9/28/07
Istanbul, Turkey
Today was Emmett's birthday, so we went to this island called Burgazadesi to have an adventure. After breakfast and presents, we embarked on our adventure on a boat trip through the Bosphorus sea. It was neat to see the city from the sea-- it gives you perspective on how huge Istanbul is. The main highlight of the boat trip was that we saw two dolphins, which were far away, but still really neat to see. We arrived in Burgazadesi and rented bikes to explore the island. It was a beautiful day and the town was really quite cute. There were no cars on the island, so people got around on horse drawn carriages and bikes onlz. We biked up a steep hill and saw an old Greek Orthodox monostary and cemetary, with old engravings and photographs behind glass of the deceased. After lunch at a seaside cafe, we walked to an old museum of the home of Turkish Author, Saik Faik. The home was built in the Ottoman fashion, and was filled with artifacts from the author's life. We wandered about town after the museum and came upon a complaining kittz in a tree, so Emmett, very bravely climbed up the tree and saved the cat! On the boat back to the city, we saw a gorgeous sunset on the boat and felt like we had a reallz wonderful day.

After meeting back up with Sinan, we walked to Isteklal Street to have a fancy Meze dinner (Meze is Turkish small plates). We sat in the 2nd floor of the restaurant and people watched over great food and conversation. We finished off dinner with birthday cake and Turkish coffee, and Sinan read my coffee grounds. He saw sails signifying travel, 2 birds flzing with a gift, and a lot of grounds left in the cup signifying a burden I'm carrying. All in all, it was an excellent day!