family

Lockdown Birthday : Family Zoom Party

PART TWO: FOURTH BIRTHDAY ZOOM PARTY 

With our family split across 3 countries, the best way to have everyone join in our celebration was through a family zoom party! Never did I think I would get dressed for a screen appearance but there you go! 

This was the covered pancake stack & party table (Remember to set up a great zoom backdrop!

Pancake Stack cake Recipe-  #sugarfree and #colourfree I used the recipe from @tableforfivedubai but left out the sugar.
Use a large frying pan so there’s space to flip.
Sandwich each pancake with unsweetened cream and fresh strawberries 
The cream is coloured with natural beetroot powder (post coming soon)
Decorate & eat!

Stacking in progress! sandwich with cream and strawberries.

Inside the stack once cut. Very exciting for the kids. Delicious treat for everyone.


Since we had a cake for part one of her birthday (see previous post), it was great to do something different for this occasion- thanks to @zaakira1 for the inspo and on the job help as I flipped and stacked pancakes in the morning!

Have you had many zoom parties? Let us know below or on Instagram!

Taskeen
Productive_Muslim_Mom

Review : Polonezkoy Zoo -The Ultimate Guide including pics and prices

Overall: A great day out for the family to get a healthy dose of animals and nature away from the city.

Not a place to go out of your way for if you’re for tourist – but ideal for us animal-deprived Istanbullus!

There are aspects I am not so keen on like some animals being enclosed. However, as I understand these animals can no longer survive in their natural habitats and are therefore being kept here as a way to preserve their lives- at least that the view I am going with 🙂

Entrance fees and details:

They open at 9am at least during August when we visited. It was super quiet at 10am when we arrived but picked more by midday.

50TL adult, 30TL kids over 2. There are discounts for older people. Under 2 is free.

Duration of visit : 6 hours (2 adults, 2 toddlers under 4). We did 10am-16:30pm including naps, lunch and snacks.There are different sections to enjoy so you could structure your day best suited for little legs, the weather (its open and hot), and also meal times. There is enough shady areas and benches throughout for rest and picnics.

It’s divided into:  Animals, Playground, Fun Activities, Outdoor Adventure Park, Restaurant. It’s not that huge – like you can get from one side to the other fairly quickly. Maps are provided at the entrance and it’s handy to pick up one to follow.

polonezkoy zoo

There are different areas to walk around to view animals in their respective enclosures. This took about 1.5 hours. It is stroller friendly. We got the kids out of the stroller at times so they get closer to see like the birds in the pond, or the lake. There is also an enclosed “forest” area that you can roam in – not stroller friendly but it’s not big so you can take the kids walking. we saw donkeys, deer and emus. Some animals were following us around so we didn’t spend alot of time there. There is also another area to touch animals which we didn’t visit as our friends told us it was difficult to walk around – so we skipped it.

Fun Activities: Include kiddy car rides, mini train, Ferris wheel, pony and horse rides. Theres also carnival style games like giant bow and arrow/punching. Everything is old but there is effort to maintain and we saw them cleaning out the equipment beforehand.

Each activity is between 10-20TL. You purchase tickets at the reception (a few minutes walk away) and use them at the activity area to pay for each thing you are going on.

Food: 

Inside the park, there is one self service restaurant with an option of  made to order food (eg pasta, sandwiches etc) , or cook your own (mangal – barbecue meat and chicken). 

There is also snacks, ice-cream, desserts and fruit available for purchase. It is slightly pricey, but expected.

There is a beautiful outdoor setting with plenty tables. You are not allowed outside food, however they did not check.

                             

Playground: really exciting, novel play equipment like swings, climbing , tractors to sit in, basketball court and much more. You could spend alot of time here so do allocate accordingly.

                                                                


Covid measures: standard :staff wear masks and there is sanitiser at entrance and at restaurant. The
park was not over busy on a Sunday, meaning there was enough opportunity for social distancing.

How to get there: We took a taxi which was 80-90TL from Etiler (Istanbul), and it took around 35 minutes. To return, we weren’t sure whether we could get a taxi back easily and therefore booked a Progo car in advance to pick us up which was a minivan so a more comfortable ride as well.

There isn’t alot of detailed info available online on this park so I have decided to share our experience to help other families! Hope you have an enjoyable day. Please feel free to share a comment below or ask any questions from myself or the readers.

                                                                     

Exploring Istanbul, one outdoor place at a time,

Taskeen

@Productive_Muslim_Mom

List of museums, zoos and other attractions from around the world to visit online while we self isolate!

Since we cant’ travel or pop over to the nearest museum during these challenging times, it is so amazing to have them come home to us!
Here is a handy list of museums, zoos and other tourist attractions from around the world to visit from the comforts of our home while we self-isolate.
Something for the children to enjoy, away from cartoons for a change!
If I MUST use the screen, I would rather spend time with these interesting sites where we can learn in a more “natural” way.

