Neile's Turkish Holiday

July 13

By the time we got to the area where the museums are, we discovered that unfortunately, the museum we mostly wanted to see--that holds most of the Hittite things--was closed for renovations.

The Museum of Antiquities was open, though, several halls full of Greek and Roman sculpture. We spent quite a while wandering through that. Saw all kinds of things, including wonderful bust of Sappho, and some wonderful carved animals.

Sappho.

 

Afterwards we had tea on a outdoor sculpture garden--pieces of excess Greek and Roman sculpture lying around pretty much haphazardly. The table was set on a broken column. Amazing that they have such riches of sculpture that they leave it out in the open air, exposed to the elements and urban pollution. It was fun to have tea in the midst of it, though.

Christina and Matt and a bit of Hittite sculpture outside the closed museum.

 

We had lunch at the same restaurant we'd gone to in our early days in Istanbul, the Vitamin Restaurant. It was nice for Christina to have a variety of vegetarian options to try, as several times in the trip it was difficult to get something decent for her to eat, and a couple of times she'd been told there wasn't meat in something when there was. For most vegetarians this would be an annoyance and not a problem, but Christina is actually allergic to meat and even in small amounts it affects her.

After lunch we tried to go to the big Palace, but it was closed for the day.

Went back to Marsha's, collected her, then went off to visit her favourite craft shop, Deli Kizin Yeri ("The Crazy Lady's") to do some final gift shopping.

Then tried to have dinner at a local restaurant with a view of the Bosphorus but it had no vegetarian food, and so we went back to our local tried and true restaurant. Had a lovely dinner there. Jim and I confused the waitress by wanting both orange fanta and sour cherry juice and mixing them (a wonderful combination we discovered toward the end of our trip).

Back at Marsha's, we packed up, but first we had to show up our carpets and all.

Mollie Minouche, the pretty kitty I went all the way to Istanbul to meet, posed on the carpet that now lies under our dining room table.

 

Once we were all packed up, Marsha volunteered to give us all a tarot reading. Mine said, basically, that it was time for me to just get down to work and finish something. Ahem.

	Marsha and her tarot cards.
	Christina choosing cards.