A memorable day

In the gray light of early morning, I was jolted out of sleep by the sound of murder. Ah! Ah! Ahhhhhh!! After 10 seconds, my sleep fuddled brain realized it was just a gull. I really prefer the East Coast's laughing gull to Istanbul's screaming one.

I managed to fall asleep again, and woke to a beautiful sunny day. Today my mission was to find some nice silk scarves. I thought I remembered a street on the northwest side of the Grand Bazaar where the scarf wholesalers were found. In order to avoid Nuruosmaniye (and a walk through the bazaar), I took the tram to Beyazit, on the southwest side of the bazaar. I walked around to the north and suddenly found myself surrounded by scarf shops. Feeling like a rock star, and slightly less worried about impending Alzheimer's, I looked in each window and wondered why everyone was ignoring me. Finally I stopped to ask a friendly-looking shopkeeper. She very apologetically told me they only sold wholesale. When I asked where to go to buy a scarf, she said Wait. She turned to the manager and said, she's American and speaks such nice Turkish, can I sell her a scarf? and he said Yeah sure. :) So I got two nice scarves at the wholesale price. Just goes to show it never hurts to ask!

I left Scarfville and wandered. Naturally I ended up in Nuruosmaniye, which seems to draw me like a magnet. Maybe I lived there in a past life. I turned north and made my way down to the Spice Bazaar. Along the way, as I was taking a picture of a fountain, two people behind me began to admire my Otterbox. I turned and they said

That is so nice!
The cell phone case?
Yes! We don't have anything like that here.

A brief discussion of the merits and cost of the Otterbox ensued. Then the woman said,

Wow your Turkish is so nice, you must live here.
No, but I used to.
How nice that you can speak another language! See, we were able to make a connection, how wonderful, knowledge is so important, ya.

Two cultural ambassadors connecting in front of a fountain of undrinkable water. There's a deeper meaning in there somewhere.

In Eminonu, near the ferry landing, a giant bus sat on the plaza. It was a free internet bus. Inside were small workstations with laptops, for anyone to use. You often see innovative things like this in Istanbul. I have even seen a charging station for electric cars, in one of the most crowded old sections of Beyoglu. You ask yourself, how many electric cars could there be here? But I suppose, if you want people to adopt new technology you have to start somewhere.

In the evening I met Asli at Duble, a rooftop restaurant in Pera. The view is amazing - a 360 degree panorama of Istanbul and the Bosphorus. The food was also amazing. We had many meze, all good but a few stood out: oven-baked hummus with sucuk (sausage);a dish of sliced eggplants, roasted and marinated in olive oil and tomato with I think figs; puréed fava beans, so light and airy!; and two spicy spreads, one tomato-y the other red pepper-y. Oh, and a cold eggplant purée with cheese. Really amazing food.

On my way back to the hotel I passed several dogs. They are mostly friendly, but really only want food from you. I haven't seen more than two dogs together. I expected them to roam in packs, but for the most part they are solitary souls. Cats on the other hand often roam in gangs, and approach people for companionship as well as food. I'm still amazed at the number of animals on the street here. Call me crazy, it's kind of nice.

Now it is Wednesday. The morning rain has stopped, so I better get going. I'm going to try to find Rustem Pasa Camii without the map - let's see if my remembering streak continues.