To Bolu

Bolu: (LtoR) Hakan, Hannah, Alex, Scott, and Önder

We left Istanbul Friday afternoon, after many hours of trying to figure out how to get a rental car. Hakan managed to get us one through a cousin of his who works for a rental company. We left the apartment in a taksi, and drove over the bridge over the Bosphorus and into Asia! (Mine and Alex's first time!) It took us a very long time asking many friendly Turks to find the rental shop, but we finally found it and our very cozy Renault Clio. It took almost three hours to drive to East to Bolu, even with the help of "Gloria," Hakan's GPS.

We met Önder, another of Hakan's cousins, by the side of the road outside of Bolu and he took us to a wonderful dinner of local specialties, including a very potent raisin-rum drink that we thought might be filtered through a deer's stomach - though we couldn't really figure that out. The meal ended with very strong Turkish coffee and Turkish delights. We are discovering very rapidly that Turks like their sugar!

Dinner: (LtoR) Alex, Scott, and Önder eating local patates (potatoes), makarna (raviolis) and varios dishes with et (meat).