Last Day in Istanbul with Dad

---

I woke up and realized it would be my next to last breakfast at the Apricot Hotel (when I get back from the tour it will be late on Sunday and then I leave on Monday morning and have my last breakfast then). Before we left the room to trek to the hotel Dad gathered up all the different currencies to give to Ayse from what Lynn had said advised the previous day and was going to put them all in one bag. But I reminded Dad that they all had to be separate! So we figured we would ask Lynn for some envelopes at breakfast.
We get to breakfast and I see Lynn and Ayse’s smiling faces and it just lights up my day! I am glad that I get one more day once I get back so I really didn’t have to say goodbye to them as well. It would have been too much to say to goodbye to Dad and the Apricot Hotel all at the same time! We ask Lynn for envelopes and she says its craft time! They make their own envelopes, so Dad gets the paper and tape and starts making envelopes! I never knew he was such a creative person, at one point he was going to ruin his amazing work by getting out his pocket knife and cutting a part off, so I showed him if he just folded a part it would look much better. At first he grumbled, but then he saw the light and the end product looked great!
We ate another amazing breakfast and then called Ayse over and Dad gave her her “tip” that had a lot of work put into it. Ayse had just gotten a divorce a week earlier since her husband had sold all of their hazelnut property and bought 4 cows. She is determined to work hard so her kids can go to University, and she does do a wonderful job; she has such a kind soul and that translates in every language.
Ayse was taken aback but was very happy, and we got photos with all of us, it was a wonderful morning. There wasn’t anything concrete on the agenda so we had another lazy morning at the Apricot Hotel. We talked with a few South Africans and they sadly told Dad about the infamous SKI club and if he was a member. We were really confused but then they said it was the Spend Kids Inheritance club, Dad then laughed and said he was the Charter Member!
We really wanted to go back to the hustle and bustle of the Spice Bazaar since we didn’t get to spend too much time there the day before, and Dad figured he had enough room in this luggage to bring more stuff back. The Turkish have it figured out that you can bring spices that aren’t commercially packaged back to tourists home town through customs if they vacuum seal it. We searched around and found this one guy and he let us try Turkish Delight, I had this stuff in Australia and it was probably the nastiest thing I have ever tried, so I was a little hesitant to try it, but the real McCoy Turkish Delight is so wonderful, we asked the guy to cut off different pieces of the handmade Turkish delight and box it up for us, I can’t wait to eat it when I get back! He then let us try and smell some of the spices on his giant spice wall, we ended up buying a lot from that guy, he even gave us some elma cay (apple tea) with big pieces of cinnamon in it, fresh off the wall of spices.
He explained to us that Turkish spices are different from others because they let the spices breathe and let the aromas escape. While everyone else seals them up in jars and this does not let the aromas reach their full potential. We bought pepper, saffron, ground pistachio, dried Turkish vegetables, tea, and much more (but I can’t think of it off the top of my head, although my Dad has a good picture of all the loot we brought back on Facebook!). I wanted to buy what is called “Turkish Viagra” its just figs stuffed with walnuts, but the funniest part about it were the signs for it. One said “Turkish Viagra – 5 times in the night!” Another one said “Turkish Viagra (and in handwriting) No sleep!” it was hilarious. I was trying to slyly take a picture of the signs but the shopkeeper saw me and was like yeah! 5 times! And slapped me on the back! I was like eewwww get away from me old man!
We then went and tried to find Dad a good knife like the one he used at the cooking school, only a miniature sized since the one he used was too big for him, we found one and was the shop keeper advised him not to take it in the carry-on luggage!
From there we went back to the cologne guy since I really liked the way the perfume smelled once I was out of the aromatic hurricane of the shop. I asked to smell it again to make sure it was the one I liked and they let me smell another one as well, and I liked them both! I asked how much it was for one bottle, it was 7 TL! That’s like $5 for a bottle of perfume, so I got both! They even let me help in the mixing process; I have mixed my own perfume! They were a very nice Armenian family and the perfume business has been in the family for 3 generations, they really know their stuff.
We got back to our room to wash up and I quickly checked my e-mail and found out that my brother was trying to come over to Turkey last minute! It was a bit of a shocker since I had tried to get him to come when I was first planning it all but he had already allocated his vacation time to other adventures. But now since reading my blog he was so jealous he really wanted to come over and cancelled his trip to California. But now the question is how and where he meets me since the next day I leave for my 2 week tour around Turkey and I am not in the same place for more than 2 days. We eventually figure it all out and he will hopefully meet me for the 2nd half of the tour! I can’t wait to see him!
I was supposed to meet the tour I was going on the next day for a drink and to get some more info for what is going to happen for the next two weeks. I was talking to Mom and Marcus on Skype then I looked at the time and it was 6:45 and I was supposed to meet the tour at 7 pm for the briefing at one of the Hostels. I cussed and said I had to go and immediately got off Skype, Dad then told me that was a nice way to say goodbye.
We got to the briefing and we couldn’t find anyone associated with Fez Travel so we sat and waited, and eventually an office person from Fez showed up (our tour guide, Fatih, was currently on another tour and wasn’t back yet) and it was just Dad and I for the briefing. I didn’t have any clue how many people were on the tour, but not too much later Taylie, Bex, and Brett showed up for the briefing, and it turns out another couple, Steph and Josh, were sitting right behind us. So we all chatted for a bit wondering if this was it for the amount of people on the tour. It was my last night in Istanbul with Dad so I called it an early night with my travel mates for the next two weeks to spend some time with Dad. (Before we left we did see the tour come back and they were on this sweet bus, so all of us were excited to get that bus the next day. . . .turns out not so much).
Dad and I then went out to celebrate our wonderful time in Istanbul together by going to the Café Mesale again where we smoked a peach Nargile, watched the whirling Dervish, and listen to the wonderful music. At one point a Down syndrome man got up on stage and was dancing to the music and everyone was cheering, he was completely accepted and even encouraged to get up and dance and he even got a woman from the crowd to join him, it was very heartwarming to see him up there.
Dad decided that we needed to play some Tavlah (backgammon) and we asked for a board, when after about 5 minutes it didn’t come, Dad asked again, and it never came, so Dad just got up and got one. Dad had played before but was a little rusty, so we asked a Turkish couple next to us if they could set us straight on how to set up the board. The guy came over and was a little confused on where to put the pieces, and then his girlfriend pushed him out of the way and set it up perfectly and explained how to move the pieces. We the played a very simple and quick game and Dad won. We then figured out how to set it up again and played a little more intensely since we had the ropes of the game kind of down and I won! Before we knew it it was midnight! We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves and did not want to face reality. But I had not packed yet and I had to be waiting for the bus at6:45 am the next morning and I had to figure out how I was going to fit everything back into my pack since I had accumulated more stuff, since my Dad was wonderful and brought me all my Birthday presents over with him . I was up till 2 am packing everything only to wake up 5 am to get ready, I hope I can sleep on the bus and that the rest of my tour mates are cool!
B

---

Photos

Dad living the good light
. . going to be tough going back to work after living like this!