They took my mosquito spray

Blue mosque

Just as I thought that my trip would end uneventfully, it didn't.

On my way home, I had to spend the night in Istanbul because my flight was the following day. I didn't mind. I always love coming back to Istanbul, it's such a lovely city. I was lucky that I arrived during the tulip blooming season. It's fitting since tulips were originally cultivated in Turkey and I finally got to see the city in bloom.

I showed up at the airport the next morning, luggage correctly packed. I know very well that dangerous items such as my pocket knife and my bottle of shampoo must go into the large backpack as checked luggage. I remembered to drink the last of my bottled water before entering the airport, confident that after all the flights I took on this journey, I shouldn't have any hassle.

For some reason, they X-ray all pieces of luggage upon entering the Istanbul airport. My small backpack that would go as hand luggage passed inspection but my large backpack was flagged and an airport official wanted me to open it. I wondered what that was all about. The same backpack with the same stuff in it had gone successfully on fourteen previous flights. What were they looking for?

I almost felt sorry for the guy who went through the contents of my backpack. I was returning from six months in Asia and my stuff mainly consisted of dirty and smelly clothes and shoes. The guy examined my flashlight, ignored my pocket knife, was suspicious of my lock. Finally, he found the culprit. It was my mosquito spray. Apparently it might explode.

Funny, I bought the spray back home before I left on my trip. It went with me on all my flights without exploding. And now, on my very last flight home, they confiscate it.

I just smiled. Yes, you can have my mosquito spray. I won't need it in the near future, I'm done with jungles for a while.

Istanbul

For this year’s vacation my family decided to visit Turkey. It was our first visit to this country ever and we were thrilled! We were told in advance that the Turkish people are the friendliest people around but it was not just the hospitality that impressed us. We all love places with Asian flavors, such as the busy streets, crazy driving (we didn’t drive but we knew that this was not one of those places we would go by car), bargaining for prices at the bazaars. Of course we visited the most important historical sites of which there seems to be no end, including a few palaces, mosques and museums. We took a boat ride on the Bosphorus and ate the famous fish sandwich in the harbor.



And we made sure we also had enough time to relax, to enjoy the local food, drink Turkish tea, experience the water pipe, shop at the bazaars and mostly just forget about the hectic pace of our jobs and demands of school back home.



Our son Matej only joined us for the Istanbul part of the trip, being eager to return home to spend his last days of summer holidays with his friends. Marko and I continued our Turkey experience in the eastern part of Turkey. Due to the distance of over 1000 km we decided to fly to the city of Van as any other means of transport would have taken us two days in one direction.



Compared to the bustle of Istanbul, which is a very modern city, the eastern part of Turkey is much more remote and thus less touristic and it seems like a world away from everyday life. We based ourselves in Dogubayazit, a small town that serves as the starting point for the Ararat climb. The town is a mixture of the modern with Internet cafes and contemporary shops scattered among more rural street vendors, children carting vegetables to the market, men drinking tea on the streets. Yes, mostly men, not many women are seen on the streets. When the holy month of Ramadan began, the streets were empty as no food or drink is allowed during that time and that includes drinking tea.