Crossroads of the world

After Ian’s unplanned trip home to Canada, we were all glad to have that behind us and resume our travels to Germany, Greece and Turkey. This leg saw us hop some flights to squeeze in a few final stops in Europe before we journey onwards to Africa after Christmas. 

Germany

Berlin is a fascinating city for students of history - this capital has had a front seat to virtually every major historical event of the 20th century: World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War and the fall of communism. We stayed in East Berlin, near an old section of the Berlin Wall that has been transformed into a public art display. We took a walking tour from the Brandenburg Gate to the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler’s bunker to Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall. Finlay and Ian also visited the Topography of Terror museum, learning more about the infrastructure and organization of Nazi Germany. Germany does an incredibly good job of telling history unvarnished - to help us learn from history’s mistakes one hopes; unfortunately this also provided some horrifying and haunting parallels between the darkest days of history and what we are seeing today in parts of the world.

Brandenburg Gate

Demarcation of the Berlin Wall

Walking tour at Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin is now a multi-cultural city humming with life, with a cool undercurrent of punk rock and fascinating graffiti. We had amazing food in both East and West Berlin - Korean BBQ, traditional schnitzel and yummy modern brunch were all within easy reach. We also loved the Spy Museum - a fascinating look at how espionage has played a role in history - with interactive lie detectors and laser mazes making us all indulge our inner James Bond.

From Berlin we travelled to Munich for our final (and most famous) Christmas market. We indulged in a last cup of Gluwein while admiring the lights and decorations. We enjoyed huge beers and giant pretzels at Hofbrauhaus - a 1500 seat rowdy and music filled beer hall that is a must do. From Munich we flew to Athens and were much relieved to find slightly warmer weather and sunny skies. 

1L beers at Hofbrauhaus

Gluwein, Kinderpunch and lights at Munich Christmas Market

Greece

Greece is at a bit of an inflection point - it suffered significantly from the recent economic downturn and pandemic, and has struggled since. However, most recently recovery has begun to take hold in earnest. We found signs of significant and ongoing investments in public infrastructure, very friendly people and prices that were noticeably lower than other parts of Europe. Talking to locals we found that it is feast or famine - with much dependent on tourism dollars to the islands through the busy summer months but 30-40% unemployment in the winter. Athens was beautiful in December - we were able to explore the Acropolis and Olympic Stadium without the crowds, climb Lycabettus Hill to the church of Agios Georgios in crisp, cool air and indulge in amazing Greek food with no lines or reservations required (beautiful vegetables, olives, feta, souvlaki, pita, lamb, yogurt of the fresh or frozen variety, YUM). In Greece, it is customary to get a complimentary sweet bite and liqueur on the house at the end of your meal - these were real highlights for us - a slowing down of the meal at the end. We highly recommend the Mastika - a herbaceous digestive that we loved. We will plot a return to this lovely part of the world when the islands are open!

Top of the Acropolis by day

View of the Acropolis by night

Olympic stadium

Türkiye

East meets West in Istanbul - it has historically been the crossroads of commerce between Europe, Asia and Africa. It is situated on the strategically important Bosphorus straight and has been the centre of much conflict and progress during the past few thousand years. For a city of 10 million people we have found it to be clean, easy to navigate with amazing history to explore. The boys loved the idea that they could stand in one spot and see Europe and Asia at the same time. Unfortunately, construction enveloped much of the Hagia Sophia with scaffolding so we did not tour the inside of this famous mosque, originally built in the Byzantine era as the world’s largest cathedral remaining so for over 1,000 years. It has recently been reclaimed as a Mosque after years as a museum. We opted instead to tour the Sultanahmet Mosque (tourists know it as the Blue Mosque), a structure dating back to the 17th century that is stunning for its architecture and decor. The call to prayer between these two sites is beautiful to hear, and you can imagine how it must have been to have many imams singing together from the many minarets (now the call is done by one imam at each mosque and broadcast over speakers). We explored the basilica cistern to see the ancient water supply built by Hadrian that made living in Istanbul possible over the ages - despite being virtually surrounded by the Bosphorus, fresh water must travel far to supply this urban population. 

Basilica cistern

Hagia Sophia

Grand Bazaar turkish coffee

We have been fascinated bystanders to some of the weirder (to us) perspectives this city brings - Istanbul continues to be a top commercial centre for the world - now a top destination for cosmetic surgery tourism - there are people everywhere walking in the open with black eyes and gauze covered noses from nose jobs and the scarring that comes from recent hair plugs being installed. The signs of affluence here are conspicuous displays of brands, botox and fillers. The Sharps with our backpackers style were easy to pick out from the crowd - very often approached by fast talking rug salesmen from across the busy streets lol. The shopping we did indulge in had us exploring the Grand Bazaar and the narrow streets around Galata Tower. Istanbul also has stray cats everywhere that provided Jasper with some excellent cuddles. Here it seems that these cats are loved by all; there are coin operated cat food dispensers on the street, and little cat houses everywhere. 

Inside Sultanahmet Mosque

Enjoying the hotel

Galata Tower

Our culinary journey continued in Istanbul with many street gyros, donairs and Turkish delights- sweet gummies eaten after meals as a palette cleanser. In Amsterdam we discovered lahmacun - more commonly referred to as Turkish pizza - flavourful minced meat on a thin flatbread roasted in an oven then rolled and eaten with sauces and veggies mixed in. After becoming obsessed with these in Amsterdam we were keen to test out the local version in Istanbul. We were not disappointed and found this treat in many of the food stalls around town.

Spending Christmas away is bittersweet. We miss the extra times with family and friends that the holidays bring back home. To make this time special, we stayed in relative luxury thanks to Ian’s many accumulated hotel points  - the Conrad Hilton with stunning views of the Bosphorus, a pool and lounge with lovely food made this time feel extra special. We went to the Swissotel for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner of fondue and turkey; Santa miraculously found us and our tiny tree. This Christmas we are celebrating minimalism on the gift front (as we have no room in our bags); we are feeling gratitude for the experiences we are so fortunate to be having this year. 

Bridge from Europe to Asia

Outside the Istanbul University

Our little Christmas Tree

We are off to Egypt tomorrow to meet up with Erin’s Mom and Miguel for a very special trip - it will be so lovely to have family close for the holiday. 

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Finlay 

I loved all the Christmas markets, you could buy all sorts of things from stuffies all the way to Kinderpunch. I was really interested to learn more about the German side of things in World War II. We are staying in an amazing hotel for Christmas that is making the holiday very merry. I am missing all the Christmas parties. It may not be a white Christmas in Istanbul but it sure is a nice one. Merry Christmas to all!

Jasper

I woke up Christmas morning feeling amazing and I feel like it was one of the best Christmases ever - we made the best of travelling and it has been really fun and we watched a bunch of Christmas movies. I definitely miss our family tradition of having the whole family over for dinner though and I miss our Christmas party. The culture in Istanbul is very different but really nice. I like all the different smells and foods. 

All the Sharps are sending love to each of you and hope for a more peaceful world in 2026. Happy holidays to all!