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.