İstanbul, Oct 6 - 7

Of all the words I've learned in Turkish so far, I can't for the life of me remember how to say "thank you." Actually, I thought I knew, having picked the easiest-to-pronounce option of the three listed in my tour book. But yesterday when I met up with Kunter, the son of an old Turkish friend of a (Houston-based) family friend of mine (got that?), and his girlfriend, and decided to show off my rusty memorization skills, this was the only one I got wrong. Boo! And after having spent the entire weekend with them, I still can't remember. This language is hard!

In any case, the weekend itself was wonderful. I got a call from Kunter on Friday and we'd agreed to make plans for Saturday; I figured I'd spend an afternoon with him and that's it, but as it turns out he had planned on showing me around for the entire weekend! I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, since Turkish people have consistently been nothing but super friendly and accommodating. Yesterday we took the tram -- one of half a dozen modes of public transportation available in Istanbul, and still the city chokes on traffic -- a few stops over to Eminonu, where we visited the Yeni Camii (a mosque) and the spice bazaar. With the help of my Turkish guide friends I was able to try a few Turkish candies (besides the stereotypical Turkish delight), which were quite tasty... even if they were strange-looking, like one delicious but long, thick and lumpy string of assorted nuts coated in a brown rubber-like substance made out of grapes. Mmm :-) I'm looking forward to swinging back this way in a few weeks to pick up some apple tea before I come home. But the strangest thing people were selling: leeches! Yikes! Definitely NOT bringing back any of those :-)

We walked back out and over the Galata Bridge (no falls this time!), past the fishermen who are there day, noon and night, and up a very steep hill to the Galata Tower, which gave us a great view of the city. We wandered around a modern shopping district for a while before going up to a swanky little hotel cafe for a late lunch, to which Kunter and Aysegul insisted on treated me since it was my birthday. The food wasn't really Turkish but the views at the enormous, open picture windows were breathtaking, and it was a welcome, relaxing break for my tired feet.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Sempre Libera-style trip without a swing through an art museum, so off we went to the Istanbul Modern to check out some of the work on display throughout the city for the 10th annual Istanbul Biennial. Except for the occasional view it has over the Bosphorus, the museum itself is in a pretty non-descript, if not downright unattractive, old warehouse-type building and the space inside is still very raw and industrial. But this is actually perfect for the museum since its definition of "modern" is distinctly contemporary (as opposed to the MoMA vs. PS1 dichotomy in NYC). The works on display here leaned heavily in a political direction, which is always a dicey proposition since it's so hard to say something meaningful without reverting to cliches. There were some standouts, though, most notably a sculpture series in which the artist turned Arabic newsprint into small-scale papier-mache duplicates of some of the thousands of ancient sculptures that were lost just after the US invasion of Baghdad, when the Iraq National Museum was looted. It was the kind of art that was all the more powerful because it didn't need explaining.

This morning I woke up for another run, and managed to stay upright the entire time :-) Nothing but fishermen lining the Marmara the whole way! It's hard to go very far -- apparently Istanbul has some of the least green space of any city in Europe -- but I did manage to put in about 5 miles by retracing my steps only once.

I met Kunter again and we hopped on a commuter ferry across the Bosphorus to Uskudar -- my first time setting foot in Asia! That alone was pretty cool. We spent the next couple of hours walking along waterfront under the glorious October sun, all the way over to Kadikoy and through the old Moda neighborhood. The Asian side of Istanbul is much more residential, and so while I saw very little that was traditionally touristy today, it was really a wonderful chance to see how people live every day. Kunter and his friends aren't religious, but they did observe the Ramadan fast today and so when the sun set we gathered for an enormous (the plates just kept coming!), and delicious, traditional Turkish meal at a local restaurant. I came home over the Bosphorus Bridge to a beautiful nighttime skyline. Kunter asked me if my birthday wish had come true -- to which I said, well, this trip was a birthday present to myself, so that's good enough for me!

Thanks to all for your comments so far, and keep 'em coming... Just remember to sign them (for you non-bloggers, aliases are OK as long they're somewhat decipherable) so I know who you are :-)