Freedom Fries: Miniaturk

These guys were all over, selling roasted chestnut and boiled/grilled corn. I was always tempted and finally tried it out. It looks better than it tastes... But a good experience none the less.

This picture of Evaëlle is following one of my very favorite experiences of the trip. We were looking in some of the shops (like usual). Daniel had gotten stuck in another carpet shop drinking apple tea and I look the boys across the way. Eva was sleeping on me. Everyday for reasonable "good behaviour" we gave the boys each two Turkish Lira (approximately 1 Swiss franc) to spend on souvenirs. We went into a shop were a man was selling little dolls from Cappodocia. Jonas saw the dolls and grabbed one and said "I want to get this for Eva!" I asked the man how much it was and told us 25 lira. Jonas said, "Oh! I have 25 lira!" (He actually had about 6...) In negotiating a little more the man came down to 20 lira. "Let me get 20 lira," Jonas responded. and he took out his wallet, knelt on the ground, dumped all of his money out and started counting. I guess the man was impressed or had some sympathy because in the end he told Jonas, "Already, how about we do this: you give me all your money and I will give you the doll." Jonas took him up on the offer and walked away satisfied. Eva was so excited to wake up to a new present, clearly for her, and Jonas was really happy to have been able to do something nice for his sister.

After that we headed to Miniaturk, a park which small-scale exhibits of many of the major sights from Turkey, just as the name would suggest, along with an audio explanation. Turks young and old seemed to be loving it. Personally I enjoyed seeing another part of Istanbul and was especially impressed by the hill sides.