Not Constantinople

I know it's been awhile, but I'm much better at this when I'm not bunkered down doing research, preparing for conferences, or writing papers... the activities that dominate my life during the semester. I'm much more inspired to update everyone when I'm traveling, and right now I'm making my way across central Turkey toward the site I'll be working on for the next two months or so. So here I am in Istanbul, hammering out an update by my laptop's glow. My guesthouse has wireless internet. Life is good.

Istanbul, or at least the parts of it I've seen over the past two days, is awesome. Public transportation gets you close to walking distance of wherever you want to go. The streets radiate around the main centers, so although few of them are labeled, attentiveness and a good map suffice to for finding most places. So far I've trounced around Sultanahmet, the Great Bazaar, and Tatahnate... all on the European side of the city.

Yesterday I followed the Topkapi Palace wall around the Marmara Sea shortly after I arrived at my guest house. A narrow street runs along side the wall down toward a train station. It reminds me vaguely of some of the Italian highways I had to dart across in Rome. The street was clear for the most part, though the sidewalk stopped and picked up on the other side, so I had to cross back and forth as I made my way up and down the hills. This brings me to my next point; Istanbul is hilly. It was built along 7 hills, some say for luck. It's also chock full of cats. This I don't mind so much. As I sat listening to folk music and watching a dervish show, several cats joined me at my table. Most were disappointed that I didn't have any food and left, but one stuck around to get his neck scratched. As I walked along the side of the Great Bazaar, I saw a man dressed all in white, with golden spectacles and a cat perched on his shoulder like a parrot on a pirate. Awesome.

Of course there are downsides to tons of cats. Last night, as I tried to sleep off the jet lag, a couple got in a fight outside the window. Cats fight very loudly.

That's all for now. Tune in sometime in the next couple days for more musings on Istanbul.