Wow, what experiences we've had!
It rained Wednesday and we tried to see as many sights close to the hostel as possible. When we were entering the Blue Mosque a man struck up a conversation with Celina. He had an umbrella and walked us to the tourist entrance of the mosque. Before we reached the entrance the man mentioned that his family owned a small shop that he would appreciate if we would visit once we had looked around the Mosque. Celina agreed to visit the shop, to Gavin's dismay. True to his word, the man was waiting at the exit of the Mosque. We walked to the man's shop (which turned out to be a carpet shop) and after stern refusal, Celina convinced the men that we would not be needing a carpet.
Finally we had lost our motivation after being thoroughly soaked. Art came to the hostel that evening to find us napping and we all went to find dinner.
Thursday was our birding day. We had a wonderful local guide, Murat Bozdogan, who spoke splendid English and knew where to find many of the birds Gavin wanted to see. Fortunately it didn't rain at all on Thursday. Murat took us to an authentic, inexpensive Turkish lunch and chatted to us about local customs and life in Turkey.
It is a challenge to navigate the streets of Turkey in a car (you have to be very aggressive) but Murat did a great job. When our day had just begun, we were driving on a raised road out in the wilderness and came to a large mound of dirt in the middle of the road. No sooner did Art say 'I guess they don't want us to go this way, huh?' Murat was driving around the dirt mound. The ground was still slick from the rain the day before and the 4 wheel drive SUV began sliding down the side of the road. We all got out expecting the car to roll at any minute, but Murat saved it and returned to the main road on all 4 tires. Phew! A near early end to a day of birding. We were thrilled at all of the 74 different species birds, including woodpeckers (Syrian, Middle, Lesser and Great Spotted), backyard birds (Eurasian Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Common Kingfisher) and other European birds (Hen Harrier, White Wagtail, Black Redstart and Short Toed Treecreeper), many of which were more colorful than the birds we have at home.
This morning we went to show Art the city and we visited the world renowned Grand Bazaar. Amid repeated calls of "Sir, come look at my carpet" and "I have the most beautiful carpets in here, Sir, perfect for your home!" we did our shopping and haggling, coming away, still carpet-less.
Off to Africa! Love you guys!
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