Retraction # 1 (Surprised there has only been one??)

I want to take the opportunity to correct something I said in my earlier post about our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to visit their most recent great white shark baby. I had mentioned that we had tried a few times before to go and see sharks that had been on exhibit at the aquarium. But each time we have made plans to go, they release the shark back into the wild or it dies.

I was wrong about the dying part. I received a very nice comment from Mr. Humberto Kam, the Onlines Communications Manager of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He points out that none of the sharks that they had on view had died while they were at the Aquarium. In fact the Monterey Bay Aquarium released the sharks back into the wild for their own benefit and apparently very successfully. To be truthful, I knew some of them had been released but I thought I had heard that one that was pretty sick hadn't made it but I apparently was wrong, very wrong.

So I stand corrected. Now those of you that know me well, know I don't admit I am wrong very often. Mostly because it rarely happens and on the slight chance I might be, I don't like to establish a precedent. But because I admire the Monterey Bay Aquarium so much, I decided I should print a retraction. I decided against just correcting the post because I am not really sure what happens in cyber-space once something gets out there. I thought I better put something out there to counterbalance my misinformation. Sort of a Ying-Yang thing, now the universe is balanced.

Not On Our Watch!!

Several times over the past 5 or 6 years, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has come into possession of a great white shark. At some point they put the shark on display and you can see it up close and personal. Monterey is about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from our place. At least two times in the past, we have planned trips down to the Aquarium to take a gander at a shark when they either release the shark or it dies, like the day before we are supposed to show up.

That sad tale is why when we heard a few weeks ago that they had another great white, we decided to high tail it down to Monterey right away. We actually took a nice
drive down to Monterey. It was beautiful, reminding us that no matter where we travel some of the most beautiful scenery in the world is right in our backyard. When we arrived at the aquarium, we went straight to the shark tank. Well, in all fairness it wasn't exclusively a shark tank, there were other fish inside but lets
face it, it is sort of like being hamburger when there is kobe beef floating around in there. Sort of. Anyway, the shark had only been there 4 days when we saw her. That's right, female. She is only about 4 months old. And to be blunt, she is kind of small. "Great" is a title I think she will have to grow into. Right now, I think it would be a little more accurate to call her "adequate" white shark or "average" white shark. But she does have a presence in the tank, when she swims by you can see that certain fish seem to avoid her or scurry out of the way. We talked a bit with the naturalist on duty and asked how long they thought she would be there. She indicated that the shark would be there until she exhibited an "inappropriate behaviour". Such as? Eating one of her tank mates. Yep, that would be inappropriate alright.

After staring at the shark for what seem like an hour, we wandered through other parts of the Aquarium. For anyone who hasn't been, this is a superb aquarium. There are lots of tactile exhibits which are great for both the kids and parents. This exhibit lets you "pet" a ray. The only problem? The rays pretty much stayed on the opposite side of the tank where the "petters" couldn't reach. Pretty smart, huh? These guys were just a little too eager to pet the rays.






I love looking at the jelly fish. Against this blue background, they were pretty cool.


So let the record reflect that the Whinebergs finally got to see one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Great White Sharks!!! It was pretty cool.


P.S.

About a week after we visited, they released the great white. Apparently she hadn't been eating, food or tankmates. So they tagged her and let her go. Whew!!

Still Cruisin' After 50 Years

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. In a culture where the breakup of a 2, 5 or 10 year celebrity marriage is mourned as "long standing", a 50 year marriage is almost unbelievable. It takes resolve. I think it comes from being of a generation where successful marriages were expected, there were no other options. I don't think that is the case now.

In celebration of their anniversary, they gave all us kids presents. A concept I am hoping might catch on. So from now on, everyone should send me a gift on their birthday, anniversary or any other special occasion. Make it so. Anyway for their anniversary, Mom & Dad took all 5 daughters, their spouses, partners, and families on a week long Alaskan cruise. One big happy party of 18.


Some of us had cruised before but most were cruise newbies, Chizz included. He was concerned that he wouldn't find enough to do, he is not really the bingo type. But we only had 3 days where we were at sea the entire day, the other days were spent at ports of call. Our ship went from Vancouver to Icy Strait Point AK, then to Skagway and finally Juneau. We ended back at Vancouver. Months prior to the cruise were spent planning different excursions for the days we were in port.

