I’ve gotten all mixed up with my days and have lost track of what point we are in our trip. I realized that we flew overnight, so lost a day on arrival. Thus, we landed on day 3, which I mistook to be day 2. Either way, it’s not a big deal, it just throws off my blog a bit. We are currently on day 5, our last full day in Turkey. It was also a day that we chose to take our all-important Grateful Dumpling pic, but first a little background. This trip was funded and inspired by our hard work, sweat and toil over the Summer making and selling dumplings. When we tell people we are going to Turkey and Greece with our dumpling money, they are shocked, and wonder how many dumplings we ... read more

The general sense I get around here is that Turkey is hoping to gain entrance into the EU, but there are forces within the Union that are resistant. While there are a multitude of reasons why people are against it, I'm sure, it seems that Turkey has been scrambling to modernize their country and catch up with the rest of Europe. Personally, at least from what I can see, they're doing a great job. Part of that progress is promoting tourism, and part of tourism, the one that surely speaks to the American sensibility, is shopping. On the other hand, as a tourist, you get less of the genuine experience, if that's what you're looking for. Visiting Turkey becomes more like visiting a European country with an Arabic influence. Mind you, I like it this way, ... read more

When we travel, we love hotels that include a breakfast buffet, and you can't beat the Euro breakfast buffet, mainly because it's so different that what you'd get in the States. No pancakes or waffles, but lots of cold cuts, cheese, olives, and olive oil, and plenty of of killer bread. They have some egg type dishes like quiche, and then lots of fresh fruit. And of course, let's not forget about strong black coffee. In the interest of maintaining a proper body weight and saving some dough, I've developed a pattern of eating a hearty breakfast and then an early supper. That pretty much gets me through the day. What's crazy about it is that we've been very active, as well. We swim twice a day, and have been walking throughout the city. Speaking of ... read more

We landed in Turkey around 11:00 on Tuesday, and needless to say, after about 12 hours of travel, we were all tired, hungry, and disoriented. In other words, another day in paradise. We were in Istanbul, after all, and off on another adventure. It's always interesting finding your way through a new airport, and an experience in itself. I am partial to European airports, myself, mainly because of the eclectic mix of people you run into. We breezed through immigration and customs, grabbed our bags and met up with our driver. The hotel we were staying at sent a car to pick us up, making life easier. I had zero sleep, and the kids were literally running on fumes, but they were having a blast, running around the baggage claim and pushing each other in the ... read more

To add to all of our drama, we missed our plane, and had to spend the night in Boston. It was a crazy situation. We had received an email notification months earlier that our itinerary had changed, and then proceeded to take no heed of it. What happened was the flight was rescheduled for a much earlier time, and we arrived at the airport at the previously scheduled time, so we had no chance. We were hours late, so at least it wasn't stressful. Also, had we arrived on time, we would have had to have missed A's performance, and that would have been a bummer. In the past, it would have ruined our trip, at least for that moment, but somehow we weren't too stressed about it. Sure, we were disappointed, but the ticket agent ... read more