Our trip was great.

We leave for home in the morning. I keep thinking that when we get back we'll see a lot of people and they will ask me how I am, and how our trip was. I just don't know how I could possibly sum it up within the boundaries of casual conversation. I will probably say that I am fine and that our trip was "great" because, you know, I don't want to be that person who goes on and on... What my heart will be saying, however, is this:

I have touched the Black Stone fragment in the Sokullu Mehmet Pasa Mosque. I have seen the Sistine Chapel. I have walked across beautiful rivers and straits like the Tiber, the Arno, the Bosphorous and the Golden Horn. I have seen the sunrise over the Cappadocian hills. In a hot air balloon. I have seen the sun set from the top of a han, listening to a dozen calls to prayer echo over the city. I have seen art and buildings and views that have moved me. I have seen in person works by Michelangelo, Bernini, Boticelli, Caravaggio, Sinan and more. I have contemplated how something so hard as stone can look as soft as satin, draping just as beautifully.

I have watched my daughter sit and sketch on a mountaintop. I have haggled for a good price. I have watched the boats on the water go by.

I have visited exquisite gardens. I have eaten gelato and pasta and pizza, kebab, muchver, and baklava. I have indulged on a daily basis in cappuccino, and then chai. I have climbed through caves, and slept in one. I have shopped in the Grand Bazaar and the San Lorenzo market.

I have accepted directions, advice and gifts from total strangers. I have gotten hopelessly lost. I have found my way. I have learned to say thank you in Italian and Turkish - it is the thing I have had to say the most often. 

I have had a spring that has lasted four months. I have ridden planes, trains, boats, trams and funiculars, and sometimes walked hours in a day, just to see more and do more - or just to visit a friend. I have lived the "quiet" life of being in a huge city, surrounded by people and not understanding a word that is spoken around me.

I have made acquaintances become lifelong friends.

So for now: I am fine, and it really was great. Thank you. (gracie, tesekkur ederim)