Each family planned their own excursions. Our first excursion was whale watching in Icy Strait Point. Simply put, AMAZING!!! The boat was a small 6 passenger ship, it was our family plus Uncle D. The boating company won't guarantee you will see any humpback whales but our Captain was pretty confident and sure enough within about 10 minutes of setting off, we were seeing our first whales. And they were close!! The sound the whales make is so loud, it is like a groaning or creaking. We took quite a bit of video. I have some better shots of the whales but I can't figure out how to get a still photo from the video and my experts are already in bed for the evening. They have school tomorrow. So you will just have to trust me. Our captain was pretty good at spotting the whale spouting from quite a distance. Often he would see something far away and off we would go and then find ourselves within feet of a few whales. After a while, we could see the spouts for ourselves. In this photo you can see the spout. See what looks like steam rising from the water? That is the whale spouting from the hole on top of his head. We watched a sea lion play with one of the whales for quite some time. Actually I think the sea lion was tormenting the whale, sort of playing tag. It was fascinating. Since the boats are only licensed to take 6 people at a time, our group split up, going on different boats and different times. All the groups saw whales and one even saw some bears on the shore from their boat. So definitely successful outings. This is not a cheap excursion but everyone that went on the whale watching trips thought them well worth the expense.

The next excursion day was Skagway. Our family split up, Snake and Chizz went with Auntie M. and her family on the Skagway Triple Adventure, hike an hour, bike an hour and then raft an hour. They all had a great time and they got to see a bear from the shore. Snake actually spotted it and pointed it out to the group. He was pretty excited about that. Kiki, Auntie K and I went on our own triple adventure, a Ghosts & Good Times Girls tour of the town of Skagway, (and its famous brothel), shopping and lunch. We didn't spend an hour at each but we it was pretty fun and it wasn't all that exhausting. We can recommend the tour, our guide was dressed as a lady of the evening might have been during the gold rush (1896) in Skagway. She gave us a very insights into Alaska (which have become all the more interesting in light of certain other events more political lately). Alaska really is the last frontier. Skagway has about 800 full time residents during the year. During the height of the summer season, the town has about double the residents when the seasonal workers come to town to help serve the over 750,000 tourist they get per year. Our guide pointed out that there are not roads leading out of most towns in Alaska, they would be covered by snow and ice most of the year. People get into town three ways according to our tour guide, by plane, by boat or by birth canal. We met up with Uncle D., Chizz and Snake later on and had lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company. Uncle D. and Chizz have designated this summer as "Brewery Discovery Summer" and already have about 4 breweries under their belt.

Our last excursion day was Juneau. Our family did the helicopter ride to Juneau Ice Field and rode the Dog Sled. Really amazing. It was very, very, very expensive but truthfully the trip of a lifetime and I am really glad we did it. Kiki & Snake are definitely old enough to remember this and I think they will. I think Chizz thought the most fun
part was the helicopter. Those dog sleds dogs were amazing. One thing that surprised me was how small the dogs were, they were skinny. All of those movies where
you see dog sleds, the dogs are all furry and seem pretty good sized but in reality they are thin. One of the trainers explained to me that these dogs are like marathon runners plus. They often run 100 miles per day. When was the last time you saw a portly marathon runner? They just don't make them that way. The dogs were all pretty friendly and we were allowed to pet them and they seemed to be very
affectionate. I found listening to the "mushers" the most interesting part. These people live up on the glacier seven months of the year in tents. I asked him if they got cold and he told me "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes". As my kids would say "true that". All of these guys had participated in the Iditarod. I asked lots of questions, where do you sleep? (They provide tents but most of the participants like to sleep on their sleds in sleeping bags, with their dogs.) I was surprised to learn that it wasn't all about taking the fastest dogs to the race. You need all kinds of personalities, some leaders, some followers. It is definitely a team thing and not all of the dogs have the temperament to be in the front of the pack. And some dogs have bad days, days where they don't listen to the trainer very much. Our sled had to stop at one point to switch the dogs around because one of the ones in the lead was not listening, going right when he was supposed to go left. According to the musher, the dogs are like people and will have bad days and good days. Sometimes even during races you have to switch it up until
you get the right makeup for the team. It was fascinating. Then we get to go on a short run with the dogs. Everyone gets a turn at driving if they want. We all wanted to, of course. This picture is of Chizz driving in back. He was on a different sled from Kiki, Snake & I. Snake & Chizz rate this excursion as one of their favorites, and so do I.

