Another one of my dream destinations was Turkey, specifically Cappadocia. The hot air balloons and funky rock formations, what more could you want?!
We flew to Istanbul, another cool place! We spent a few days there, walking around, eating food, and admiring the Turkish rugs (at least I was). One of my favorite parts about going to Turkey was coming across people who were friendly to Emre. His name is Turkish, which means "older brother, loving friend." He sure made a lot of friends! When Emre would share his name, they would always be surprised and say, "why does he have a Turkish name?!" My favorite moment was when we were walking around the Grand Bazar and he caught the attention of a store owner. Emre started talking about his birthday coming up, so the man gave him a bracelet with the all seeing eye, to give him protection throughout his life. It was so sweet! Another favorite moment was when we were in a tram and Emre was chatting this young lady's ear off. She could only understand him, she didn't speak English. Without her saying anything, he talked for at least 15 minutes and she just rubbed his cheeks. It was so funny!
We also found a Little Ceasars. We ate there twice. Survived college with those $5 pizzas; we had to! And we discovered our love for cherry juice. So good! Alastair also got a haircut; that was an experience! It was like an old school barber, doing all these old school tricks. Emre was playing with another old man in there; tapping the fish tank and admiring a bird in a birdcage. The barbers were so nice to Emre, they joked around, telling him to put a fish in his pocket to take home (all without speaking English). Then the barber sprayed this old man cologne like it was a little treat to take with him. Head and body doused with cologne, Emre smelled like an old man, but it was a sweet gesture!
After our time in Istanbul, we went to Cappadocia. We arrived later at night, so we drove straight to our hotel. The drive is about 40 minutes-1 hour and Emre fell asleep on the way. The driver stopped to get us coffees, but we declined. He also bought candy for Emre, but he was asleep. We were all just laughing! We eventually made it to our cave hotel and it was awesome! Made me seriously consider living in a cave. And the rugs, I wanted to keep them!
It was cold and snowy, but not frigid. We walked around, hiked in the mud, and admired the hot air balloons. We were able to see them take off in the afternoon and it was magical, we all enjoyed it! Emre especially loved throwing snowballs. He even threw one at a stranger. As we were scolding him and apologizing, one of the guys started throwing some at Emre and a little snowball fight ensued. It was funny!
During our time there, there really weren't that many tourists; definitely off-season. But I liked it that way!
The rest of the time, we just relaxed. We had such a good time and we really enjoyed our stay! After Turkey, we went back to one of our favorite places... Budapest.
