Istanbul, Saturday December 25

So, I am STILL trying to catch up on some blogs from Istanbul. Let's see. Christmas.

Christmas morning we met in our room -- the biggest and best one we thought! We each brought some small gifts for the kiddos. Here they are starting to open their presents:


The Stebbins' family contributed some bubbles! Those were very popular:

We also had some fun with a puppet show that told the nativity story while Sarah read it from a book. The kids seemed to really enjoy this:

Our puppet masters, Dan and Angelica: (And here's a video of the puppet show if you are interested in overkill.)

After the Christmas morning festivities, we took a cab to Taksim Square where we had the pleasure of attending a very large Catholic Church. Very few people were Turkish. It was mostly tourists and non-Turkish residents of the country. But it was still wonderful, despite none of the kids making it all the way through service, to worship with fellow Christians on a day of Christ's birth in a country that, as a whole, sees December 25 as just any other day.

After church, as we were heading back down the square, we heard music. We found the source. It was a Christian group of students playing music! Music we knew! Christian carols. And a man was passing out a copy of the book of John written in Turkish. How exciting. Click here to here a quick sampling of the music. It was so beautiful!

After church, we all walked together for awhile and then parted ways. We HAD to get Elijah back for a nap. And William was whipped too. So while we hit a KFC (yum!), the Yerringtons hung out some more at the Square before making their way home. Here is a pic we got near the church of our whole group:

On our way back from the square, we were hit by a taxi-driver who pulled a major con on Ryan. Ryan handed him a 100-dollar bill. However, while Ryan waited for change, the cab driver, switched the bill with a 20-dollar bill and then told Ryan he needed more money. (Our total was 35 lira.) Ryan immediately questioned the cab driver by saying, "I thought I gave you a 100." But the driver insisted it was only a 20. So Ryan added 10 more and while looking for 5, the driver said that 30 was adequate. (Our first sign that something was wrong.)

We only realized later, after Ryan and Sarah scoured their belongings for the missing 100, what happened. I had heard about this happening to another friend. We were reminded that we will be taken advantage of as foreigners and need to be on our guard. None of us will let this happen again. We have learned that ... when you give a bill, locals, if it is a large bill (which should try to avoid), say, "Bozuk var mi?" (Do you have change?) Then SAY what bill you are handing them. A lesson WE ALL learned, but Ryan and Sarah ... the hard way. I felt so badly for them! That just stinks!

After naps, we decided to lay low that evening. We found a beautiful park and let the kiddos play befoer hitting a British pub for dinner. At the pub, the waiter spoke very good English. I asked him if there were ever any Turks that frequented the restaurant. "Not many," he said. "And do we want them? No we do not." He was implying that the restaurant succeeds on foreigners, and that is what they strive for.

Anyways, pictures of our time at the park:

A totally different Christmas then I am used to. But one I will always remember!