On non-excursion days there was plenty to keep us busy. Some of us tried ballroom dancing lessons (not Chizz & I), some played bingo, some like to sit with a fancy drink in hand and watch the scenery go by. The scenery included several hours at the Hubbard Glacier. It was spectacular. The blue in this photo is not touched up. The ice absorbs the rays of red and yellow light leaving the blue. I was surprised at how blue it was and took way too many pcitures. Beside the scenery there were other distractions. The casino was a big hit for a few in the group. We managed to get 2 teams together for the 3 day trivia challenge. And our 2 teams, Deck Three Maniacs and Spawn of Art, dominated taking home the 1st and 3rd place medals respectively. Pretty nice!! Of course the main event for the cruise was the 50th anniversary and there were a few surprises along the way. One of the sisters wrote a little poem, recited by the
children. We also had t-shirts made up that we surprised the folks with at breakfast one morning. When they came to the table, they found us all wearing identical shirts - the front had a little emblem over the top left that said "Papa & Grandma's 50th anniversary cruise", the back was a copy of one of their wedding photos. They were very surprised, although it took Papa awhile to get it. Somehow he didn't notice we were all wearing the exact same shirt!!

Not surprisingly I think, I reflected quite a bit on marriage on this cruise. I thought about my parents' marriage and what it takes to get to 50 years. I mentioned before the "no failure" option that I think a lot of long standing marriages have. I look at my siblings' marriages and relationships. Some of them are newer than others, we have newlyweds, but most of us are in long standing first (and only) marriages or relationships. That doesn't happen by accident. Our parents modeled a good marriage to us, showing us by example how to live with a partner. I am sure they would tell you not every time was easy, they lost a home to a large fire, my dad was in Viet Nam, they traveled far away from friends and family as the result of their military career. But I think it never occurred to them that it would be easier to live apart or it would be better not to be married. Of course you have to lay the groundwork for a successful marriage by really knowing the person you are going to marry and perhaps, making sure you really know yourself. What is important to you, what do you want out of life, will your partner have those things now and in 20 years. Too often people get married for the wedding not the marriage. Once the party is over, they don't have much in common. It is harder to build on that. So in addition to their 50 years together as an achievement, I think my parents can look at their children's successful relationships and marriages as "their" achievements too. They showed us what "it" looks like. Thanks Mom & Dad.

In An Instant...

Seven years ago, our lives (mine, Kiki's and Snake's) almost changed drastically. I am so grateful it didn't. Every anniversary we are urged, implored, to remember. Don't worry, we can't forget.

Now Its Istanbul, not Constantinople

The second half of our "Goodbye Tour"(actually it is the middle part but that is another story for another blog entry)was Turkey. After going to Egypt back in April, I really was interested in exploring some different types of culture. Turkey does a lot of advertising in London and it looks soooooooo beautiful in the billboards. Chizz had a very interesting business trip there previously, so we decided to put it on the list.

We stayed in Istanbul, which used to be known as Constantinople until 1930. Turkey, as we came to find out later from one of our tour guides, has a long history of being invaded by just about everybody. Istanbul has been the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, The Ottoman Empire. Now it only has to survive the invasion of the Whinebergs!


Snake has studied quite a bit about Turkey and it was a bit like having your own personal tour guide in Istanbul. He was most anxious to see the Hagia Sophia, a very renown mosque in
Istanbul. Strangely, this building didn't start out as a mosque, it started out as a church when it was built between 532 and 537 AD, 1500 years ago. It is funny that we think of this area as historically and staunchly Muslim but in reality a good part of its foundation is Christianity. And the Hagia Sophia was the third church built on the site. (How come records are so good from back then that they can tell you how many buildings were on a particular site but the Social Security Administration can't find records of my earnings in 1984, a mere 25 years ago? - sorry, I digress.) So when Istanbul was conquered by the Turks in 1432, the Sultan ordered it be turned into a mosque. For about 500 years it was the center of the Muslim faith but it has not been an active mosque since 1934. There have been several restorations over the years, the inside is just beautiful with mosaics and artwork. I have to apologize for the quality of photos inside, (yes, you ARE allowed
to take photos inside). On our walk up to the Hagia Sophia, I dropped my very expensive camera with my much more expensive (at least for me) zoom lens on it. After the GREAT FALL, (which we referred to it in our house, or at least I do), the lens wouldn't come off the camera - it was kind of jammed on. Which is sort of a bummer because it means I had the prospect of taking only close up photos, or to put it in real perspective - I was only going to get photos of Chizz's nose hair in front of all the great historic places. I already have so many of those!! But never fear, I worked on it, cried over it, whine about it and finally I was able to work the zoom lens off. (See, never under estimate the power of whining!) But it was after the Hagia Sophia so these photos are all I really have.

