Saturday, October 18, 2008

A day in the city. . .So we started out a little late. 12. Got on the ferry boat to Karakoy, which is a port on the European side of the city. Here's a picture of the boys with daddy.
After alighting from the boat we purchased our much needed simits. If you ever come to Turkey you will wonder at first why these circular snacks are so popular. At first my thoughts were,"These are kinda crusty and dry! What's the enticement?" But then after many desperate moments where there is nothing else available on the streets and your kids are screaming because they're hungry, and so are you, and you don't want to go to the restaurant and wait for the food, you get used to them. Then you start to like them. Then you start to discern a good simit from a bad one. The good ones are hard on the outside and soft on the inside. If you can squish your simit, that's a bad thing. Also don't buy the ones that are nearly black on the outside. Burnt simit is not the same as burnt bacon in my book.




We arrived at the car show finally. We dropped Atticus and Shermy off at the play area for kids and went browsing for our next car with Cinci. And we found it! (We aren't really going to buy a car. At least not in the next few years.) It is the illustrious Chevy Spark. Isn't that a cute name. Basically, it's really small, but it would fit our current family in it. It has the cutest sized wheels and almost no horse power, but I really like it. I'm serious. Good gas mileage too. Oh, and Cinci approved.




Our Chevy Spark was up against a few other cars, namely the Lamborghini Gallardo. . .




and the Lamborghini Murcielago. It was a tough race but the Chevy Spark won our hearts in the end.


There was a race car on display with some lovely young ladies on display too. Jonathan told Shermy to go up there so we could take a picture of him. So he did. But instead of standing in front of the car, he walked up to the girl and just stood there. You can't see the crowd of people , I mean men, off to the left of the picture shooting away with their cameras at the girl and the car, but mostly the girl. The men were probably thinking "Man, I wish I was that kid."Anyway, he stood there for a few minutes while people waited for him to move. Actually, some of the guys liked taking Shermy's picture too. I guess a scantily clad young lady is just as rare as a blond child in this country.



On our bus ride back to our home we drove by the walls of the old city. Me in my ignorance asked, "What city?" The answer "Constantinople. . . Istanbul" So these guys were running along the walls of the old city. I haven't taken a picture but this city today has burst beyond these walls for miles and miles both east and west. It is the biggest city I have ever lived in. You could spend hours trying to get from one side to the other. Which is what we did. It took us a total of three hours, with a bathroom and food break, to get from the airport area back to our home on the Asian side of the city. And don't get too scared of this next picture. I was debating on whether or not I should scare you with this realistic photo of myself trying to keep Cinci quiet on the neverending bus ride home. I figured I should be honest about what my life is really like.




I do look like this when I'm on the bus with Cinci for any amount of time exceeding thirty minutes.

2 comments:

Cameron said...

Those are some pretty sweet vehicles. I still wonder how you managed to control your boys and keep them from jumping in and going for a ride. Wild boys fun. We went to your old house today to pick the grapes there. Before I could get there Ali and Isaiah barged in to the upstairs area and used the bathroom. My kids don't get that you don't live there anymore. Your neighbor says hi Wilma I think it was.

Code Yellow Mom said...

One of my favorite billboards here is a cell phone ad. Not a cell phone in the picture at all, I don't think. Or maybe you just don't notice them because of the girls in plastic red outfits that are advertising the cell phone. It makes me laugh.

The Spark sounds awesome. I'm in love with the VW Caddy, myself.

You look much nicer on the bus ride than I do on bus rides.