Back and forth

Before we left for dinner last night we opened the window in our cave because the floor heating had made the room so steamy hot.
Dinner was in flaming pots and was delicious! It was at this point we heard about the terrorist attack in Ankara. So sad that this happens and hopefully it doesn’t impact our flight home tomorrow.
Anyhow, when we returned to our room it was filled with smoke and smelled acrid. There was a guy there who explained that the hotel combustion heater, which was in a room next to ours, was burning something that created the smoke.
We couldn’t get rid of the smoke no matter what we did because the rooms didn’t really have ventilation.
Anyhow, within 10 minutes the hotel had arranged a car to pick us up and take us to another hotel down the road because ours was fully booked.
We were very impressed by both the new room and the speed with which our dilemma was handled - another adventure!!
In the morning we learned that Türkiye had retaliated by bombing Northern Syria and Iraq!! It’s probably best that we are headed home tomorrow.
Off to the airport for our flight to Istanbul. I am extremely impressed with us; we have both managed to keep our luggage under 15kg!!
This means we can buy 16kg worth of stuff in Istanbul tonight 😂☺️😂☺️

Easy flight followed by bus trip into Istanbul for a spontaneous ½ day tour that we “designed” as a group.
We had our own boat for a Bosphorus Cruise which was just awesome; complete with wine and music and dancing and commentary. Absolutely awesome. Just us and our guide Ozgür.
He then took us to this crazy good, crazy cheap local restaurant where we had unlimited dips and salads with bread followed by a mixture of delicious mixed meats - all flavoured differently - chicken, lamb, beef 😋😋
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we scored so well having a guide who also runs gourmet food tours all over the country.

In order to get all of our last minute shopping treats, we were returned to the gorgeously chaotic Istiklal Street. I think most people found everything they were looking for 😊
Our last full day here in Türkiye has been delightful and once again we were blessed with an amazing group and guide.
Tomorrow we are homeward bound.Read more