Right smack dab across the street is the Blue Mosque. I love it when the points of interest in a city are so darn close to each other, it is very convenient. Nice of the leaders in history to arrange it that way. The Blue Mosque is simply the most beautiful mosque
I have ever been in. It is named for the blue tiles inside the mosque. As with all mosques there are some rules before you can enter. Women cannot enter with bare legs and bare shoulders. It is hit or miss sometimes as to whether men will have the same
restriction. We noticed very often Kiki and I were offered coverings if we were wearing shorts or tank tops but Chizz and Snake were not. They were allowed to go into most mosques wearing shorts. Since I heard that the Blue Mosque was particularly strict, I asked at our hotel what was the appropriate attire. Although I could tell our hotel's manager wanted to be accommodating to us (we found the Turkish people to be extremely friendly and warm) he struggled with telling us the right thing to do without seeming to somehow tell us something we didn't want to hear. Of course, we were making no value judgment, we wanted to see the inside of the mosque and were willing to abide by the rules. We wore jeans. (As an aside, we saw plenty of men in shorts but truthfully - they shouldn't have been. It annoys me when tourists do not respect the local customs and practices.) Muslims are called to pray 5 times per day. If you are near a local mosque you go int, if not it is perfectly acceptable for a Muslim to stop, point himself in the direction of Mecca and pray where he is. The floors of a mosque are usually covered in carpet and no one, worshipers or visitors, wears shoes inside. We were given small plastic bags in which to carry our shoes. It is enormous inside and you are free to wander about but you must be mindful of the worshipers, who are there at all times of the day not just when
called. They have a good section of it roped off from visitors for people to pray.
Actually, not people - the men. See that area with red carpet? That is where the men pray. See this little dark area sectioned off here? This is for the women. Need proof? Here's the sign. Different culture.


Living in Europe for a few years gives you a new appreciation for football (soccer to us Americans). Europeans live, breath and kill for soccer here. It consumes them many months of the year. It is hard not getting caught up in it all. While we were traveling, the Euro Cup 2008 was ongoing. Chizz and Snake managed to keep up on how the teams were doing and all the scores. It involve some coordination that ran from choosing a lunch place that had a television or peeking into seedy bars that might be showing the games. So when Turkey managed to hang in there until we got there, we were excited to catch a game locally. We thought we would be able to find it playing in just about every bar or restaurant and it might be fun to watch it with some locals but we really had no idea how huge this was. Although the cab driver gave us some advice, "If Turkey loses, it will be no big deal. People will be disappointed but the crowds will behave themselves. If Turkey wins, RUN don't walk back to your hotel. It could be extremely dangerous". Wow!! As luck would have it one of the main streets in
Istanbul was right outside of our hotel. All of the stores and shops were flying Turkey colors and flags. The first order of business was to find Turkiye shirts for Chizz & Snake. Check. Done. Now, lets find a place to watch the game. There were lots of restaurants and bars to choose from. Every bar, restaurant and shop had at least one if not 2 or 3 big screen tvs with the game. Mostly outside. The trick was finding one with an open table an hour before the game. We finally did and I think watching this soccer match was one of the highlights. To say these fans are fervent is an understatement. There was constant singing and chanting. The whole street was crowded with people cheering on the team. When Turkey scored a goal, pandemonium broke out. Fireworks went off in the streets, people tossed bottle rockets from the roof garden bars and restaurants. For the rest of the night, the street was filled with a red smokey haze. It was an amazing experience to watch the games with the locals, you got caught up in the enthusiasm. Unfortunately Turkey lost, and true to the word of the cab driver, the crowd dispersed rather quietly and there was no negative uproar. Most of the fans we spoke with were pleased that Turkey had made it so far, considering quite a few of their best players were out with injury. The believe there is much hope for Turkey in future competitions. You got a real "wait till next time" feel.

