There are so many other cities that we considered going in Türkiye* but we only had 2-week vacation and we wanted to be sure to have enough time in Egypt, so we ended up only staying in Istanbul for 4 days 3 nights. *Turkey changed their official name to Türkiye since June, 2022.
Istanbul international airport is modern and huge. There are lots of luxury stores, if you are interested in shopping luxuries tax free, you can consider spending sometime in the airport.
We were there in the end of October/Beginning of November. The weather was nice. We are able to get by with a thin long sleeves during the day and add another layer of thin jacket at night. Comparing to Egypt, the tourists dresses more reserved; covering knees and shoulders. If going into a mosque, girls must cover their hair or they won’t let you in. I recommend keeping a scarf in your bag all the time. If not for covering your hair, you can also use it for covering your nose and mouth as the second hand smoke is EVERYWHERE.
But not to worry, If you forgot to bring it. mosques offer disposable ones at low cost. You can see what it looks like on the picture below. I forgot to bring one with me during one of the nights.
Besides head scarf, I recommend wearing socks as well. You have to take your shoes off in the mosques and they often use carpet as flooring. It seems more sanitary to wear socks especially when you can smell everyone’s feet.
It’s a pity that the blue mosque was under construction when we were there. Although it is still beautiful outside. The interior was mostly covered up by the scaffolding. The picture below is the interior of Hagia Sophia.
Highly recommend that you go during the night. There is at least 2-hour wait for the days that we were there. If you go at night, there is no line and it will not be crowded at all. 🥰 Hagia Sophia is open 24 hr.
The location is super convenient. We were able to walk to places/attractions easily. The staff is really friendly and sweet. A lot of them came from eastern Europe to study/work. One of them surprised me with a cake because he noticed it was my birthday on my passport. 🥰
Breakfast was included. The view is amazing with tons of food choices.
I love their soup of the day. I looked forward to having breakfast there during my stay.
Over all it was a 4.5/5 experience. I took 0.5 away due to the noise from the adjacent restaurant, which lasted until midnight. We wanted to sleep early because of jet lag but kids were having lots of fun even this late.
【Istanbul and Cats】
About 6 months ago, after our flights are booked, I started collecting all kinds of cat treats, knowing that I will be encountering lots of kitties in Istanbul.
We packed on the day that we left and I completely forgot about them. Thankfully it was not hard to buy cat food/ treats in Istanbul (Much harder in Cairo). You can find them in all the mini convenient stores.
Most of the stray cats are well fed and happy. Sometimes you see really skinny and sad kittens in small alleys. You can see food dispensers on some of the main walkways. Put some coins in and it will dispense dry food. Istanbul is definitely a cat-friendly city
What’s the most surprising is that the restaurants and vendors there don’t seem to mind that the kitties are scratching up their furniture. You can also see kitties sitting right next to guests while they dine or rest on the chairs.
【Food and Drinks】 Anything yogurt related is good, as for real meals, we didn’t find anything particularly good even though we tried. You can find some decent western food but we find the local food too salty and lack variety in flavor. It is certainly not an alcohol-drinking country, though they do sell them to the foreigners. We tried it once and it was pretty bad and decided not to have any the rest of the trip.
Meals usually come with a cup of black tea. Unfortunately we don’t really drink caffeinated beverages.
As for the dessert, they have incredible varieties. The sweetness in comparable to the United States. Some might say even sweeter. I have no idea how the locals are as slim as they are.
The most interesting desert is the chicken breast pudding. I know it might sound really gross, but don’t frown yet, it was not bad at all! The chicken breast is shredded to the the fineness of fibers and mixed with cheese pudding (not very cheesy). It was delightful.
Hafiz Mustafa 1864 Is a large candy chain store. This one that we went is open for 24 hours. You can try samples there, buy your omiyage there and dine in! We shopped some of our omiyage there. The picture below is one of the boxes that we brought home. I also bought a sesame block, which I didn’t enjoy and therefore forgot to take a picture.
Among the ones below, my favorite is rose one and the white one. I feel that they definitely tasted better when they are fresh in the stores. Be sure to give the fresh ones a try if you have a chance.
The sweet rose roll is another of my favorites. Even though it is also pretty sweet. Outside are gummy and the inside taste like heavy cream custard.
