Istanbul, at my Grandpa's origins

Istanbul - iyi yolculuklar

Few months after I traveled in Cuba, I did the most special trip ever. With the travel agency "Pausanias", quite popular in my parents generation through the Greek films, I did a surprise gift to my grandmother. A trip in Constantinople or nowadays Istanbul! The group in the bus was with people that had to flee during the Asia Minor Catastrophe with their families, or relatives of them.

I was obviously the younger, and it was for the first time that my grandmother was travelling abroad in the place where her husband grew up and she had heard stories about. She was like a little kid!

«I wish he-my grandpa- was with us...» she said one day looking out through the bus window.

I said nothing. Priceless to be there with her! Every morning I woke up with the noise of the plastic bags. My dearest grandma had to put in some candies, a toilet paper just in case and when she had to pay she had to open her purse, to put out a smaller bag, in where she had put another smaller wallet and so on..until she found the money to pay! For me it was the first time I was in a Muslim society and especially with Muslim women's covered with burqa... what if that was Burberry!

Follow me to the next country… Amsterdam!