We decided to take give our feet a little break one morning and take a cruise down
the Bosphorous River. Like Greece, you can pay a company to do a specific tour or you can ride one of the public ferries. We decided to ride the ferry and we had a great time. You
need to get there a little early in order to snag seat by the rail or by the window inside. We decided to ride outside and just enjoyed the views passing us by. It is a great way to seen the city from a different perspective. We stopped at a city along the way and had some lunch and fed the fish from our table. Unfortunately Snake got the one bad meal we had on our trip at this place, some shrimp that had obviously gone bad. We fed it to the fish. They didn't seem to mind.

We took a day trip to Ephesus from Istanbul which involved getting up at "much earlier than any teenager in his/her right mind wants to get up" a.m. to take a one hour flight. We had a private tour guide, which was very nice. It made it easier to concentrate on just what we wanted to see and kind of gloss over anything that we didn't want to focus on. Ephesus is a very important city both historically and religiously. They believe it was first founded in the 10th century BC -- so about 3000 years ago. It is actually a very good example of how all of the different invaders contributed to Turkey's history. Legend has it first founded by the Greeks, who built the great temple of Artemis nearby. The Temple is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (racking up two on the Whineberg tally). You always read that the pyramids at Giza are the only remaining ancient wonder. I guess 1 1/3 columns does not count as remaining. We had a visit to the ruins of the temple and it is easy to see how massive this temple must have been. There is a biblical story of how St. Paul (yes, THAT St. Paul) took the local merchants of Ephesus to task for selling statues of Artemis in the temple. Apparently he objected to the objectification and commerce being done on temple grounds. I wonder how he would feel about the picture I have taken here? Locals selling replicas of what the temple used to look like, little statues, t-shirts etc. right on top of old ruins, pieces of the columns that are lying about the grounds. Some things never change!!

We later walked through the ruins of the ancient city and it is a pretty amazing site. So far most of the ruins we have seen in various places (other than Pompeii) have been fairly small and you have to use your imagination quite a bit to visualize what it was like in its heyday. Although there are good portions missing, you can still get an idea of the sheer size of the city. Ephesus used to be a harbor city and you can see definitely tell where the water used to be by the vegetation left there. After the harbor disappeared, the town slowly died with most people moving on to bigger cities. There were so many buildings and artifacts to see that I took hundreds, yes, hundreds of photos. Each of which I will show you and comment on now. No, not really but I think it will be easier if I comment on each picture separately. Get a drink and relax, this may take awhile!





This is the Library of Celsus, built in approximately 135 AD. It is an impressive building, restored several times over the years. It is an example of Roman architecture of the time.





This local theatre could hold 25,000 spectators in its day. Originally it was used for plays and other performances but there is also evidence that it was used for gladiator battles in the most deadly way. They recently unearthed a gladiator burial ground nearby. Our tour guide told us that the theatre is still used in modern times and shared with us a story about going to a Sting concert there several years ago. I can only imagine how cool that was. If you look very, very, very, closely at some of the spectators in this shot you may recognize a few. Good Luck!!

There are some remnants of some of the modern amenities that the Romans brought with them. These are exactly what they look like, public restrooms. Most likely for men only and probably only high ranking men got the privilege of "using" these facilities with 20 or so of his closest friends. And before you die of curiosity, yes I got a picture of Snake and Chizz on the thrones and no, Kiki wouldn't do it!


This is the Temple of Hadrian. Emperor Hadrian visited Ephesus from Athens in 128 AD and this temple was erected in his honor in 138 AD. He is known as on of the "Five Good Emperors" although he reportedly cheated on his wife with both women and men, and tried to poison her at some point. I guess it all hinges on what your definition of "good" is.




The Agora or marketplace, very often the hub of the town. Trade was done here by the merchants or the important citizens (men) of the day might gather to hear important news from the rulers.



This is interesting. You ever wonder how they built all those columns? For the most part, the columns were not one piece of marble or stone, that would have been too heavy to move. So they built them in sections. Two pieces like this one would be place together. See those square holes in the middle? What is hard to see is a little trench kind of impression in the stones. The two stones would be placed together, lined up so that both pieces' square holes were aligned. Then they would take melted metal and pour it in through the trench. When the metal cooled it joined the two pieces of stone together. They would add additional sections as needed. Fascinating, huh?





On your way out of the ruin site, there are quite a few vendors selling tourist junk, scarves, statues, mementos. Hard to resist these watches right? C'mon they are genuine!!




