On the spur of the moment, having seen a good friend's wedding announced on Facebook, we decided to jump on a plane and fly to Istanbul to attend the event! When we told our friend that we would be coming, he was so thrilled and we were excited to be part of this special day. It meant the world to the family. Our friend gave us the address of the wedding hall which was 4 lines long. We were landing in Istanbul at 11:30PM so decided to get a hotel near the airport and then ask someone about the address the next day. We learned that it was about 1 1/2 hours away and we'd need to take a taxi, several buses and then walk. We were amazed at how friendly & helpful everyone was and we made it to the correct place 15 minutes early. It was so great to see many old friends from Kurdistan and to be part of this great event in the life of our dear friend. It also made us sad that we were no longer part of this group of people that we love dearly. I couldn't believe how my Kurdish language (limited as it is!) came flooding back and I understood so much. An interesting part of the Turkish culture (which is where the bride comes from) is that they put satin ribbons around the necks of the bride & groom and all the wedding guests went through the line and pinned money and gold to the ribbons. They were loaded with $100 bills and other currency plus tons of gold. After the wedding ceremony which was very short, we all made our way to a restaurant down the street where there was lots of food, drink and dancing. We had to leave by 10PM because we were afraid the public transportation would stop running and didn't know how it would be getting back to our hotel late at night. The party was still going strong and no doubt lasted several more hours. The Kurds are great dancers and although I thought I had forgotten how to do the Kurdish dance, it came right back to me and was so much fun! Ah, we love these people and miss being with them. It was a great weekend and we were so glad we went. I wanted to post a video here but it's not working so you'll just have to imagine how fun it was:)
