Istanbul/Mongolia Trip - Monday, March 11th, 2024 - Last Day in Istanbul

I was a nervous wreck about the possibility of NOT having a flight to Mongolia the next morning so I got up at 3 worrying. (I’m such a worry wart). The prayers woke Trek up at 5:50 & it was the first day of Ramadan so the whole city of Istanbul was hustling & bustling from the break of dawn. Trek got up & ran 6 miles while I got ready, & then we both sat down together & started making more phone calls to try to figure out our flight situation. Luckily, we did get ahold of Mongolian Airlines & they did indeed see our reservation, but let us know that we needed to check in at the Turkish Airlines desk because it was a Turkish Airlines flight. We were still nervous because we had talked to Turkish Airlines the night before & they didn’t see us on any reservations. We decided to try to not think about it & enjoy our last few hours in Instanbul before heading to the airport.

We decided to have breakfast at the same place we ate the day before because it was SO delicious & one of the least expensive places in the city. We loved the father & son running it & we ate like kings once again. It was SO good.

After that, we walked about 1.5 miles to the Spice Bazaar & wandered for an hour looking at all the fun things they sold at the bazaar. (I love open air marketplaces. You get to experience so much culture, meet people, & just have fun. After the bazaar, we took a walk across the Galata Bridge, enjoyed the waterfront, & went back across the other bridge there. It was a 5 mile walk, but it was beautiful. On our way back to the hotel, we grabbed some Sahlep (one of my favorite Turkish hot drinks. . . similar to hot Horchata). Then we picked up our bags & looked for a taxi to take us to the airport.

We found a taxi driver that only took credit cards (that should have been the first red flag for our next “adventure”). We asked how much it would be & he told us it would be 900 Turkish Lyra (about $25). He put us in his cab & immediately started smoking while we were in the car. It was AWFUL. We asked him to at least open the window. We could tell he was annoyed at us for asking, then he used the remainder of the hour in the taxi cab to call various friends on his phone (while driving) & laughed, talked, & just flat out didn’t pay attention to his driving at all. Trek & I were SO SCARED we were going to get in a wreck before the day was done. When we finally arrived at the airport, he demanded we pay 1400 Lyra which was 500 more than we agreed upon when we got in the cab. We argued about the price & insisted on paying what we originally agreed upon & he agreed to the 900. As he charged our card on his credit card machine, he very suddenly added several zeros & clicked the button before we could stop him. He started driving off & threw our credit card out the window at us. The charge ended up being $312.00. I just cried. I was SO upset. I know there are worse things in the world, & I was SO grateful we had arrived safe & sound. Things could have been much much worse, but a part of me was still upset. We could have used that $312 for our entire stay in Mongolia. It was heart wrenching knowing it was just gone.

We checked into Turkish Airlines & much to our relief (especially after the mess with the Taxi driver), we got our boarding passes to Mongolia. We checked our bags, & hung out at the airport until it was time to fly out. We had dinner at Popeyes (why on earth was there a Popeyes Chicken in Turkey? So crazy. It was horrendously overpriced & it was AWFUL. Barely any food & it tasted terrible. That last day in Turkey really was something. We arrived at our gate 1.5 hours before we were supposed to leave & as we arrived, the Turkish Airlines staff were yelling at all the passengers to get on the bus NOW. It was so bizarre. It was 1.5 hours before boarding time, yet they were herding us like cattle as fast as they could. We got on the bus & drove out to the plane & they had us board 1.5 hours early. It was crazy. We just sat there for what felt like forever waiting to take off. The flight attendants on that flight were all mad at each other for some reason. They were yelling at each other, arguing both in the back of the plane & in front of all the passengers. They were throwing things at each other & then just being outright rude to everyone including the passengers. It really was the most bizarre thing I’d ever seen on a flight. The food on the flight was great though. They fed us both dinner & breakfast & both were absolutely amazing for airplane food. Trek & I both slept about 3 hours which was pretty good because we had a VERY LONG day ahead of us. But . . . . I was going to see my baby girl!!!! The excitement was real.