Knowing that I am caffeine sensitive, I decided to try the Turkish Coffee anyway 😛. The main difference is that they included the coffee grounds in the coffee. I order sugar free and I could not bear to have more than 2 sips. 🤮 It’s so BITTER and I was not a fan of the texture either.
In the picture below next to the coffee is the famous Turkish delight Lokum.
We bought the other half of our gifts in Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir Lokumları We bought some Lokum and some candy floss. If I could chose again, I’d only get the colorful lokum. Candy floss gets soggy too easily after opening.
【MARKETS & HAMMAN】 Prior to the trip, the markets are one of the places that I most looking forward to. The hand made shining lanterns are so beautiful. I wish I had room in my home where they can shine. I also wish that they have an ornament size that I buy as a souvenir and decorate my Christmas tree.
We went to both the Grand Bazaar and the Mısır Çarşısı. Grand Bazaar is HUGE. Corridors connecting through all directions. Hundreds of vendors and shops.
It might be that it happened to be the anniversary of republic day, there are tons of people everywhere in the market. So crowded that I ended up buying nothing 😕.
They sells lots of gold/ silver/ crystal jewelries, scarfs, rugs, and spices. There are so many vendors in the market but I ended up buying from small vendors on the street just because there is room to breath and I can actually take my time and look through options.😅
The Hammam! When I booked this appointment, I was so excited to see this beautiful building and experience how the romans bath. I had my first and likely last Hamman in Hürrem Sultan Hamamı （Picture is from their official website）
Gentlemen and Ladies have difference entrances, couples will not be together. There are 4 packages you can chose from. Once checked in, you will change into a disposable underwear and a staff will lead you in to this beautiful space to rinse. Mine was holding my hands the whole time (I think it’s to avoid me slipping? ) After rinsing, she will shower, exfoliate and shampoo me. There is marble everywhere but it was all warmed up. Then, she led me to the space above where I had bubble bath on top of the marble stone and receive my massage.
I am glad that I experienced it, it felt like traveling back in time to see how people were bathed. I suggest that you choose the package with the massage room. Being massaged on marble was a bit painful, especially around the back of my knee.
The building itself is SO BEAUTIFUL. All the doors are tiny, walking between the corridors was kind of like exploring in a maze
Anyway, this was kind of a “been there, done that" deal and I will only choose massage in the future. I prefer to shower myself 😃.
All in all, Istanbul is perfect for cat lovers and those with a sweet tooth.
I recommend walking instead of taking transit whenever you can. If you do buy a tram day ticket, be sure to activate it at the terminal after you purchase so you don’t need to get in line again.
Please stay tuned for our Egypt travel guide, Cheers! ❤️
Since we only had 4 days in Chicago, we decided to stay close to downtown area to get us some more time. We arrived pretty late on our first night and we chose to stay at Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport. 在芝加哥只有四天的時間，所以我們選擇住宿的時候是以地理位置方便為優先。 因為機票改了時間，我們到的第一個晚上已經將近午夜，於是決定住在從登機門走不用十分鐘就到的Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport.
I complete forgot to take a picture of the bed. As you can see in the picture below, It’s decent size. It was about 8 mins walk from the gate, which is super ideal for late arrivers at the airport. One little complaint: The AC is pretty loud (it makes squeaky noise) but luckily it wasn’t hot so eventually we shut it down and I was able to sleep in complete silence. 啊，我完全忘記要拍床的照片，但從下面照片也看得出來房間空間蠻大的。 住下來唯一的小抱怨是冷氣好吵，咿咿歪歪的。還好當天溫度算涼，最後直接把風扇關了 還能在完全安靜的氛圍中睡去
To be close to everything, we stayed at Hampton Inn Majestic Chicago Theatre District the rest of our trip. The location is perfect, the price reflects though. Our 2 queen bed room comes with breakfast but it was sort of unbearably bad. We gave it a chance and ate somewhere else the next day. Overall I was happy with the stay. There is a blue and red CTA station right around the corner. The area feels safe and you can walk to the art institute and cloud gate easily.
Transportation: We walked around the city as much as we can and take metro when it make sense. For an all day CTA pass is only $5/person which is pretty cheap compare to lots of places in Europe. With the CTA all day pass you can take all the metro line (including the 45 mins ride from the airport to the city) and all buses.
