Hotel Sokullu Bursa

... whose sides open up? Well there was a crowd and come to find out the man in the truck was selling homemade cheeses and honey. We waited in line, had a few samples and bought cheese! (although I tried to hand signal 'just a little' and we ended up with a lot more than just a little). It was white and long and stringy and tasted just like string cheese! The food debacles continued when we went to dinner. It was a great ...

... bad for an Istanbul dinner.

I got back to my host's lodging at about 10pm, and crashed, due, certainly to the walking, heat, humidity and hunger. To be awakened, remind, by the "drum nazis" at perhaps 3am parading in the street below.

On the second day I wanted to take a bus from Taksim, and to get over to the Kariye Musesi/Chora Church earlier, then do some other exploring (walking), purchasing remaining books as I got back to the minister's apartment
The Lonely Planet ...

... I presume, for citizens of the inner city, who mostly live in apartments to have a "get-away house," and nurture a garden plot of flowers or vegetables as they may choose. The camp is a series of one room cabins with a tiny toilet and shower room, and in the main room a counter and sink for food preparation. All else, I presume, was left to the owners or renters to supply. The larger camp is still under development, and an unassigned section had been apportioned ...

... then, so no computer along then). In another Georgian town on the way back to Turkey I stayed a couple of nights in a "home stay" found in the Lonely Planet guide. It was a pretty poor town (though with a few Mercedes and BMWs tooling around). It was sort of like being back in the nineteenth century. I went to a neighborhood Sunday Orthodox church service with a blind woman from the house I was staying at. I was a little late in getting dressed ...

... makes a key (anahtar) is called an anahtarci. A doorman is called a "kapici" (kapi=door + ci, the one who attends). So, Los Gelcis, the guys who shout at drivers trying to park and unpark their cars.

These same fellows also attend to the WC, cleaning and collecting a small fee. Most mosques have a WC in or proximate to them. Let's just say they vary in maintenance. So, if you are ever in a pinch, head for the minarets. And, people--guys, too--carry your own paper!

Bursa, Turkey oldrover

... the ones in Istanbul! I saw many more lighter-skinned, Eastern European-looking people, which I found surprising. I figured the more southern you go, the darker and middle eastern the people would be. Anyway, after the dance, so many people were swarming us that we decided to take off. We got more free drinks and free scarves and glittery scraps of fabric... oh my gosh, it was SO FUN to crash a village party and hang out with the locals! We strolled downhill ...

... know). But it seems a pithy summary of the trends seen in all of the articles I have selected. A "tipping point" is often spoken of these days. That t**m seems to me to imply that a definite precipice will come to be recognized . . . . at some indistinct future p**iod. But I rath** see it as a "tipping p**iod," the apex of a parabolic bell curve, and at which we may be exp**iencing in these days. It reminds me of those exp**iences of astronaughts in training, and oth**s of int**est ...

... of it in my next dated report). But surely the Turks could, if anything, give lessons in environmental degradation. I began my hike on this Sunday in a park of sorts where families were engaged in picnics. It overlooked the rocky--and now dry--creekbed that issued from the gorge. Waterworks perhaps above probably diverted the little late season water. In any case, the creek bed was a veritable trash bin. The Turkish mentality, I am sorry to say, is anything but, "pack ...

... roughed out in the yard of the Görükle Municipal Maintenance shop and vehicle parking. The idea is that the major debris is better handled there, and of course, the work can proceed relatively undisturbed. The figures will be moved to the final site while still having some strength in substance, then be finely tuned by Okan.

There is not much to say about the work out there. I basically sat around all day, occasionally rousing myself to photograph work in progress ...

... angling up across the face of the hillside on the east side of the city. Where it disappeared there was a deep gorge. And so I had to find out what was back in there.

I took a metro train to a station I guessed to be parallel with where the road seemed to emerge out of the urban housing, and from there I walked up the hot, San Francisco-steep streets in search of the road beginning--trying to keep in the shade of buildings.

Bursa, Turkey oldrover