 

Istanbul/Mongolia Trip - Sunday, March 10th, 2024 - Dinner & Blue Mosque at Night

After visiting the cistern, the jet lag started to catch up to us. We walked back to our apartment & took a 30 minute nap, then we watched church over zoom so we could still feel like part of our own congregation even though we were halfway across the world. Then we ventured out for dinner. We stopped at a restaurant that had a balcony overlooking both the Hagia Sophia & the Blue Mosque & took some pictures, but they were pretty busy & expensive so we decided to keep looking for another restaurant. We found a cute little Turkish café along the street near our apartment & decided to have an authentic Turkish dinner there. We got some delicious garlic mushrooms with melted cheese & naan with yogurt/mint dip for appetizers, then got the clay pot dinner for 2. (The clay pot dinners originate in Cappadocia, Turkey which was one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited. Trek didn’t go to Cappadocia so I wanted him to experience a clay pot dinner). Basically, they fill a clay pot with a chicken stew with chicken, seasonings, & vegetables, then cook it for a long period of time buried in the ground in this clay pot. They set the whole thing on fire, then tap the pot until the lid flies off, & then pour it out in a giant bowl on your table. You serve the stew over rice & mashed potatoes. It was delicious.

After dinner, we walked back to the blue mosque for some night pictures. We sat on the steps & listened to the night prayer, then went back to our apartment to check in for our flight to Mongolia the next day.

Only then did we start to realize that our tickets to Mongolia didn’t look right. The confirmation email we received had all the info on it, but when we logged into the Mongolian Airlines website, it said that our reservation didn’t exist. We tried calling the phone number for Mongolia Airlines & every time we called we’d receive a message saying “all operators are busy, please call back later.” Then it would hang up on us. After trying to call 10+ times, we started to panic. We looked up the flight & there was NO FLIGHTS to Mongolia on Mongolian Airlines for Monday, March 11th. At this point it was 10:30 at night & we were scared out of our minds that we were stuck in Turkey & wouldn’t be able to fly into Mongolia to pick up Cadence. It was an awful feeling. We did some research & saw that Turkish Airlines had a flight to Mongolia at the same time our Mongolian Airlines flight was so we got hopeful that maybe it was a Turkish Airlines flight that we purchased through Mongolian Airlines. We called Turkish airlines & they couldn’t see us on the flight, so we panicked even more. At midnight we decided that the best thing to do was go to the airport & talk to Mongolian Airlines or Turkish Airlines & figure out what was going on. Let’s just say it was a VERY sleepless night.

 

Istanbul/Mongolia Trip - Sunday, March 10th, 2024 - Basilica Cisterns

After exploring the historical things of the city, we decided to shop a little bit before our tour of the city underground cisterns. We found a cute little shop & got drawn in by the brothers who run the shop. They let us taste all their different Turkish delight samples, some saffron, perfumes, & fruit teas. I know they were just trying to sell us things, but we really enjoyed the time we spent there getting to know them & learning about their culture. We bought a huge box of Turkish delight to share at Cadence’s open house the following week. After shopping, one of the brothers took us to the roof of their rug shop to show us his view of the blue mosque which was spectacular. He asked us a lot of questions about our religion & told us he had been reading & studying the Book of Mormon which was really fascinating since we do not have missionaries in Turkey at this time. We spent quite a bit of time with him talking about religion, & then we had to find our way to the Basilica Cistern.

We had a guide for the cisterns, so he took us down with him (skip the line) & he spoke to us for about 30 minutes about the history of the cistern, then let us roam for as long as we liked. The Basilica Cistern is the largest of several hundred cisterns underneath Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century by Justinain I. The cistern provided a water filtration system for the palaces & important sections of the city. It has been providing water from the 6th century into modern times. This cistern is huge. It’s about 105,000 square feet in area. It holds 80,000 cubic meters of water. The ceiling is supported by 336 marble columns each 30 feet tall, arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns each spaced 16 feet apart. All the columns used in the cistern were “recycled” columns from other ancient Roman buildings. They were beautiful to walk through. Each column is different & unique & it made it even more interesting to stop & admire each one. In the northwest corner of the cistern sits 2 medusa head blocks. Neither is standing upright (due to superstition): one is upside down, & the other is on it’s side . . . they believe it would stop the power of Medusa’s gaze if it wasn’t upright. We spent a good hour wandering the columns & just enjoying the majesty & beauty of it all.