Back from Turkey

Time really flies here. We got back from Turkey and our trip was amazing. We stayed in a hotel in Istanbul that was about 30 minute walk from Fatih, where Baha’u’llah first stayed when He arrived to Istanbul after being exiled from Baghdad.

After visiting the Holy Places, we spend the rest of the day walking around and shopping. The mosques there are so nice. Nadia said this must be heaven for Muslims as there are mosques at every block. The next day we just went around did more site seeing in Istanbul, the last day we got up early took the metro to the train station and from there to Aderne which was the next place The holy family was sent before they where exiled to Akka. Visited more mosques and walked around town, took the bus back and then went to Taxim a shopping place in Istanbul. Went around until after midnight and went back to the hotel. Our ticket from the travel agency said that our flight was at 2 pm so we thought we had a lot of time to get there and take it easy that day. To make a long story short, the lady that arranges our travel call at 8 am and said you need to leave in 10 minutes the taxi is waiting for you and go to this airport your flight is at 9 am. There was not time to ask questions, we have never moved this fast but we some how fitted everything in the travel bags and ran down stairs. Well the cool thing is we got home early and we did not have to do the 3 hours early in the airport. This trip was for sure the right choice as when we came back the kids were very happy to hear Arabic or Hebrew spoken as they realized how much they can understand vs. in Turkey we could not understand much and not many people speak English. The people were so kind and helpful. We would show the map or ask for train station and they would just walk with us and direct us to things. We came home to start school the next day. A lot was going on that was distracting the kids that there was not complaint about school. Well, not really no complain at all but not as much as we expected. The weekend after we came back we had two wedding to attend one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It was such an amazing weddings, both couples were just the perfect people for each other. The spirit the program the family that came from different part of the world is more like a something out of a story book. Tonight Ramadan starts and it is Rosh Hashanah so we have been watching the fire work at the beach from our home. For both our Muslim and Jewish friends hope you have a wonderful holyday.

As you know the search for the new dog continued until couple of days ago. We went with a dear friend that took us to a pet store where he got his dog and there the girls found this dog that they feel in love with after many visiting to different pet stores. The new dog is absolutely adorable. It is a small dog Chinese Pekingese.

As usually the time I start doing this is so late at night and my brain is half asleep but I am sure by now you are getting used to it and you understand me. I really need to get to bed as I have a meeting tomorrow morning early. I just wanted to update you and in the next couple of days I will post the rest of the pictures. I know that is not nice but the battery is out of juicy and I will have to charge it and upload the pictures. So, you will have to wait to see the pictures of Pepper “the new dog”