ISTANBUL: MOSQUITO MEN

Reportedly mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide and find their victims through our respiration. In the same vein (pun intended) the plethora of touts, salesman, con artists and generally scary people are attracted to tourists by - what? our evident foreign appearance perhaps? Anyway, you can't walk fifteen feet in old Istanbul (Sultanahmet)without someone trying to pull you into his restaurant or store, or trying to sell you a carpet, or offering to be your guide, or scamming you in some fashion or other. This must succeed, I suppose, or they wouldn't be doing it; apparently most people are too polite to tell them to buzz off, or ignore them completely despite their most adamant pleas for attention. One idiot simply decided to follow us, for over a mile; when we'd stop, he'd stop; when he passed us, he'd turn around for time to time to see where we were and just loiter until we started to catch up. Finally, being sick of him, we went up to him and confronted him. While he claimed to speak no English, Eileen's threatening to call the police (same word in Turkish) and my threatening to break his neck, seemed to work.

Istanbul was, otherwise, wonderful. We stayed at the Hotel Ibrahim Pasha in Sultanahmet, a really lovely small hotel (about fifteen rooms) done in traditional Turkish style, and with a terrific location for seeing the sights of Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar) ancient cisterns, etc.). A typical day starts with waking up to the amplified calls of the muzzeizins at dawn (I suppose this could become tedious, but for the few days we were there, it was, well, romantic)and then enjoying a really delicious Turkish breakfast, free, at the hotel. They also have a very comfortable lounge with leather sofas and a warm and comforting fireplace. The staff fall all over themselves to be of as much help in anything as they can be.

Having used two days to tour Sultanahmet, and tiring of the touts and hawkers, we spent the next couple of days on the opposite shore of the Golden Horn. Because the main, or modern, part of the city is on the top of a steep hill (overlooking the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus) we forewent (is that a word?) walking and took a cab (the driver didn't even cheat us!) to Taksim Square (yes, of course: a taxi to Taksim)and walked down the main shopping street - it's about a mile long, very wide, and closed to vehicle traffic except deliveries and the old streetcar that runs along its middle) It's bounded by modern stores and restaurants and seems to be the place where Istanbulus themselves hang out, quite croweded both day and night. The southern terminus of the street is Tunel Square, where one can catch an underground funicular to the Golden Horn shore for only about$.30 US. We did this and then took the ferry across the Bosphorus so Eileen and I could be in Asia for the first time! The public transit in Istanbul is great, clean, modern and cheap, and easy to figure out (e.g., buy a token at a booth, put it in the turnstile, and board! No complicated fare cards or "driver has no change" problems here!

I have lots of pictures to post but they're on my private laptop which I'll need to bring to the office (I'm in Dushanbe as I type this) so I can upload some to this blog!