Kartepe

We went searching for snow on the 4th day.

The destination - Kartepe!!

All of us pooled our resources & ended up chartering a whole bus.. now thats the beauty & the power of a large group lol.


Getting comfy for the 3 hour ride to Kartepe.

Kartepe is a small ski village in the secluded mountainside on the asian side of turkey. it was still too early for the skiing season but there was enough snow to satisfy the snow-starved malaysians lol.


Crossing the Bosphorus.


The Attaturk Bridge - the first to span the Bosphorus connecting the asian & european sides.


The toll into the asian side of Turkey.


The long & winding road up to the ski resort.


The AA family plus AH's young beau ;)


My snow boys


My snow maiden


The snow Makciks


The snow Missies


The snow husky

And of course after breathing in the cold mountain air everyone went a little crazy hehehe.



But then not everyone dared take on the snowy slopes.. except for the hardy few ;)



So what do you do when you're chilled to the bone... and hungry? you warm-up inside & out :D


Food from the cafe as well as from home.

It was only too soon that we had to leave.. and leaving the pristine white snow was difficult indeed, especially for the kids. surely it would be quite awhile before such an opportunity would present itself again.

Tired but happy, almost everyone dozed off on the ride home.. except the pic-taking makcik of course ;)



There was again a long line of cars jamming up the Attaturk bridge. the bus driver told us its a natural occurence during peak hours of the AM & the PM. although traffic jams occur on both directions, usually there will be an exodus into istanbul in the mornings bcos of the higher wages on the european side and another exodus back to the asian side in the evenings bcos putting up residence there is much cheaper.


Slow progress into Istanbul at the Attaturk Bridge.

All in all it was a fun experience.. cold, but still lots of fun :)