After seeing the ancient city there were a couple of other sites we wanted to see.
First was the Basilica of St. John. St. John was one of the 12 apostles and was very tight with Jesus. He was often referred to as the "disciple Jesus loved" although it was John himself who said that in his gospels, so consider the source. While Jesus was dying on the cross, he saw his mother Mary and John and said to her basically "Woman, here is your son" and to John "Son, behold thy mother". This was Jesus' way of saying "Hey, take care of my mom". So John did. He kind of retired to Ephesus to write his gospels and allegedly took Mary with him. I say allegedly because there is certainly evidence to support John was there when he died but not really much of Mary, although there is a house there. So we wanted to see both places. The basilica was built in the 6th century AD over what is believed to be St. John's tomb by the emperor Justinian, apparently not one of the Five Good Emperors; he was just satisfactory. It was massive with 6 domed structures and if it were still standing today it would be the 7th largest cathedral in the world. Of course, over the years it has fallen victim to invading armies, misuse and decay. It was also used as a mosque in the 1300s. So after the basilica we head over to Mary's house. Now here is where I have a bit of a problem with Mary being in Ephesus. The road leading up to Mary's house is extremely mountainous. I tried to imagine her traveling here, in advanced years, after her son dies, after traipsing all over the place with John (because it is documented that John moved around quite a bit before settling in Ephesus) and making it up these mountains, either by foot or donkey as suggested by Snake. It was a difficult trip by car, I can't even begin to imagine how she did it with the method of transportation available in those days. We get up to the house and it looks fairly modern and we learn that it is. The structure that was originally on this spot dates back to the 6th century, several hundred years after Mary would have died. But the foundation apparently has been dated for the appropriate time. Other than the things I previously mentioned, there is another reason I am skeptical as to whether this is Mary's house or not. This wasn't found after years of studying transcripts or writings from the era or reading of the gospel and interpreting the various phrases. This house was found as the result of a dream. A nun in Germany in the 1800s was an invalid, confined to her bed and never traveled away from home. One day she wakes up with the stigmata (marks or sores on the body in the places where Jesus had crucifixion marks) and tells of some visions she has about Mary and St. John traveling together from Jerusalem to Ephesus together. She described a house, a bedroom and a curved or rounded wall and apparently a location where it would be found. Several years later, 2 priests decided to try and find the house described by the nun and apparently happened upon its ruins. Viola! I am just a bit skeptical of that whole story. The Catholic church takes no official position as to whether this is Mary's house, but they have declared it an appropriate pilgrimage spot. And, three popes have visited there and said Mass. You can walk through the house where there is a small alter and a few pictures. There are nuns hanging around, making sure you don't take pictures and treat the place appropriately. There is a natural spring there and supposedly there are miracles attributed to drinking the water. Christians and Muslims alike make pilgrimages here. Muslims revere Mary as the mother of Jesus, whom they consider the second greatest prophet. After drinking the spring water, you can make a request for some intercession or favor by Mary by putting it in writing and placing it in the wall. The kids and I both drank the water and made the request. Even though I am not sure whether this is Mary's house, it doesn't hurt to ask, huh?




As far as I was concerned a trip to Istanbul would not be complete without a trip to the Grand Bazaar probably because as far as I am concerned, a trip isn't complete without some shopping!! I am not so sure Chizz would agree. It is an experience for sure. It is one of the world's largest covered market place, with over 6000 shops. On average, the Bazaar can have over 250,000 to 400,000 visitors A DAY!!!! Yikes, that is one huge mall. As you are walking through the mall, people try to sell you stuff - pretty aggressively. Kiki & Snake were a little freaked out by the persistance of some of the sellers. We told them it was all a game, don't be upset or offended, these guys are just doing their job. Say no thank you and move on. It is hard when you are a teenager. We had some fun, bought a few items to bring home and enjoyed the atmosphere.


I apologize for the epic nature of this blog entry. There is so much I didn't even mention, our trip to the Spice Bazzar, the rug factory, Topkapi Palace (beautiful and the harem really, really interesting) Chizz and Snake trying their hand at making pottery. But I felt this blog would have to get a zip code of its own if I kept on going. This has to be the longest entry yet. I think it comes from blogging about a trip that was a while back now. I kind of relived it while I was writing it and it was like visiting Turkey again. I would go back again, and again. We only scratched the surface and there is so much more to see. Maybe one day. Now on to the next adventure. . . . . .