Istanbul - Part 3

The last conference day for Julian was somewhat abbreviated – concluding in the early afternoon. This conference and its related society (for our dedicated blog readers, the previous conferences of this group were in Armenia and Finland) is one in which Julian plays a fairly active role on the organizational side. The next conference for this group will take place in Bangkok with Julian as one of the main organizers – the preparations and related panic for this forthcoming event are already in full swing – we will keep you posted. One gratifying feature of this conference group is that the participants tend to be bright, enthusiastic and friendly, so the meetings also function as a type of reunion of friends. As mentioned above, Bahcesehir is located right on the waterfront. All conference lunches were held in the rooftop faculty restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus and Julian would certainly be quite capable of getting used to that on a more regular basis (if you are reading this, Yavuz, that was not necessarily an overt hint). This last lunch, including concluding remarks and discussions for next year’s event, lasted about 2 hours. As with all of the other aspects of this trip, the conference itself ran very successfully from all perspectives.

By mid-afternoon, all of us returned to the hotel at about the same time, and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the outdoor pool together with Jody and Yuri. This being their last night, we headed out for dinner – waterfront, again (we are in such a rut) – at a small café close to Bahcesehir. You know you have ventured off the tourist-beaten path when there are no English menus and no English-speakers. But we are quite confident in our abilities to hold our own with the basics in Turkish, so it was yet another great experience. And all this without the tourist prices. We bade farewell to Jody and Yuri and decided we must get together with them again prior to next year’s Bangkok meeting – maybe in Toronto, even.



Saturday was time for a new adventure. In the morning, we crossed over to the Asian side via ferry and were picked up by Yavuz, Deniz, Mete and Aylin for a tour of their side of Bosphorus. 

Zoe on the ferry to Asia

This part of Istanbul is considerably less “touristy” and seemed to consist of much more residential-type neighbourhoods. Our first stop was a scenic overlook for tea and a run through the park for the younger crew, followed by a driving tour of the area. 


View of the Bosphorus and Europe from the tea garden at a scenic overlook on the Asian side.





Zoe and Aylin in the tea garden.



The Bosphorus and Europe in the background.



The Bosphorus meets the Sea of Marmara which wraps around the Golden Horn and beyond.

Our next stop was one of their favourite local restaurants for yet another fabulous Turkish lunch. We then meandered through the winding stores and markets, prior to taking a tram to the ice cream district – probably not its official name J. 

Zoe and Aylin playing at lunch.

 


Sara with Zoe, Deniz with Mete and Aylin



The tram continuing toward the Bosphorus after we disembarked for the city's best dondurma (ice cream).

From there it was time for a playground to allow the smaller ones blow off some more steam, while their rapidly aging parents were able to wile away the hours sitting in the adjacent tea garden (“it don’t get no better ‘n this”).

We returned to the car by walking along the waterfront and visiting another playground along the way where Mete, Aylin and Zoe were obliged to have more fun. 



Sara, Zoe, Yavuz, Deniz, Mete, and Aylin with Old City minarets in the background.



A rare moment of attitude - along the Sea of Marmara.



Mete, Aylin and Zoe

 
We returned via ferry to our hotel for a rather tame evening on our floor’s outdoor patio. We knew Zoe had had a great time when she became quite concerned that we would not see our day’s hosts again on this trip. Another time, Zoe, another time. We had an absolutely fabulous time with Yavuz’s family and greatly appreciated the lengths that they had gone to in order to make us feel so welcomed. This day was truly memorable for providing us with a view of how “real” Istanbullus actually live. And to share it with friends and family. We also admitted that we could quite easily see ourselves living in some of those neighbourhoods should the appropriate opportunity ever arise – be it for sabbatical years or some other reason.


Building near the ferry docks.

 

Approaching the European side on the ferry.  Our hotel (Conrad) is the large white building in the centre.

 

Our last full day was spent puttering around the neighbourhoods surrounding our hotel. And partaking of a last afternoon at the pool, of course. Zoe’s confidence and abilities in water have taken a quantum leap this summer – and she was thoroughly delighted to spend hour upon hour in the water demonstrating her new found skills.

Our last evening was again spent in the lounge at the end of our hotel hallway gazing out over this beautiful city and reflecting upon how wonderful this entire trip had been.



Mother Nature's parting show on our final Istanbul evening.

 



After the sun set, we settled in on the outdoor patio for one last light show.  The bridge across the Bosphorus visible from our hotel is lit at night.  Several times an hour the lights change colours and dance in varying patterns across the bridge.  Zoe loved the lights as much as she loved the opportunity to stay up "late".



Lights on the bridge across the Bosphorus.



Zoe performing her own dance on the patio lounge.



Although every trip we have taken with Zoe has become her favourite, this is the first time that she has actually said to us “I could live here” (Daddy strongly shares that sentiment). In fact, every facet of our stay could not have been better – the travel, the accommodation, the location, the food, the weather, the reuniting with good friends, the work components, the vacation aspects, our choices of places to visit, our harmonious experiences as a family (everyone was happy all the time), and everything else. One test of time spent away from home is whether one is ready to return – after our time in Istanbul, we were definitely not ready. This trip really was our own little piece of heaven. In a word, the entire time was perfect. And our summer could not have concluded on any better note than that.