Rub a Dub Dub in a Turkish Ice Tub!

So I’m the kind of person that when someone brings up an idea or invites me to go on a trip or to do something I have to reply with “Are you sure? because I WILL take you up on that” and about 95% of the time I actually do…. I invite some people to do things with me or invite them to come visit knowing very well 95% of the time they never will…. Phase 1 of this particular adventure starts with my friend Renee saying “We should go on a girl trip to Istanbul next year” as described above my response was “Are you sure you want to invite me because I will go….” Phase 2 of this adventure begins with me telling my friend Ellen I was going to Istanbul….. followed by “You’re more than welcome to join if you want” followed by “Let me ask my husband” then ending with an email that said “He said yes!” And so it begins…. The story of my trip to Turkey and almost not Greece!

The characters in this story are a wonderfully diverse and awesome group of women, Renee, Ananya, Kasia, Ellen and of course… This crazy girl! The original plan was to stay in Istanbul 4 nights, Renee, Ananya and Kasia were to head back to Kampala while Ellen and I stayed 3 nights in Athens, Greece. When we first checked the weather it seemed it was going to be partly cloudy and a little brisk….

Ellen came in on a later flight from Texas so the ladies spent the day doing a little exploring and trying out some local street food!

Our second day was spent on an Istanbul city tour, Including the Sultan Ahmed Aka the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace. The weather was indeed a bit brisk but nothing we couldn’t handle!

Our second full day consisted of a trip to Prince’s Island… in my honest opinion I would not suggest this trip, the idea of a horse drawn carriage sounds so majestic…. until you see the horses… If we hadn’t already paid for it I honestly wouldn’t have even gotten in 😦 But was still a nice boat ride and quality time with the girls!

Now you must be wondering why I chose this particular title for my blog… One of the things that is very famous in Turkey is a traditional Turkish Bath or also known as a Hammam. Being the adventurous young women that we are we figured “When in Rome….” I had no idea what to expect, so imagine my surprise when Ellen went first and I got a phone call to the room 30 minutes earlier than expected telling me it was my turn!

How I was expecting my Turkish bath and massage experience to be……

What I showed up to…..

At first I thought…. maybe this short little hairy Turkish man is just showing me where to go…. but then he started pouring water over my head….. and then had me lay down and scrubbed me…. It didn’t get really awkward until his hairy belly started hitting me in the head… I couldn’t possibly fathom why Ellen would have given up the chance at such a magical opportunity!

All was going well, we only had one day left in Istanbul before we were meant to head into Greece…We decided to go on a tour of the Asian side of Istanbul! Apparently in my husband’s eyes this does not count as going to Asia… but i was there! We stopped to see the beautiful view….

And then within minutes our beautiful day turned into this…..

Hence the Ice Tub reference…. ha, I’m too witty for my own good sometimes! The snow was really pretty and fun until we got stuck on our bus going down a hill…. but then the real disaster hit…. the snow kept coming, and coming, and coming….. we were still hopeful that our flight would leave the next day but sure enough…. we showed up for a 12:30PM flight only to find out after hours of waiting that it was cancelled…. indefinitely…. so we swallowed our sorrows and booked an airport hotel while trying to keep up our spirits… which was really hard to do considering our flight the next morning got cancelled as well…. in the meantime… we made some new friends and had a snowball fight and made snow angels….

Eventually, our flight finally left the next night at nearly midnight, meaning we lost almost 2 full days in Greece, we were beyond bummed but we pulled it together and managed to fit Athens into a single day which ironically ended up being a beautiful day! 14 miles of walking later, Our feet were about to fall off but we were in love with Greece!

Sadly the next day we had to return back to our homes. In more exciting news…. Patrick, me, Ellen and her husband Isaac are going to Italy in May, however Ellen told me if we got another snow storm she would never travel with me again…. so here’s hoping!!!