My Mom figured it out, much to her delight, and we were given our first 4 missions. Our challenges were very straightforward and were easy to decode. After finding the answers to all of the missions, we wrote down the letters that were in bubbles and we had our final clue, the clue said, “Go to the Café Sibil.” We arrived at the café to find four people waiting at a table: the man who had been secretly photographing us the entire time, a woman, another man, and the man who had given us our first 4 missions. They were all smiling and welcomed us with cold drinks. They then told us that to get our next four challenges we would have to complete a game in 4 different ways. The game was, effectively, a wooden Tetris. Now, you might think that this would be easy, but the pieces all had to fit in a box around a blue square. Each time we completed the puzzle they would move the square to a different location and we would have to solve it again! They gave us a big version and a tiny version. My dad and I worked on the big one while, naturally, my sister took control of her board and began to ignore us all as she concentrated on the colorful wood.
After a few minutes we had completed 4 variations and we began to solve the next 4 puzzles. This time, we stayed at the cafe and decoded all the questions before setting out to take our pictures of the locations (to prove we were there) and find the answers. After solving missions 5, 6, 7 and 8, we discovered our next meeting place, The Blue Mosque. There we were greeted by the woman whom we had met earlier and we were given the challenge that we would have to complete to get last four challenges. The challenge consisted of 3 parts; each part was a drawing of matchsticks in a certain position. The goal of each was to remove a number of matches to make a certain amount of squares. So that we didn’t scribble hopelessly on the paper, we used actual sticks. When we were done we solved our last 4 challenges. Amazingly, I knew most of the answers and we were able to figure out everything without leaving the spot.
We then went to the various locations, which included the main sites of the Hagia Sophia and the famous Hippodrome, took our pictures, and headed to the final meeting place. Earlier at the Blue Mosque, Katherine had been given a key. Now she was going to be able to use it. Everyone from the Café Sibil was there and, on a table, there was a big wooden treasure chest. Katherine tentatively inserted the key and opened the chest and—lo and behold!—it was filled with chocolate gold coins!
We then had a wonderful time as we shared riddles, puzzles, sleight of hand tricks, and just talked. We were having so much fun that a waiter and some passersby came over and joined the fun (I think the chocolate had something to do with it, too). When we were done, we “tipped” the waiter in chocolate coins and said goodbye. First Impression of Turkey….bliss…
Jul 12
The Great Hunt
by Carter in Middle East, Turkey
Today was our first true day in Istanbul. Upon waking up, we had breakfast and returned to our room to get ready for a scavenger hunt!
Dad went to the front desk and came back with two envelopes. The first envelope had a strange puzzle, a map and a cell phone. In the second envelope there were four nametags, each with one of our names on it. We went outside and sat down underneath a tree where we were surprised by a mystery caller. The cell phone we had been given, suddenly and without warning, blasted out an exotic Turkish ringtone, causing us all to jump. My dad answered the phone and a voice told him to solve the puzzle.
We began to work on the puzzle which was a small black square of paper filled with letters. In the corners there were seemingly useless white bubbles. My dad found the words “Beck Street” and we all wasted a good 20 minutes looking for Beck Street on our THREE maps (after 5 minutes we got 2 more from our hotel). After 20 minutes we got another call from…The Mystery Man. He asked if we were done yet, and when we told him no, he told us to keep at it. About 2 minutes after the second call, a man came out from behind a truck and took a photo of us before disappearing back from whence he had come. We continued searching for another 10 minutes before the Mystery Man called again. This time he told us that the white bubbles go with the letters and then let us continue on. We put the proper, or so we thought, letters in the boxes and tried to unscramble the letters. Ten more minutes later the poor Mystery Man had to call again. We told him we were trying to unscramble the letters and he replied that there was no un-scrambling needed, and then we had our photo taken, again. Ten more minutes later, The Mystery Man had to intercede again. This time, it was not a call but a text message. He told us every other letter of his location and we were able to guess where he was. We headed over to the Imperial Gate of the Topkapi Palace (where the Sultans used to live) and saw a man wearing sunglasses and a T-shirt that had a big question mark on it.
