Day 18: Istanbul to Ankara
/We are tired. There is really no way around it. We are plopped on this brand new furniture in this really old, dirty, poorly stocked apartment way up on the 6th floor, listening to sirens and honks and ridiculously loud show off motor bike engines. Josh was just facetiming with his mom and she asked if we'd do it all again, and we said yes, but we are done. Tomorrow is the final drive. We are ready. We were just watching a video short that someone had posted on facebook about how to make hassle back potatoes and at the end Josh chuckled and said, "I wahnt that! I'm ready! I'm done!" We are both so done. SO blessed that we've had this opportunity. Seriously, a once in a lifetime (for reals, with kids this age one can only handle ONCE in a lifetime something like this - goodness!) The boys have been the hard part, really. Elijah at 8 years old is a little bit of a help, but only sort of. It's the driving in the cities, and finding parking and holding a million hands and dealing with fingers in mouths, and kids sitting down with their hands on the ground in foul places and near misses with traffic and my ridiculous fear of me, or them or anything for that matter falling from high places (like the 7th story apartment we are in tonight - with no screens, and no balconies - just low slung windows that open straight to certain death on the hard street below) It's all that, and the heat, and the finding food, and getting sleep. These aren't complaints, just reality. Beautiful reality, really - God has been so good to us and yes, we would go do it all again. A bit differently, but again for sure. But that's neither here nor there, because tomorrow.....we are done! SIGH.OF.RELIEF!
We've had to keep reminding ourselves that this is not a vacation. It would have been a kinda lousy vacation, no doubt about it. No, it's a move. And for a move from one continent to the next, it's.been.epic!
The morning started with another wake up, breakfast on and cleaned up, bags packed and load! Luke wanted to sit in the empty diaper box while the olders watched PBS, so we let him.
Big mistake.
He wasn't siting for a minute before he tipped himself forward and went face first into the tile. 1 bloody lip, 2 worried parents and three chipped teeth later, he was pretty miserable. Ibuprofen kicked in after 30 minutes or so. We'll put some pics up later.
Alright, we left Istanbul and drove drove drove. First we crossed the Bosphorus River into Asia- big bridge, big river, big traffic! There was an accident on the highway that put us in stop and go for 30 minutes, but then we were off! Turkey is beautiful! We drove through some evergreen forests, deep canyons and rolling farm hills.
We hit up Ikea in Ankara and bought nothing after walking like heat stroked zombies for a good hour. Luke pooped and smelled awful well before we made it to the strategically planted half way point of the cafeteria and we had failed to plan ahead and bring in a diaper. We made it through the whole store, got screeched at by the security gates at the checkouts when we tried to open them and leave - because again, we didn't buy anything (I was much too tired and hot to care that we were leaving empty handed - perhaps I'll regret that apathy tomorrow - or whenever we get into our house on base and I realize that that entry shoe storage dealy-bob WOULD have been perfect where I thought it should go!). We got out to the van and realized that Luke had kicked one of his shoes off. UH. Josh said I should run back in and check if it was in the first cart that we'd tried using that got confiscated by security because......who knows, but I realized on the way in, as I walked - not ran - that he had had it on when he was climbing all over my uncomfortable backed up guts when we were at the cafeteria and Josh was in the bathroom with 2 boys who all the sudden were dying of near bladder explosions. So it wasn't going to be in the cart. I retracked all our steps, and came back to the van dejected and shoe less. Luke has now successfully rendered himself shoeless. He likes to carry shoes around when they aren't on, and lost the mate to a pair of sandles that has been through all 4 boys. When we put shoes on him he likes to see if he can get them off. He did, and we are the goons that didn't realize it until too late. I guess we'll be hitting up the BX tomorrow for a pair of shoes for him to last until our shipment of house stuff arrives.
After IKEA we only had 20ish minutes to drive, according to "Bev" the gps who has awful and hilarious pronunciations of things. She, however, doesn't account for nut head drivers that honey badger their way through the city nor the seriously HUNDREDS of pedestrians who walk the streets as a free for alll. We arrived, honey badgered our own parking spot and waited for Josh to find our host for the key. He came back, we moved the van and parked illegally in a taxi cab spot and darted up to our 7th floor apartment, not the 1st floor one we'd reserved. Our host said he'd moved us because this apt is bigger, but it's really just.....ih. I think the rugs and couches are new, but it's almost like he's just kind of half way through getting it ready to list on Airbnb, because it's just not well stocked at all. It really just looks half done. Very strange. Anyway, Josh ran back down to move the van and bring some stuff up. I expected him to be gone about 10 minutes, not the 30+ that left me pacing the apartment, checking the peep hole in the door and wondering what on earth I should do with no internet, no phone to call him and no idea what had happened to him. I walked around to get the apartment ready and found windows open in every room. There are no balconies. There are no screens, no bars, no protection. These windows are about high thigh height on me, and there's convenient climbing stations for young, expecting children to venture onto beneath each window. I raced around shutting and securing all windows and while doing so heard Joel and Luke hollaring outside. I panicked, ran into the living room and found them out on the balcony - yes, it's harmless and fairly safe unless one gets adventurous and climbs - I let my fear get the better of me and yanked them both in by their arms, barely stepping onto the balcony myself. I have a very unreasonable fear of heights. I dream about falling. I hate high places. I hate looking at high places. I HATE my children being in high places. Luke was terrified of me for a good minute - I must have been a scary raging monster mom yanking him in by the arm like that. I shut the door and picked up to kiss on him and calm him down. I kept on eye on the time - or...didn't, because I didn't have a watch. But time was ticking and I still didn't know where Josh was. After waiting as long as I could I hauled all the boys out into the hall, let the apartment door lock behind us and tip toed through the left over trash sludge that someone had left on the landing infront of and in the elevator to go down and look for my long lost husband. We came out on the street and just kind of loitered. I'm not sure what I thought I was going to do, but for some reason when I was up in the apartment I thought being down on the street would be better. I regretted the decision, but it was too late as I didn't have the keys. The boys and I sat on the curb and prayed and I fought back the tears. Luke was griping and fighting to get down, but he didn't have shoes on so I wasn't about to let him down. We must have looked pitiful - the passerbys made that obvious. Josh eventually came around the corner and I let the tears flow as he explained that the closest parking garage we'd been told about was closed and he had to find one 5 minutes away. He was loaded down with luggage and we all smashed into the elevator to head back up to our apartment. We'd planned on making spaghetti from our food stores in the storage compartments in the van, but there are no cooking utensils here, so Josh and the three olders went out looking for food. I found some chicken I'd forgotten we had in the cooler and drenched it in grape jelly so I didn't have to battle Luke to eat it. He downed it happily, in his adorable little way, and I showered him and put him to bed. Josh and the boys came back with some delicious and strange looking Turkish food and we sat and ate at the tiny, high top table by the balcony door. The boys are in bed now, and I'm fading quickly. We don't plan on lingering tomorrow. We are very antsy to get out of here and get this job done.
Thank you all for reading with us and praying with us and being with us in heart. We'll update once we get to base tomorrow. What a grand adventure it has been!