our trip to turkey

We were in Turkey from Sept 6th - Sept 21. Here is a quick summary and some highlights:

Arriving -

Batu had a 102 degree fever the day we left for Turkey. We loaded him up with Tylenol and he managed to sleep on and off during the first leg to Frankfurt with periods of screaming in between. Luckily we had the entire middle row of four seats to ourselves on the first leg. Ozan insisted that Batu could drink warm milk which had been sitting in my backpack for over eight hours. Batu drank it, then proceeded to vomit at the Frankfurt airport. Batu slept the entire flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul, and again from Istanbul to Izmir. All of our luggage arrived in Izmir. Happy day for us! And I didn't need to use Benadryl.

Staying -

The first week in Cesme was hectic, to say the least. Batu was miserable the first night and screamed all night long, mostly due to his nasal congestion. Relatives came in and out all day and night, and Ozan's mom served endless rounds of Turkish coffee and treats. Once the onslaught of relatives slowly dissipated, we got into a little routine which went like this: eat breakfast, play with Batu and Sarp, Batu naps, Erin and Ozan walk around Cesme or stroll to Migros (the supermarket, which has AC), eat lunch, go to the sea, eat dinner, put Batu to bed, go out for a walk in Cesme. It was so nice to go out at night for a beer, sans child.

Departing -

The trek back to Boston was not bad. Batu had recovered from his cold and was pretty perky on most of the flights. On the final leg from Frankfurt to Boston, the friendly Lufthansa attendant sat us in the bulkhead and hooked up the bassinet. Batu entertained himself in it for a few hours then slept for the remaining four hours. We got home around 9pm then decided to take a drive to get milk. Try finding an open store in Newton, MA after 9pm on a Sunday. We finally found a Walgreens in Newton Center. Batu slept from 11pm - 1am. I make him some oatmeal then put him back to bed around 3:30am. I don't even remember if I slept or not, but managed to drag myself into work on Monday.