We heard that the metro can be unreliable and we experienced it on one of the days that we are there. It cost almost an hour delay, even though a free shuttle bus was provided for the temporary suspended green line stations services, we ended up walking part of the way back to downtown because the traffic was so so bad. It was taking the bus 30 mins to move 2 blocks.
交通： 芝加哥市區非常適合走路，路很大、建築物很美。對我們來說是個享受，所以如果能走我們都用走的。這裏公交當日票CTA all day pass一個人5美金，相當便宜。有時候為了節省時間也是一個很好的選擇。CTA地鐵和巴士都能坐，遠程到機場也不另外收費，真的超便宜！
Chicago is such a beautiful city! In this article you will find restaurants/tea shops that we really enjoy and some tips for the museums!
Let’s start with food, yeah? 1. My favorite: The Dearborn Average cost per person will be about 50-60 with tax and service for an entree and a drink. It is a little pricy buy the atmosphere, food and services are all so good!
We were choosing between The Dearborn and Remington’s, if you can’t get a seat at the former, maybe you can give the later a try!
2. Great Japanese food- Umai We were super happy with their food. If you are craving some asian comfort food, here is definitely the right place! Average cost per person is about $25-35
3. The village The oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago. Their interior is so beautiful. My salmon was great but the pasta and chicken was quite off. Very busy with all the customers, not a relaxing atmosphere. They gave as a complementary cannoli at the end but it was not tasty either. Overall I am glad that we gave it a try but I don’t think I’d go back again.
4. Please SKIP-Pizzeria Uno This was our very first restaurant during this trip and it was really disappointing! Chicago is famous for its deep dish pizza so we had this place on out list for must try. The bread is SO BAD and the topping was nothing special and plain. I have absolutely no idea why there are so many good ratings! We ordered 1 personal size and we both hated it. I at all the toppings but I could only stand 2 bites of the bread. Yes, it was that bad.
Teashops! Vivi Bubble Tea– Overall it’s an authentic bubble tea shop! I ordered 30% sugar and it tasted like 70% though, so I would recommend ordering with no sugar since the boba is pretty sweet already! (Maybe it was 30% less sugar not 30% sugar? benefit of the doubt?)
2. Goddess and the Baker, Wabash I had their strawberry matcha latte. I was not a big fan. We also had chocolate croissant and tomato basil pastry, it was not great. I would not recommend this place.
I am writing this article because everything on the internet is out dated. What worked for 2016 no longer works for 2022.
Tulum was our second city in this trip. We took a bus straight from Cancun to Tulum. Cancun is super tourist friendly and we were excited to see the relatively local side of Quintana.
We rented a car in Tulum and learned that there is a mandatory “basic insurance". Even though we booked online and our credit card comes with insurance.
Our only options were either have our money back or pay the basic insurance, which is more than the cost of the rental car. NOT HAPPY.
We took the car and headed to our hotel : Copal Tulum Hotel The surrounding is tourist but everything is under construction. Googled routed us to muddy and bumpy roads that we really could’ve got stuck. Our hotel is beautiful, and I love the smell of copal. HAPPY.
We were super excited to snorkel in Akumal, only to be disappointed again: We brought our own snorkels all the way from Seattle. On the way there, people were trying to sell us some kind of tour. We said no thank you and paid the national park entrance fee. After entering, they told us that we can only snorkel at a certain area unless we pay for a “tour".
Later, we realized that the locals basically fence off where the sea life is, without their “tour" all you can see is seagrass. We paid for the tour eventually 500 peso per person, which is not much, but I know this beach was not like that couple years ago. If you want to sit down anywhere with shade, the restaurant/hotel staff will let you know the price you have to pay. NOT HAPPY.
Anyway, the snorkeling wasn’t that great either. We did see two turtles, squid and some cool fish, but mostly sea grass.
We also went into the gran cenote. The water is super clean. There are some turtles and fish. There is an entrance fee and a quick shower is mandatory to wash off the sunscreens on you. I appreciated them making effort to keep the place clean. Happy.
