crazy Istanbul story

We have a lots of crazy adventures on our trips and if I was to blog about all of them no one would read it, but here is one thing that happened on our most recent trip.

We had pretty much done everything we wanted in Istanbul and had a few hours to kill before our flight, so we decided to head to Ataturk Olympic Stadium. It was freezing outside and we also thought a nice warm bus ride wasn't a bad way to see the non-touristy side of the city. Ataturk is about 3o minutes by bus from where we were staying.

The bus literally dropped us off on the side of the highway. The people on the bus seemed upset that they were leaving us there, but we asked the driver to show us where the stadium was. You couldn't see the stadium from the road. You had to walk up a huge hill (luckily Simon was pushing the double stroller) and the stadium is kind of nestled a little valley. We had some dogs barking at us, I guess they are protecting the stadium. At first I was a little frightened, but they were just curious and accompanied us the rest of the way. It was really quite a sight, Simon, me and the kids in the stroller with wind, snow and a big old dog following us. There wasn't really anyone around except for a few security guys. This place is really in the middle of nowhere.

We couldn't get very close, because there was a powerline down, that was kind of a bummer. We did get to take a couple of pictures. We didn't spend much time because we wanted to head back and make sure we caught the bus. We were a little concerned about catching it. We saw the bus come and Simon ran after it, but they didn't see him. As he was running a group of men, who we assume to be maintance guys?, in a van asked us in very broken English where we were going. We somehow communicated and they offered us a ride to the other side of the freeway where the bus stop was. At first I was hesitant, but they were just trying to help us. They loved our kids and showed us pictures of their kids with their phones. They even waited at the stop until the bus came so that we could stay in the warm van. When the bus finally arrived they stopped it and made sure that we were on okay. The people on the bus were incredibly nice to us as well, making sure that we had seats.

It was a little bit of a crazy morning before our flight, but definatly a memorable one.

Conley hanging out with the guys in the van. He looks upset, but he just wanted me to hold him and not take a picture of him.