fly back home. Oh, and don't forget the lay-over in Amsterdam on the way home! WHEW! See why I pack light?

Santa's Coming to Town

Yes that's right folks it's almost time for the big man's visit which is why I've been a little absent from the blog lately. Juggling work, Maya, the house, and anything else that comes along can make mamma tired. Good news though is that in one week I'll be finishing up packing for our big trip! I can't wait. These last few weeks of work have felt like they've been in dog years. I love my job but, really, Turkey? Much better than fixing the postage machine in my office.

I was telling someone last night that I can't believe this trip is only a week away. I still feel so unprepared. I haven't learned any Turkish and I've barely cracked a guidebook. Thankfully, Josh has been pulling up the slack (though he never learns languages). He was flipping through a guidebook one day and showed me an illustration of the huge wall that use to surround Istanbul during it's days as a Roman capitol. It looked amazing and hopefully we can see it at some point. I did get a chance to oogle some articles about traditional Turkish wares that one should get while there. I have one word for all my fellow women...JEWLERY! If nothing else, I do plan on purchasing some of the beautiful baubles they have there. Ahhhh, rings, they are my downfall. We also watched a documentary about the train tunnel they are building through the Bosphorous channel to link the European side with the Asian side. It's truly an engineering marvel though work on the European side has been held up with the discovery of an ancient port. It would be cool to see the excavation site so that may be one thing to do while we're wandering around.

After Turkey we will be making a pit stop to see our friends in Chesterfield, England. I'm so excited to see them. I love going to Chesterfield. Yes, yes, it's an industrial town but really getting to hang out with good friends, good food and maybe catching a footie match or two is my idea of pure heaven.

A quick FYI-There was some excellent news on the Trunki front. Towgo won a silver medal from Mother & Baby magazine in the Best Travel Product category! Way to go Trunki! I, of course, think they should always get a gold but I can't judge everything. Congratulations to Rob and the gang!

Three More Weeks

In three weeks we'll be in Istanbul, Turkey! I can't believe it. I feel like we've had this trip planned forever. Oh wait, we have. As of right now I have no idea what to expect other than I know it's sure to be a great trip. I'm definitely looking forward to see Hagia Sophia, a beautiful building that began it's life as a church and then was turned into a mosque and now is a museum. Other than that, I'm at a loss. Hmm maybe it's time to actually look at a tourist guide. Bah!

One thing I will say about Josh and I, we love the unusual. We love to step away, far away, from the tourist spots and find a little gem of a shop or a restaurant on a side street. It's made for some great finds and some interesting eating. One time, when we were in Prague, we went to this pizza place that we swore was run by the Czech mafia. Everyone who walked in seemed to know each other and they all kept going into this back room. There were also some guys who sat a a table the whole time, who just looked like mafia types, who kept answering their cell phones in hushed voices. In the end, the pizza was good and the "mafia" guys loved Maya. I have to say though, we ate quickly, said our thank yous and watched our backs the rest of the night. The creep out factor was definitely high but it was fun trying to guess if they were running some kind of front business for a secret Czech mafia operation.

Then there was a time when we were in Argentona, Spain and our friend Xavi took us to the most amazing bakery. It dated back hundreds of years and I had a pastry called an angel's bell (Cabella d'Angel). It's a sinful pastry, almost the size of my head, made of a phyllo dough glazed with honey on one side and chocolate on the other. I almost passed out it was so good. Steve, our friend who was traveling with us, said he was going to come back to Spain just to get another one. I told him to take me with him.

This all amounts to me trying to say, when you travel don't be afraid to leave the comfort of the tourist trap with the English menus and cookie cutter brick-a-brack shops. Take a stroll down a quaint side street and see what you find. You just may find your own one of a kind story.