One afternoon, we decided to go find this cool sculpture (picture). We arrived at Tulum beach walk, found a paid parking lot which was reasonably priced and started our walk. Soon we realized that this walk was not fun because the road is so narrowed, unpaved and pedestrians needs to share the road with all the cars and scooters. NOT HAPPY.
Lots of photogenic restaurants here though, definitely come here hungry. The pricing is close to what we are paying here in Seattle, which is quite expensive for Mexico.
Here are some restaurants that we ate at and it was reasonably priced for Mexico: DelCielo for brunch Tulum Food Trucks it is actually the place that’s next to it. Super popular and local. 20 peso for a taco. Follow the crowd and you’ll find it. Fit-a-licious healthy ,delicious food Copal restaurant– their fires is amazing ! Imelda’s Ecocina authentic local place by the beach!
Here are some other restaurants that’s good but on the expensive side: Kokoro Tulum if you want japanese food Bejuco Restaurant with beautiful decorations. A tasty restaurant!
We did find one thing that’s amazing in Tulum: our guide at Tulum Archaeological Zone We were able to skip the line and have a guided tour.
Looking back, I think this is my favorite time in Tulum. This gentleman is so knowledgable and I could feel his passion overflowing while he tell the stories. He even did his own researches and talked to/visited posterities.
The iguanas are so cute and entertaining as well. I love seeing them coming out from the cracks.
Maybe I thought I would definitely not recommend coming to Tulum, I guess in the end I’m still happy that I saw all these places. I think it’s worth it. Maybe I won’t travel to see this city again this life, but I’m glad that I did. What do you think? Do you want to go?
I liked Cancun, Cozumel and Playa de Carmen, but there are lots of articles about them. I don’t know I will write an article about them. Always happy to answer questions. Let me know!
Feb 27th, 2022 I was in CDG airport, all checked in, through the security. I bought myself breakfast from Paul (the Bakery) and went to use a restroom.
I found myself a seat and about 10 mins later, I thought to myself: I better check that I have my passport and green card (In my card holder). There is my passport, and . . . I couldn’t find my card holder. I could not.
I looked again. It was not there. It’s not anywhere.
I immediately went back to Paul, not there. I went back to the bathroom and checked, not there. I checked my bags, Paul and the bathroom over and over again and I just couldn’t find it.
It’s gone.
I talked the the security and they asked me to talk to the airline. I talked to the airline and they directed me to talk to the security. There was no lost and found in CDG airport.
I looked up online and people say I will have to leave the airport, get an appointment at the U.S. embassy in France to get an entry permit before I can board the plane. That means I will not be able to go home today, and I will be stuck in France. These past days I was wondering if I’d be stuck in France due to the Russia- Ukraine war. Turns out, I was gonna be stuck in France because I lost my green card. Paris is great, but I really rather be home with my cats and husband.
My husband found this online and send it to me: “Green Card is not a travel document. You do not need it to travel. It just proves your status in the US when you are returning faster. If you don’t have it but you have your valid passport from your own country (which you should have regardless you have your green card or not if you are traveling internationally), when you are coming back to the US, you can declare at the CBP post that you lost your green card and you will be sent to the second level inspection. Over there, they can verify who you are from your passport and let you in . It is just a matter of inconvenience. Your passport is tied to your A-Number. If you lose your passport or have to change it one way or another, you need to update your Alien record at USCIS immediately."
With this information, I talked to the airline again. This AMAZING gentleman helped me out and made a call to the custom office(Merci beaucoup x3). He said the French immigration has my data and Seattle Immigration will let me in as well.
He let me board the plane and when I arrived in Seattle, they took me to the back room and did some paper work. It took about 30 mins. There was a $575 fee for not having the card with me but they waived it (I said thank you but I didn’t ask why). It was SO NICE of them. I love Seattle.
To applied for a green card replacement, I filed I-90 and paid the $540 fee. It will take 5-12 months for me to get a new card. Meanwhile, I requested for an appointment at USCIS and got an appointment the very next day to get an I-551 stamp on my passport. I was surprised by how quick I could get an appointment.
The I-551 stamp on my passport will be as good as my green card. The only difference is that it will expire in 1 year. Hopefully by then I will have my card. If not, they will give me another stamp and another year.
I hope this article helps! Let me know if you have any question @jennyandberries or jennyandberries@gmail.com
Cross Culture Living 