We introduced ourselves and he told us how the scavenger hunt would work. Katherine was given a master book for all the answers to the questions and was told that she would be in charge of it. I was given a PoGo (a little machine that printed out digital photos through Bluetooth) and was taught how to take pictures and send them to the PoGo using the cell phone. The man then gave us a challenge. He said, “To get your first 4 missions”, (there were 12 in total), “I want you to fold this piece of paper into a cube.” And he handed us each a piece of blue paper that looked like this:
My Mom figured it out, much to her delight, and we were given our first 4 missions. Our challenges were very straightforward and were easy to decode. After finding the answers to all of the missions, we wrote down the letters that were in bubbles and we had our final clue, the clue said, “Go to the Café Sibil.” We arrived at the café to find four people waiting at a table: the man who had been secretly photographing us the entire time, a woman, another man, and the man who had given us our first 4 missions. They were all smiling and welcomed us with cold drinks. They then told us that to get our next four challenges we would have to complete a game in 4 different ways. The game was, effectively, a wooden Tetris. Now, you might think that this would be easy, but the pieces all had to fit in a box around a blue square. Each time we completed the puzzle they would move the square to a different location and we would have to solve it again! They gave us a big version and a tiny version. My dad and I worked on the big one while, naturally, my sister took control of her board and began to ignore us all as she concentrated on the colorful wood.
After a few minutes we had completed 4 variations and we began to solve the next 4 puzzles. This time, we stayed at the cafe and decoded all the questions before setting out to take our pictures of the locations (to prove we were there) and find the answers. After solving missions 5, 6, 7 and 8, we discovered our next meeting place, The Blue Mosque. There we were greeted by the woman whom we had met earlier and we were given the challenge that we would have to complete to get last four challenges. The challenge consisted of 3 parts; each part was a drawing of matchsticks in a certain position. The goal of each was to remove a number of matches to make a certain amount of squares. So that we didn’t scribble hopelessly on the paper, we used actual sticks. When we were done we solved our last 4 challenges. Amazingly, I knew most of the answers and we were able to figure out everything without leaving the spot.
We then went to the various locations, which included the main sites of the Hagia Sophia and the famous Hippodrome, took our pictures, and headed to the final meeting place. Earlier at the Blue Mosque, Katherine had been given a key. Now she was going to be able to use it. Everyone from the Café Sibil was there and, on a table, there was a big wooden treasure chest. Katherine tentatively inserted the key and opened the chest and—lo and behold!—it was filled with chocolate gold coins!
We then had a wonderful time as we shared riddles, puzzles, sleight of hand tricks, and just talked. We were having so much fun that a waiter and some passersby came over and joined the fun (I think the chocolate had something to do with it, too). When we were done, we “tipped” the waiter in chocolate coins and said goodbye. First Impression of Turkey….bliss…
My Mom figured it out, much to her delight, and we were given our first 4 missions. Our challenges were very straightforward and were easy to decode. After finding the answers to all of the missions, we wrote down the letters that were in bubbles and we had our final clue, the clue said, “Go to the Café Sibil.” We arrived at the café to find four people waiting at a table: the man who had been secretly photographing us the entire time, a woman, another man, and the man who had given us our first 4 missions. They were all smiling and welcomed us with cold drinks. They then told us that to get our next four challenges we would have to complete a game in 4 different ways. The game was, effectively, a wooden Tetris. Now, you might think that this would be easy, but the pieces all had to fit in a box around a blue square. Each time we completed the puzzle they would move the square to a different location and we would have to solve it again! They gave us a big version and a tiny version. My dad and I worked on the big one while, naturally, my sister took control of her board and began to ignore us all as she concentrated on the colorful wood.
After a few minutes we had completed 4 variations and we began to solve the next 4 puzzles. This time, we stayed at the cafe and decoded all the questions before setting out to take our pictures of the locations (to prove we were there) and find the answers. After solving missions 5, 6, 7 and 8, we discovered our next meeting place, The Blue Mosque. There we were greeted by the woman whom we had met earlier and we were given the challenge that we would have to complete to get last four challenges. The challenge consisted of 3 parts; each part was a drawing of matchsticks in a certain position. The goal of each was to remove a number of matches to make a certain amount of squares. So that we didn’t scribble hopelessly on the paper, we used actual sticks. When we were done we solved our last 4 challenges. Amazingly, I knew most of the answers and we were able to figure out everything without leaving the spot.
We then went to the various locations, which included the main sites of the Hagia Sophia and the famous Hippodrome, took our pictures, and headed to the final meeting place. Earlier at the Blue Mosque, Katherine had been given a key. Now she was going to be able to use it. Everyone from the Café Sibil was there and, on a table, there was a big wooden treasure chest. Katherine tentatively inserted the key and opened the chest and—lo and behold!—it was filled with chocolate gold coins!
We then had a wonderful time as we shared riddles, puzzles, sleight of hand tricks, and just talked. We were having so much fun that a waiter and some passersby came over and joined the fun (I think the chocolate had something to do with it, too). When we were done, we “tipped” the waiter in chocolate coins and said goodbye. First Impression of Turkey….bliss…
Error thrown
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