{"id":1109,"date":"2010-08-20T15:58:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T20:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1109"},"modified":"2015-02-14T13:49:22","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T18:49:22","slug":"last-morning-in-anatolia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1109","title":{"rendered":"Last Morning in Anatolia"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 20th – Friday<\/span><\/p>\n

This is our last morning in Anatolia. \u00a0Our time in Eastern Turkey has passed quickly and we were all full of happy and emotional memories. Chris and Francoise got up early and went swimming in the pool. \u00a0Roseanne actually went for a swim in Lake Van. \u00a0 She said that the water was warm and felt slippery. \u00a0Later, Chris took a photo of a water snake with a fish in its mouth in the lake just off the dock. Of course, the photo was the hit of the morning. \u00a0Jamal called the manager of the hotel to see the photo. \u00a0Everyone had said there no snakes in Lake Van.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We all had a good farewell breakfast by the pool. \u00a0The sun was shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky, and the day was warming up. \u00a0We were all packed up and ready to go to catch our 10 AM flight back to Istanbul. We said our goodbyes to the Zeronians, and Jamal, and Setanik. Selcuk drove us to the airport and Armen accompanied us. We said our final farewells and took the Turkish Air flight back to Ataturk Airport in Istanbul.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was a quick three hour flight back to Istanbul and the White House Hotel car was waiting for us to whisk us back to our lovely home away from home. What a trip!!! \u00a0It had been an unforgettable journey that all of us will remember for the rest of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Our friends at the White House greeted us like family members home from a vacation. We checked into our rooms, freshened up and went out for last minute sight-seeing in Istanbul. Chris went to explore a section of Istanbul that he did not see before and the Dolmabahce Palace.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The rest of us took the tram and the funicular up to Taxim Square. \u00a0Claudine and Astrig wanted to get some Turkish Delights for their friends. Nicole, Francoise, and Roseanne wanted to return to the pedestrian street, Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Street) to purchase some last minute gifts to take home. \u00a0In the evening, Chris caught up with us and we had a last Turkish dinner together near the White House Hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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August 21 Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n

In the morning Chris, Claudine, and Astrig left at 9 o’clock to catch their planes home. We had a nice breakfast with them before the car picked them up for the ride to Ataturk Airport. \u00a0 A little later, Francoise and Nicole came down for breakfast and then we all walked to Topkapi Palace for a quick last few minutes of sight seeing. \u00a0Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and said our good-byes to Nicole and Francoise and they left for their flights back to France.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was still early in the afternoon so Roseanne and I decided to go the Spice Bazaar to look around and do some shopping. We walked through the fascinating little streets and alleyways of Istanbul. \u00a0Unfortunately, I started to feel sick and I thought I had the Sultan’s Revenge, so we had to take it easy and we took the tram back to the hotel. \u00a0 I rested for a couple of hours and felt better later. \u00a0Later in the evening, Roseanne and I walked to the main street to pick up a small snack. \u00a0I was feeling well enough to walk around but still couldn’t eat. \u00a0We returned to the White House Hotel and sat for a while \u00a0in the lobby and talked to Cefir. \u00a0It was a quiet, relaxing end to a very busy day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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August 20th – Friday This is our last morning in Anatolia. \u00a0Our time in Eastern Turkey has passed quickly and we were all full of happy and emotional memories. Chris and Francoise got up early and went swimming in the pool. \u00a0Roseanne actually went for a swim in Lake Van. \u00a0 She said that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,5,3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anatolia","category-armenian","category-family","category-travel","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}