Last Days - Countdown - Day 1

This is it.. the last day. I guess we are ready to come home.. we've seen about everything there is to see... but I will miss this place. I will even miss the call to prayer 5 times a day. After a while you begin to anticipate it. There are two mosques right outside our window, and the two chanters take turns chanting... I'm sure they are singing together to each other and it's really quite moving.

Tonight we heard our last call to prayer, unfortunately our next call will be at 2:45 so we can catch the 3:20 a.m. shuttle to the airport for our 6:00 a.m flight to Amsterdam.

Armando's sciatica flared up yesterday afternoon so we didn't do much, he couldn't walk far and no pharmacies were open, but this morning he went to the pharmacy and showed them his pills and asked for a pain killer - I don't know what they gave him but he was suddenly pain free. Maybe we should have gone back and bought some more of that!

It was raining and lots colder today, another reason to head home, though they say  maybe snow tomorrow night in Memphis. We did some shopping today... first walked around in an area behind the Blue Mosque and took a picture of all the hotels.

Then we walked to the Grand Bazaar again, but it's more interesting to walk in the little streets and alleys that surround the bazaar. There was one street, for about two or three blocks, store after store after store filled with metal buttons, grommets, chains, belt buckles, purse handles, all sorts of supplies like that. Store after store after store!!

Tonight, our last supper, we went around the corner to the Altin Kupa restaurant recommended by my niece. Robin was in Egypt last year for a semester abroad, and while there she had an opportunity to travel to Turkey. She recommended this restaurant, and recommended we order the Testi Kabap, which is a stew cooked in a clay pot and the pot is broken open at your table. Quite the show. And also it was very good.

In Turkey there are many kinds of kabaps. You all know that sish kabap is meat on a skewer. But there are also doner kabaps (meat cooked on a rotating skewer and shaved off, put in a bread like pita similar to the Greek gyros), eskender kabaps (same meat shaved off and served on a plate with fries and veggies) and they have several other kinds of kabaps as well. We certainly have not gone hungry in this country!

Sadly we bid farewell to Turkey. If you are looking for a travel destination unlike any other, consider coming here!

The Crazy Travelers