I suppose it was made quite obvious in the last post what the exciting new was. Well, to put it into words - we went on holiday to our beloved number one city in the world - Istanbul! This was a trip to celebrate my mother's birthday as well as see how much the city had changed since we lived there. Much was the same of course, but a LOT has happened in nine years. It was not the same as it was when we left but it still felt like coming home. At the airport in Copenhagen it felt like such a natural trip because we've done it so many times before, only this time we were going to a hotel and not our old house! Not gonna lie, our Turkish was a tad rusty in the beginning but ran more smoothly as the days went by. Watching the Mattsson's go on a family vacation would make such a great sitcom - seriously! The things that happen to us and what we say are moments one really should catch on camera. Anyhow, seeing our old village was golden and all the good memories came sweeping back to me. Our house was still there although it's not yellow anymore, but baby blue...hmm...I prefer yellow. I knew our school has a new campus and has had since a while back but we still drove by our old campus which is now several seperate houses - very strange! The village centre was packed! You could tell it's grown. With more houses having been build all the shops and restaurants had expanded, sadly for the worse. It didn't have the same closed community as it did before. As kids, we literally dominated Zekeriyaköy. Ha! We ran that town! That would not have been possible (at least I don't think) if it looked like it did now. However, I was extatic when I saw Pideci was still there at the same location. The amount of times we have eaten there are too many to count. The menu hadn't even changed - I mean hallelujah! And guess what? Who comes walking towards us when we're standing by the shops if not our old TENNIS COACH! Talk about fate! We had just minutes before been walking in the park by our old tennis courts and talked about him and there he comes! Insane! 

 

There were so many highlights during this trip and I have about 1000 photos on my camera so as soon as I get them sorted I'll upload some! I cannot express my love for Istanbul and how much the city means to me.I know for certain that I will return, and perhaps even live there again someday!