Noel'iniz kutlu olsun!

Merry Christmas everyone!
We woke up today and had breakfast while looking out over the water.  Afterwards we opened presents from the lovely Raiser family.  (Everyone sends their thanks for the great gifts!)

From there we went out to the harbor and took a trip by boat to Anatolian Turkey, which is in Asia!  (My fourth continent!)  

leaving Istanbul behind

The town we spent the day in is called Anadolu Kavağı (Anatolian Poplar).  We had a tasty lunch:  I had salad, meatballs, rice and "cips" (French fries), and an interesting Turkish drink called sahlep.  For dessert I had (can you guess?) rice pudding.  Yum!

The rest of our time in Asia (!!), we wandered the town.  Anna and Dad bought scarves (Dad's was a Christmas present for Mom), and we heard the muezzin's call to prayer (for the fourth time today).  The bulk of the time, however, was dedicated to climbing a mountain to get a view of the Bosphorus and the sea from an ancient castle.

hipstery shot of the hike up

Dad and Mom on the way up.

Here's the view from the castle.  Mom and Anna stopped short, because it was STEEP and a long way up, plus Rick Steves says that the castle itself isn't worth the hike.  He's right, as always.  Which reminds me, if anyone knows how one gets a job like his, please let me know.

Dad and Anna on the way back - it was gorgeous out today!  60+ degrees… on Christmas!  The way back was a bit cooler, but not much.  The wind felt great, as did the spray from the water.  We spent most of the trip listening to stories from Mom and Dad about their deviant youths.  One of my favorite parts was their romantic first meeting story:  Dad was living in a trailer with one of his friends, working on his fifth year of undergrad (just the beginning) and dating "some girl with long hair".  Yes, I too hope someday to be remembered to a current loved one as nothing more than a unique physical characteristic.

evening over Istanbul

After arriving back "home", we did a bit of shopping:  Annaliese bought a really pretty bed cover and did a more than decent job haggling down the price and getting two really pretty pillows thrown in free.  Mom, however, was not of especial help:  "Do you bargain here?  We don't know how to bargain in Minnesota.  What price will you go down to?"  One time, while trying to sell an old oven, she prefixed her pitch with "It doesn't really work".  (I love you, Mom!)  After that, we had a delicious dinner at Turquoise again.  I got mantı, which is like Turkish ravioli filled with lamb.  It was really good.  And we all (except Dad) had hot chocolates.