Needopedia

How to make the most of the last day of The Big Trip?

Mama-style: Get us on a tour boat on the Bosphorus for relaxation, warbled historical lecture occasionally in English), and views of the palaces built by sultans when they got tired of the Topkapi Palace.

Younger’s style: hang out below deck of tour boat but refuse to look out the window. Their loss.

We started the day by walking the scenic way to the Covid clinic, as we were flying home on the second-to-last day of needing proof of negative tests to enter the US. We checked out the local coffee franchise for strength to continue our walk down to the wharf. It should be noted that after 8 days in Egypt drinking (or gnawing on) Turkish coffee with Mohammad, Dwayne really couldn’t stomach more than one cup of the authentic slop in Istanbul. Wes, our other household coffee drinker, who had gone from “sipsies” before the trip to ordering full-size afternoon cappuccinos for himself by the time we hit Italy, was also unable to stomach the Turkish version. I cried uncle right away and just went for the beer. 😉

Kyla, Dwayne, and I had one more item on our Istanbul Bucket List–a Turkish bath. I went in not completely sure what I was getting into but knowing I was going to enjoy it. The tension arose from, when being in a country where Kyla and I had to wear a headscarf in addition to modest clothing the day before, to how naked to get for a public bath. Let’s just say I had to go commando on the walk back to our apartment because I guessed wrong.

The entire experience was a lovely dream. It began with a mud mask and steam room before a full body scrub and deep massage, and finished with a cool water swim. It was heavenly and I must do it again.

For dinner, I wanted to do small dishes anywhere that sounded good as we explored the shopping promenade rumored to be in the direction Dwayne and I hadn’t yet explored. Wes and Piper went back after our first round of tapas, leaving the adventurous ones to explore the Thursday evening nightlife in the area–and it was fabulous!

We found our promenade right away and it began with a concert on a tram. The star played for a few minutes before waving goodbye as the tram took her further down to the next wave of fans. Decorative lights, exuberant crowds and new sights and smells made for a very festive atmosphere and Kyla barely got lost each time she stopped to dance to the music or give coins to a busker. I did the “ice cream trick” thing for the experience though the product itself was possibly the worst ice cream I’ve ever tasted. We had to cut our evening short when the youngers couldn’t turn the key hard enough to get into the apartment. Sigh.

We had a few hours the next morning before the van was supposed to pick us up, so Dwayne accompanied me on one last excursion–climbing the Galata Tower, which not only had great views, but also a museum of historical Istanbul. One of ah ha’s for me was this remnant of the Golden Horn chain:

The Golden Horn is the waterway that was the strength and weakness of mighty Constantinople. Strong, because it made the city a perfect location for trade. Weak, because where trading ships can enter, so can enemies. An enormous chain was forged, stretching from tower to tower across the water, in the 9th century. Eventually, complicated pulleys and magic allowed it to be raised and lowered, a bit like a drawbridge. It worked well to keep enemy ships out. It even worked well when enemy ships “pottaged” — landed, rolled foot by food over logs around the chain and then set back in the water. The Byzantines just set some of their old ships on fire and sent them out to engulf the invaders, who couldn’t escape because the damn chain was in their way. But the Ottomans, in 1453, somehow pottaged successfully and used gun power to get through the previously impregnable land walls. That last breech is considered the dying breath of the Middle Ages–and the end of the Roman Empire.

And thus ends my final history lesson before leaving for the airport. See you soon, Mom & Dad!