Still not adjusted to the time change, I woke up today in a slightly grumpy haze, and had forgotten what country I was in. When I stepped out of my room to go to breakfast, I saw a Turkish person, and felt a lift of spirit and smiled. After eating, I went and jumped rope in a nearby playground. That definitely drew a lot of confused looks. =] Afterward, mom and I headed out toward the grand bazaar area again, but on the way, my mom stopped to talk to an African man named Toni. We ended up walking with him to the neighborhood where lots of Africans live, which was in an older part of town. Took about 20 minutes of twists through the small streets. The farther away we got, the older the buildings looked. We passed one building that had been in a recent fire. Completely burned down with just charred guts left exposed to the street. There were definitely no tourists here. The narrow streets were lined with street vendors selling 1 Turkish Lira boxers (about 70 cents in US Dollars,) huge rolling crates of bread loaves, fruits and vegetables, random plastic household items, among other things. We walked around this area for a while, and met some of Toni's neighborhood friends, got some food, then headed back to our hotel for a new year's eve gathering.
When we got there, all the staff had on shiny tinseled hats and were rosy with wine. There was a man playing an accordion, and a good turnout of hotel guests. There was a buffet of traditional Turkish dishes that were all quite good. I unintentionally got some of the liver, and I did not like that! I also got a small glass of whiskey with a piece of carrot. Something I'd never seen before. We were still pretty tired so we spent the rest of the evening at the hotel, and woke up refreshed for the new year.
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