Museums
• Anne Franke Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• British Museum, London
• Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
• Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
• Louvre Museum Paris
• MASP, Sao Paolo, Brazil
• Met Museum, New York
• Musée d’Orsay, Paris
• Musei Vaticani, Vatican City
• Museum Of London Docklands
• National Gallery Of Arts, Washington DC
• National Gallery, London
• National Museum Of US Air Forces
• Natural History Museum, London
• Palestine Museum đź™‚
• Picasso Museum, Barcelona
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Royal Academy Of Arts, London
• Salvatore Dali Museum, Figueres, Spain
• Tate Britain, London
• The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States
• The Museum of Flight
• The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park
• Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
• US Holocaust Museum
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Virginia Living Museum –
• Women’s History Museum, Virginia, USA
• Yale Centre For British Art

Tourist Destinations
• Buckingham Palace, London
• Colosseum, Rome
• Machu Picchu
• Northern Lights 
• Pyramids
• Stonehenge
• Street Art with Google
• Taj Mahal, Agra, India
• The Great Wall Of China
• Tour of Rome, Italy 

General Sites
• AirPano
• Berliner Philharominker
• ExoPlanets NASA 
• Legoland
• NASA, Langley Research Centre
• The Kennedy Centre
• Walt Disney Parks
• Wellcome Collection

Zoos


• African Animals
• Atlanta Zoo
• Cincinnati Zoo
• Dublin Zoo
• Edinburgh Zoo
• Explore.org Live Cams
• Flamingo Land
• Florida Aquarium
• Hirakawa Zoo, Japan
• International Wolf Centre
• Kansas City Zoo 
• Melbourne Zoo
• National Aquarium, USA
• National Zoo, Washington DC
• Osaka Zoo
• San Diego, California, Zoo
• Smithsonian, Washington DC  
• Yellowstone National Park 


Bonus!
Something different for the nature lovers & early risers.  During lock down, WildEarth are doing 2 game drives a day at Safari Parksa day, which you can watch live on You Tube. Morning drive is 5.30-8.30am and afternoon drive is 3.30-6.30pm. Interesting and informative, and questions pop up and are answered by the game rangers. They’ve discovered a  hyena who has 3/4 day old pups which they check on each drive.

Happy viewing, can’t wait to get through the list for some good family time.
Getting through lockdown, one virtual visit at a time!
Productive Muslim Mom

Creating the Ramadan Spirit : The largest Iftaar picnic in Istanbul

My dream came true this year Alhamdulillah, when I got to visit Turkey’s famous Blue Mosque during the Muslim blessed month of Ramadan.

I have been living in Istanbul for 2 years, but have yet to experience this special month, or Eid in Istanbul as I have been travelling each year during this month. Before I moved here, my husband visited the vibrant Sultanahmet area during Ramadan, and spoke excitedly about the buzzing atmosphere there, and all my dreams about what Ramadan would be like in Turkey centred around this! So this year, when I could not feel much of a Ramadan vibe, or even see any change in lifestyle like people around me fasting or preparing for iftaar etc I couldnt help but feel a tad bit disappointed. I understood it was probably mostly down to the fact that I live in a largely secualr part of Istanbul (Besiktas). I knew that if I wanted to feel the Ramadan spirit, I would have to inject it myself, and that is what I have done by takig on ccertain iniatives like iftaar picnics and attending mass community iftaars (Read all about it in my previous posts).

One of the most exciting events for me in Ramadan this year though, was the iftaar picnic we had at the Blue Mosque, in Sultanahmet. We arrived at least an hour and a half before Maghrib salaah (dusk prayers), and already the large square, grassy patchy areas outside the musjid courtyard were filling up with what must be several thousand people by the end of the evening. There was a massive stage set up with a beautiful set for some speakers who were hosting a programme (Didn’t get what it was about as it was in Turkish!), but there were also some captivating salawat being read at one stage, which was lovely to listen to – or just have playing in the background as a treat to my subconscious mind!

We met a bunch of our friends there, and found a great spot to lay down our mats and our food to settle down before it was time to open our fast. The kids had a great time running around, enjoying being outside. there were lots of families, some really geared up with fold up tables and pots to cook Turkish cay (tea). It seemed like this was a regular event in any Turkish families calendar  – coming out here to break their fast together, in one of the most significant places in Istanbul- Sultanahmet square.

Before iftaar, I walked around the square to the pop up market that was set up – similar to the ‘Christmas Markets’ in most cities in Europe- this was Turkeys equivalent -the ‘Eid market‘ – rows of art/ craft stalls in wooden cabins as well as food stalls selling traditional Turkish Ramadan specialities such as “Ottoman sherbat” – a refreshing syrup drink made from a mix of flower extracts, fruits or herbs.

