Atlas Hotel Bursa

... with soap,and
air, squeezing bubbles all over us and giving us a bit of a massage
while washing us off. After the final rinse with warm water, we felt
all fluffy and new! The treatment cost us $20 each! Now, that's an
experience we won't forget

We spent 5 hours on the bus from Egirdir to Konya, which is a prime
agricultural area. Although the land is very arid, drip irrigation
allows small plots of farmland to be cultivated with various ...

... in the background. Earlier in the summer, it came bouncing off the wall opposite, and into my bedroom at 4am. Everyday. Turn the sound up loud. It is for me. I apologize for the distracting sounds as I handled the camera in the first part. ..

And, the call to prayers have only been parts of the sounds in the last week, the holy week of Muslim Bayram. Another sound, which I finally got around to preparing my camera for, is the Drum Nazi. I call him that in regard to the Seinfeld ...

... I audited about a year and a half ago. In contrast to Caroline Finkel's Osman's Dream, which seemed to be a step-by-step accounting of every battle fought during the 623 years, Imber's was to focus on "the internal structure and politics" of the empire. It was much more engaging to be sure.

Given that my sister is expected to visit me in October, and I will meet her in Istanbul, it seemed appropriate that I should next turn my interests to the period preceding the ...

... street for more talk.

As we were preparing to leave that village we were invited to what was first thought to be a circumcision party taking place down the street on the grounds of the village mosque. We got some food, then found out that instead, the event was a Kuran reading contest.

By the time we returned to the youth center, it seems that the final concept for the exterior graphic had been selected by a committee vote. So I don't know anything of ...

... the the defeat of the Greeks in a "civil" war of independence following the First World War. Historical records of the church are, I guess, non-existent. I asked, (playing Devil's Advocate) why they wanted to restore the church rather than tear it down and build a nice new building. I was told "because of the law." About the time we were finished with our tea we were invited to a community event, which initially was thought to be a sünnet, a ...

... light, which was broken, the paint around it dented and scraped. "Sorry Jared," said Sal. "We have to stay here until the police can come and write a report. Then my insurance will pay for this. If not, I have to. Sorry about this." "No problem," I said. "I'm just worried about your car." The police showed up about a half hour later, and they were none too happy. "You reported a crash!" cried the policeman. "A crash is between two ...

... any of her story. A sort of Edith Piaf of Turkey, in some respects. What I saw, though was heart-warming.

She was unpretentious. She at times chatted with the audience. At one point a mother set her about 3 year old son on the stage, to be embraced and chatted to by a kneeling Aksu. She joked, and made sexy moves. She ceded the stage two times to solo performances by two of her supporting band. The crowd sang along to almost all of her songs.

My little ...

... event! There was nothing about that, even in Turkish, in the program. Z. recognized a friend, and American, and his date, a Turkish miss. They had tickets. They went in; we waited with the mob, wondering when and if the ticket office would open. Not a problem price-wise, at only 2 YTL , or about US$1.60. But, the ticket office wasn't opening. We stood by, as people with tickets streamed in. Then I looked to see that not all that were entering looked to have tickets in ...

... practical issue is to accel**ate human well-being and make more rational use of the resources we have on this planet."

Mr. Stein** said parts of Africa could reach an environmental tipping point if changing rainfall patt**ns turned semi-arid zones into arid zones and made agriculture much hard**. He said anoth** tipping point could occur in India and China if Himalayan glaci**s shrank so much that they no long** supplied adequate amounts of wat**. He also warned of a global ...

... worrying about electronics and tracking on recently cleaned floors so I shut the door again.

I thought: I'm going to take a walk. Let the floor drain and dry; deal with it later.

Just then the door bell--well, it's actually kind of a bird chirping sound--rang. Or rather, chirped. It was my friend Mesut and a visitor from Belgium. They were visiting the Green Mosque and stopped by. Just in time.

We three went walking, first visiting a ...