Turkey

I was up bright and early at 4:30AM this morning to catch the sunrise flight of the famous hot air balloons of Cappadocia. Nick ended up waking up too and snuck out of our hotel room to go up the stairs right outside our room to the roof deck. About 5 minutes later we heard…

We started our day with the hotel’s excellent breakfast buffet on the deck. Millie did us proud and ate SO much: eggs, cereal, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, halva, yogurt, watermelon, apricots, and some of the random fries they placed on our table for some reason. She’s been eating a ton in the last week, and in…

We were staying in Istanbul’s Galata neighborhood, which is where our friends Annette and Murat used to live, so we had lots of great recommendations. We started our morning at their favorite coffee shop. Millie ordered crepes which I ate most of. We packed up our Airbnb, stored our bags in a nearby hotel, and…

Lots of playtime again this morning before heading out to visit Topkapi Palace. We took the tram over there. Just a few days ago I had no idea what to expect in terms of how we should navigate Istanbul, and now we can walk to the tram and take it to the right stop without…

Yesterday it felt like we dipped our toes into Istanbul, and then today we dove in headfirst. After some playing we headed out with a plan to walk across the Galata bridge to the grand bazaar. As we were walking, Millie did her usual “I’m hungry” whine. Nick and I both looked at each other…

After a very lazy morning of playing and laundry and making breakfast, we finally headed out. I think we are all happy to be back in an Airbnb with space for activities after a week in our tiny hotel room with hotel continental breakfast. We walked to the tram and took it a few stops…

We had breakfast at the airport hotel and then got the shuttle over to Schipol. The only drama of the morning was realizing that Nick left his beloved and very necessary AirPods at our previous hotel. He was able to replace them at the airport but any unexpected expense feels like a gut punch, especially…