New Orleans Hornets Honeybees in Istanbul
Several members of the 2010-11 Honeybees dance team traveled to Istanbul, Turkey for the 2011 NBA 5 United Tour.
It’s 9:30 pm on June 6th, and we’re on our last flight from Turkey back to New Orleans. I just woke up and flipped up my window shade to see a thin line of lights jutting out from the Southshore, creeping across the lake and into the darkness toward the Northshore. The Causeway…we’re almost there! We can’t wait to be home! Not because we didn’t have a great trip, simply because we’ve been traveling for 22 1/2 hours and anyone would be glad to be home at this point. The Honeybee trip to Istanbul was amazing…if Turkey isn’t on your list of places to go (it wasn’t on mine), add it! I’ve already added it to my list of places I want to go back to visit.
If you know nothing about Istanbul, you should know this…it’s a city on two continents. We landed at the airport on the European side of Istanbul, were greeted by our guide, Cagatay (this is as close a spelling as I can get it on my English keyboard. In Turkish, it looks a little different, but it’s pronounced Cha-tie), loaded up our van and after a short ferry ride across the Sea of Marmara, landed on the Asian side of the city. The ferry ride was a welcomed breath of fresh air with the most amazing views of both sides of the city. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Tike and let Cagatay take care of the ordering…he did an excellent job! We started our first Turkish meal with delicious appetizers of tomatoes, hummus and yogurt, followed by chicken and beef kebabs and rounded out with a “secret” dessert. Cagatay couldn’t explain what it was in English, so we decided it was similar to sweet grits with vanilla ice cream in the middle…it was very tasty and if I remember correctly, we didn’t leave any on the plate!
We spent the rest of our free time in Istanbul having fabulous lunch time meals on the quaint little patios in various restaurants throughout the Asian side of the city. We ate dinners with views of the Sea of Marmara. We also took a private boat across the Bosphorus Strait to a little place called Reina on the European side of the city, which was only the most popular restaurant/club in Istanbul! Everywhere we went, the food was good, the service was impeccable, and the locals were extremely hospitable…especially Cagatay. He was the key to our great trip and we are so grateful that he was so patient, accommodating and fun! So, I am glad to be home and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, but to say we had a good time is an understatement. We looked around several times during our trip and said, “Can you believe we’re here? This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity!” and it was! But having had a taste of how awesome it was, I think we all plan to make a trip back in the future!
We’re about to land, so it’s time to put up the computer. Thanks for reading and I hope each and every one of you has an opportunity to visit Istanbul one day to see for yourself how special it is and make your own fabulous memories. Goodbye and Geaux Hornets!!
Ashley B.
