Istanbul is a city everyone seems to rave about. Even those who hated the tea, or the cats, or the heat, still love Istanbul.
It is is an ancient city, it's been the centre of empires and the point where the East meets the West. So there are plenty of great reasons to come to Istanbul and both Phil and I have had it on our must-see list for a while. But the main reason we are in Istanbul now is to meet up with my mum - Sonia - and celebrate her 70th birthday!!
If I'd known about the cats, it might have been reason enough for a visit. Look!!!
There is an empty lot in the next street from our apartment that has a litter of these insanely adorable kittens... I am visiting 2x daily!
I am straight up losing my mind from the cuteness of the kittens...I'm up to about 200 photos of cats in 3 days... I wonder when one can refer to this as a "pathology"?
I mean, give a girl a break...
Anyway, back to Sonia. She has just finished a tour of the Silk Road, taking her through China, and then a tour through some
off-the-track spots in Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. Her final stop was Istanbul, so we encouraged her to stay an extra week so we could meet her for her bday.
Sonia always has awesome travel stories. This trip she visited yurts, rode camels in the desert, saw camels in the snow(!?!?!) and managed to arrive in Georgia the day after all the animals escaped from the zoo. She said, "oh yes, the tigers were still running around and killing people the day we got there". OMG - only mum.
She also told us that their local guide in Turkey (who had all the $$$ for the whole tour group) disappeared with all the cash, leaving them to rock up to their hotels only to be told that the reservations have been cancelled because no one paid the hotel! It all worked out in the end...
The big b'day
So today was the big day and we were all excited to spend it together. There is something wonderful about celebrating a birthday while on holidays. But the drawback is it can be harder to arrange a whole day of awesomeness because you don't really know the place and you're taking a gamble on trying new places.
Let me end the suspense... the day could not have turned out better. It started with Sonia finding her diamond earring (a 60th bday present from Lex and I) on the bathroom floor, which she dropped on the floor yesterday and we couldn't find ANYWHERE despite a very thorough search. A good omen, perhaps?
We had seen a cute cafe/ gallery just around the corner from our rented apartment called Heirloom yesterday and decided to give it a go for b'day brunch. It looked great with a lovely courtyard:
The cafe was actually quite full when we arrived...
Our brunch was delicious and I whispered in the ear of the manager that it was Sonia's birthday and could he bring a little cake. This was the result:
The whole cafe sang happy birthday!!!
It turned out that Heirloom is not just a cafe but also a gorgeous guesthouse and the owner, Dilek, gave us a tour and filled us in on the history of the place.
I would definitely stay at Heirloom next time I visit Istanbul. Dilek was so generous and hospitable (refusing to charge for the birthday muffin and gifting a postcard that Sonia liked "for her birthday"). The guesthouse has been beautifully restored and looked so inviting, I could have moved in immediately.
That being said, our current airbnb apartment is great. The best feature is a wonderful balcony with views of the Galata:
Views from our balcony
Our neighbourhood - Cihangir - is filled with great cafes, antique shops, art galleries and ceramic studios. We are in (shopping) heaven here and made the most of it this afternoon with some bday purchases. And yesterday with some purchases and probably tomorrow with... well, you get it. I have been in a non-buying mode for quite a while now - and more so on this trip - so a few splurges at Sephora was an extra treat!!
This evening, we had dinner at a restaurant called Nicole that was conveniently located 5 mins walk away. The view was magnificent, and so was the whole evening:
Gawd, I love a sunset!!
View over the Bosphorus
There's some artichoke buried in there...
Perfect days are rare, even travelling days. But today was just perfect - and it's 12.02am so no jinxes!!
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