The Turkey Excursion: Strider's Perspective

I sat down with the almost-12-year-old about to talk about his big trip.  Here is the interview....

Me:  Ok, let's talk Turkey.
Strider:  Ok.

Me:  First of all, explain this picture to me.  Is this literally a butt-head?

Strider:  Ha ha.  It's some statue of someone who must have been really important, because why else would they keep just his butt?

Me:  Tell me the 3 most interesting facts you've learned about Istanbul.
Strider:  1.  The history of religion switching back and forth through the empires is crazy.
2.  There are vendors who balance huge trays of food on their head.
3.  Five times a day you hear a big song over the loudspeakers all over the city, which is a call to prayer for the Muslims.

Me:  So, the fact that it's the only city that straddles two continents doesn't even make the list, huh?
Strider:  Well, that's interesting, too.  After a 20 minute boat ride, we were on two different continents.

The river that divides the city's Asian and European sections

Me:  What was the best thing you saw?
Strider:  In terms of sightseeing?
Me:  Yeah.
Strider:  The Hagia Sophia.

Me:  Tell me about that.
Strider:  Back in 537, Emperor Justinian in the Byzantine empire built it.  They filled it with all sorts of Christian mosaics, but when the Ottomans came around, they turned it into a Mosque, and they put in Muslim words or artwork.  It's very old and beautiful, and it kind of reminds me of the Library of Congress, except it has no elevators -- or stairs.  It just has old stone ramps that go up.

Me:  What else did you enjoy?
Strider:  The hotel was super-nice and huge.  It had a pool which was only like 200 yards from the sea.
Me:  Yeah, well thank Daddy's Marriott rewards program for that lovely room.  (I'm very jealous!)

View from hotel room

Me:  What did you think of the food?
Strider:  The food was really good.  On Saturday, while we were in Asia, we got traditional, authentic Turkish food.  It's kind of hard to describe... it has bread on the bottom and over it was this thin lamb meat (we think) and a lot of sauce and a ton of melted butter.  There were a bunch of street vendors and a lot of them have these bagel-type things, and they'll balance them on their head or carry them on a wooden stick.  They were very tasty.

Me: What's the deal with this broken pot?

Strider: When they brought us our lunch on Sunday, they cooked chicken and vegetables in a clay pot on the stove, then broke it in half and served it to us.

Me:  Who is this?

Strider:  Somebody famous from a long time ago.
Me:  You don't know who?
Strider:  Nah.

Me:  Tell me about this palace.

Strider:  It's from a king from long ago in the Ottoman Empire.  It was his house and it showed a lot of his stuff, like his throne and bed, and it had this really nice courtyard and could look out into the sea.

Me:  So, this trip was to celebrate you turning 12 this week.  Have you ever had a 12th birthday gift as nice as this?
Strider:  Well this is the only gift I've gotten for being 12!

Me: What should we tell your younger siblings when they turn 12 and don't get to go to Turkey?
Strider:  Maybe they can go somewhere else in North Carolina.  Or maybe go to Cook-Out or something.  I only got to go to Istanbul because we were only 500 miles (1 hour plane flight) away.

Me:  Is there anything that would have made this trip better?
Strider:  Maybe another night at the hotel because it was really nice.

Me:  The answer we were looking for here was "If my mom could have come, too."  Thanks for playing, though.
Strider:  Oh, my bad.  I do want to say THANK YOU to Dad for a great trip.

The great dad.  :)