Don’t have much I want to say… I’m still livid following an event involving two exploited child beggars, their ruthless pimp, and an ensuing confrontation with said pimp and yours truly.
But if I had to choose one picture to best describe Istanbul, this would be my pick.
UPDATED (21 July 2013):
· Walking through Istanbul, you can just tell that this place was once the centre of the world.
· Turkish ice cream is very good (basically chewy hard ice cream). I don’t know why I never heard of it before.
· Every night, Turkish families would break their Ramadan fasts on picnics around the mosques — it was wonderful to watch.
· And the great thing about the mosques is that they provide a nice little spot to nap inbetween exploring in the middle of the day (well, if you’re male).
· Before coming, everyone would say to me “Turkey is amazing”, but what I think they really meant to say was “Turkey is very nice, and Istanbul is amazing“.
if you find a nice “nazar” amulet for men or a nice set or worry beads please bring it back for me.
in return, I have a pair of spice mortars I got from Brasil for you. One is made from wood from the Pataxo tribe. The other is made from soap-stone.
have you played backgammon in Turkey yet?
You’re too late! I’ve left Turkey already. The spice mortars will make my amazing dhal even better.
Everyone in Turkey plays backgammon. Everywhere. They are very good, but they make dumb mistakes. They seem to think that they can affect the outcome of the dice by the way they roll it, somehow, and so sometimes they make strange moves thinking they will get the unlikely roll they want — very silly.