Eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited: finally the day came for Kathi’s and Wolfgang’s arrival to celebrate our upcoming 30th twin birthday! After crossing Istanbul’s numerous hills for the third time now to change for our new common apartment we went to the airport to finally enfold them in our arms and also shed one or two tears 😉

The “taksi” drive back was a really special experience in itself and showed us one again that the level of insanity of the ordinary Turkish driver should not be underestimated. Another nasty surprise was awaiting us when we came back to the hotel: due to a breakdown of the local water supply the whole quarter had no water for an indefinite period of time.

We made the best out of the situation and directly visited the famous and indeed impressive Blue Mosque & Spice Market and arrived just in time at the Galata Bridge for enjoying a golden sunset behind the hills of Istanbul and another delicious excursion to the fish-market, yum-yum 🙂 By the time we came back to our apartment water was back again, unfortunately not only was it coming out of the shower but also the wall setting the whole kitchen under water! What would life be without surprises?


We spent the next days visiting (nearly) all of Istanbul’s great architectural and cultural highlights but took also time for various side trips to the extraordinary Turkish cuisine, a relaxing morning in a traditional Hamam (a truly unique and unforgettable experience) and some extensive sister-chatting.
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The day when they had to leave came far too fast and in exchange of all the wonderful things they brought us from home we managed to get rid of almost 10kg of luggage including Gui’s big camera – he is missing it already – and our trailer (which has turned out to be quite bulky on narrow roads and made the bike handling much more complicated)! Thanks to Wolfgang’s artistic drawing skills everything arrived home without the slightest damage 🙂 We had a great time together in Istanbul and it was the best birthday present ever to especially come to visit us here for celebrating, thank you sooo much little sister!