Happy New Year from Istanbul

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Besiktas, Istanbul, New Year's Eve

Selasa, 01 Januari 2013

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I hope everyone had an enjoyable New Year's Eve and is spending today relaxing like I'm trying to do.

For us, we shared a homecooked dinner of honey-mustard pork chops, scalloped potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts with our friends. We wanted to have a low-key night and catch up with my friend's wife who just returned from a two-month visit in the U.S.

Yes, those are real pork chops! We finally discovered the elusive pork butcher in Dolapdere.

Shortly before midnight, with a glass of homemade egg nog in hand, we wandered down to Besiktas because I wanted to see the fireworks along the Bosphorus. Last New Year's Eve, I was on the couch with a miserable sinus infection, and 2010 was the year we celebrated with Raised Glasses at 35,000 Feet. This year, I did not want to miss the fireworks!

The Besiktas iskele area was busy with people but was not too crowded. Revelers were wearing Santa hats, drinking beers outside and even lighting some sparklers. There's a lot of university students in this neighborhood, and they were having fun just like we were. Hubby smuggled over a bottle of champagne, which we popped open right before midnight.

Unfortunately, the spectacular fireworks display I was hoping for was practically non-existent. We saw a few fireworks light up the dark sky, but that was it. I'm unsure as to what happened.

Well, we still enjoyed ringing in the new year with our friends and people watching. One unexpected thing we saw was people lighting these colorful paper lanterns and setting those off into the sky. This is something I would expect to see in Asia but not Turkey, but I guess most of the country technically does fall on the Asian continent.

We ended up getting home a lot later than we planned, but a good time was definitely had by all of us!

2012 was a busy year for us with trips to Bozcaada, Mount Nemrut, North Cyprus and Italy. We took a trip every month like we planned. At least, that's always been our goal since we've been living in Istanbul.

Though we haven't booked any flights yet for 2013, I'm sure we'll be packing a suitcase soon to go somewhere. Thanks to all my readers for tagging along on our adventures!

May your 2013 be filled with new adventures and good food! Happy New Year!