Eid Markets in Sultanahmet square

A few minutes before Maghrib (dusk prayers), we settled down on our picnic mats in the open air, under the dark sky and when we heard the beautiful adhaan from the Blue Mosque, opened our fasts together, passing around dates, water and fruit.

Largest iftaar picnic in Turkey

For the main meal, we shared around the dishes we brought from home (including being treated to delicious Indian food from a nearby restaurant!). Afterwards, we headed over to pray Maghrib salaah at the Blue Mosque. There was no jamaah (congregation)  for Maghrib (now expected- see my previous posts!) and it was quite crowded (also expected!) so we prayed in the courtyard which had rows of mats laid out. Theres just something about musjid courtyards that I love – like Masjid Nabawee in Madinah – always so peaceful to pray or relax in.

To end the evening we walked around again this time to find some Turkish cay (tea) and I tasted  “gĂĽllaç” for  the first time ( a Turkish dessert made with milk, pomegranate and a special kind of pastry especially consumed especially during Ramadan). By now the Taraweeh prayers had started and we could hear the beautiful recitation through the loudspeakers. Families still milled around, relaxing during the pleasant evening. The sad tradeoff we made when choosing to have iftaar in Sultanahmet was that we would have to commute back home (1 hour journey) during Taraweeh prayers jamaah, in order to get our little one home at a reasonable bed time, and therefore pray our salaah at home instead of together at the musjid.

Nonetheless, this was a spectacular experience and for me, Alhamdulillah truly captured the essence of Ramadan – sharing, unity, enjoying fulfilling our islamic obligations, being spiritual together – and a bonus – experiencing a new part of Istanbul life!

Injecting Ramadan spirit, one magical instance at a time,
M4D

Creating the Ramadan spirit: Iftaar Picnicking in Istanbul

Our days are busy in Ramadan, and especially with iftaar being quite late in Turkey during Summer, it’s usually difficult to meet up with people. However one weekend, my friends and I decided to arrange an iftaar together -and the idea was formed to join in the local Turkish community who partake in these “Iftaar picnics” at beautiful spots such as the Blue Mosque, or in our case we went to what seems to be everyone’s favourite musjid  – Suleymaniye Mescit in Fatih.

Suleymaniye Camii at Sunset

This fitted well into my little movement to generate a special atmosphere in Ramadan as I was missing the strong ramadan ‘vibe’,  living in a largely secular part of Istanbul (read my previous post),  So I was really excited to get out of the house, meet my friends and have a new experience in opening my fast!

We arrived at the musjid (cami/mosque) about an hour before Maghrib (dusk), as the sky was slowly turning darker on a pleasantly cool Summer’s evening. Our setup was simple, we brought along picnic mats and a dish of food each, and laid out our picnic in the beautiful open grassy area outside the cami  courtyard. The place was magical – entire families were sprawled on the open lawns with their iftaar ‘tables’ prepared, children were running around happy to be outdoors and meeting their friends. While we waited for the time to open our fast, we relaxed and chatted amongst ourselves, soaking in the atmosphere and really enjoying the spirit of everyone being at that place for the same purpose- to worship Allah in fasting in Ramadan.

I took a quick walk around to behind the cami, where another fascinating scene met my eyes- at the local restaurant located there, were rows of tables set up, with at least 400 people receiving the iftaar packs from a set menu that was offered that day. It was quite interesting to see such a large scale iftaar in progress, and everything seemed really well organised.

When the adhaan went off for Maghrib salaah (prayer), I went inside the musjid to pray. There were a handful of ladies only, and some kind women offered me dates to open my fast as well. This time, there was a jamaah for Maghrib salaah inside the musjid (read my post on what usually occurs in Turkey at maghrib during Ramadan) , however the loudspeaker was turned off and we couldn’t hear it – and therefore sadly couldn’t participate in prayers in congregation! Later I noticed some ladies who were standing closer to the males, not in the demarcated women section – and in this way they could join the jamaah- lucky them!

Each of my friends brought a super special dish to share in our iftaar -we were lucky to have xx, homemade scones, homemade South African chocolate cake and even a middle east speciality: ‘karak’ chai (milky, spiced tea) to finish. Being outside, in the fresh air and with enjoyable company was amazing – probably one of the best iftaar I have ever had in my life!

We were discussing how come the concept of these iftaar picnics donot seem to be present in other places- such as South Africa for instance. Some possible reasons we mulled over included the lack of safety meaning needing to be indoors when its dark, as well as the fact that musjid courtyards there aren’t exactly set up for socialising – they are usually just the means to enter the musjid so such kind of setup just wouldn’t work currently.

Anyway, it was an incredible experience, one that will stay with me forever I’m sure, and I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Injecting the ramadan spirit, one experience at a time
M4D