Monday, October 18, 2010

The waterways of Istanbul









The Golden Horn, the Bosphorus straits and the Marmara sea, all surround Istanbul. It's a strange situation to be in both Europe and Asia. These are very busy waterways, with all kinds of ships and boats plying those waters. Unfortunately we didn't have time for any cruise, neither cruise on the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus or the Princess islands. As usual we were time starved Americans, eking out a little time from our busy lives to do a little traveling. Our guide to Cappadocia asked if we would come back, he said, lots of people have said they'll come back but never does....'life happens...and we move on to other things...' I want to but I told him, I didn't know if I will.... but we'll stay in touch..' But we met a lot of people who are being lulled into staying..... indefinitely. We've traveled so much but never saw this phenomenon where travelers have their plans upended and finding themselves staying indefinitely, sometimes because they fell in love with the super persuasive Turkish person. Or they just hang out and stay, sleeping late and spend endless hours playing backgammon like what all Turkish men does. Turkish men spend endless daylight hours in tea shops playing some kind of board game. I guess it is very persuasive, to spend our daylight moments 'lotus eating' rather come home to do the 9-5 thing called 'work'. But like Odysseus, we must tie ourselves to the mast of the ship and find our way home!

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