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kennedy airport, more specifically. but more importantly, we’re at a chili’s “shrimp shooters, extreme fajitas or jalapeno poppers” anyone? lil loves chilis, me not so much, normally. but having had no bacon in two weeks i’m fired up for a burger. brunch is certainly what i’ve missed the most, and i’ll look to rectfy that tomorrow – actually i’ve missed baseball, too. flight wasn’t bad but we didn’t get the solid sleep we were hoping for, with me only cobbling together two or three hours. no biggie, that was “bonus” sleep anyway. i am disconcerted that i could not get an upgrade for us. i was polite, funny, earnest. the flight attendant liked me, heck she even got me to write out for her places to see/things to do in st lucia and all i got was the offer of a free beer. sigh. anyway, chilis it is, then a two hour hop to atlanta, a sketchy twenty minute train ride and an argument about which one of us should walk to get the car afterwards and POOF we’re home!

these are from inside the blue mosque….women praying in the womens section at the back of the mosque.

we got to spend an evening seeing the dervishes. i can’t imagine what it’s like during their annual celebration with 100 or more people participating in a grand hall, but the show was really really impressive. the music and ceremony are eerie. the whole sufi mysticism thing is fascinating anyway, as it seems islam’s answer to hippy spiritualism seen in the US.

it was so peaceful at night. we sat here (rather quietly) in a spot in between 2 of the 3 or 4 greatest sights in all istanbul and just watched the fountain and the blue mosque at night.

lillis enjoyed so many of the people she met on the trip, but her one constant companion (other than me) was bread. she fell in love with this loaf the moment she laid eyes (and hands) on it. this was at Bab-i Hayat – a FABULOUS restaurant just outside the spice bazaar….one of the best meals of our trip. plus our waiter had a crush on lillis.

men wash their feet (one of the ablutions) before heading into the mosque.

cool barber guy…not only did i get a haircut, a straight razor (or as my aussie friend called it – a suicide) shave and a shoulder massage, but he also used a lighter to singe my ears. i gotta say, getting a straight razor shave (well a decent one – which would be different from the guy who sliced of 3 layers of skin along with my beard in the sahara) is awesome. you feel powerful. not only is someone shaving me (like a freaking emporer or something) but also, i do not fear long sharp objects…..sorta like de niro in the untouchables. speaking of which we bought some spices and teas from the mini-turkish-robert deniro in the spice bazaar. he even let me taste iranian caviar. i kept wondering….had i broken the embargo? regardless, it was better than the russian stuff.

we ate dinner on our 3rd night at Mikla restaurant in the Marmara hotel in upscale Beyoglu. it was described to be “simply the best restaurant in all of istanbul.” so, we gave it a try. it was fabulously expensive, but it was indeed fabulous. the views were phenomenal as well…especially my view, since my view had lillis in it. here is a pic of her, and the mirror above her which allowed me to see the city as well. at one part of the restaurant, the windows (12 feet high??) were slid back to create a 40 foot long windowless area with a large outdoor patio with a wonderful view and even better breeze. amazing place.

from the rooftop of one of our hotels we got a pic of ourselves in front of the blue mosque. we ate all of our breakfasts on rooftops with views such as this, except, you know, with daylight and all. if you look closely, you can see pink adornments in lillis’ ears. those are earplugs. she had already put them in to go to bed, but i insisted she check out the view of the seagulls circling the blue mosque. she has a hard time getting them in so she was NOT taking them out. this made the walk up to (and the time on) the rooftop a view into what life for us will be like in 40 years when we can’t hear anything the other one was saying. it will be frustrating. i can’t wait.

here we are in front of the bosphorous on our last day.

here’s a young girl and her grandmother on the train

on our last night in istanbul, we had a restaurant bring dinner to our hotel, and we sat up on the rooftop by ourselves eating and soaking up the views (and breezes) one last time before heading back. the blue mosque was in rare form as the last glimpses of light escaped behind it .

we then caught a cab towards our hotel (the marriot courtyard by the airport). it was very simple except our driver didn’t recognize the address, couldn’t understand the word courtyard, and every time we said something he would either repeat marriot or airport…..neither of which were places we wanted to go. lillis decided we should just look out for the hotel and hope it was tall. luckily it was and with some sophisticated pointing and grunting we were able to navigate to it. a wonderful night in a giant bed in a large room with a modern bathroom and a view over the city in a chic new hotel was a great way to finish off the trip. rested and ready we pack and prepare for the flight back to america. homeward bound!

this is the view from one of many bays we docked in for swimming, eating, having tea, or sleeping. it’s worth noting that the water was a little cold for a southern boy, but so as not to be made to look bad by lillis is quasi-eagerly jumped in. it was always a bit of a shock to the system when you first hit the water, but proved to be quite a refreshing way to spend a good bit of our days….when we weren’t laying under a canvas sunshade or napping.

here cam (our resident singer/songwriter) sean (who defended our boats honor in a dance fight) and i have ascended one of numerous ruins we encountered on the way. a bit of this city was actually underwater. the town’s layout was still very well formed with some buildings even having surviving roofs. were it in america it would be our most famous antiquity, i suppose, here it doesn’t even warrant a sign and is available for climbing.

lillis ever the acrobat!

here is our captain. he is “the most interesting man in the world.” i would link to the dos equis campaign, but apparently turkey does not like youtube. sigh. suffice to say, i could see this guy feeding baby eagles on the side of a cliff, running with a fox in arms, playing jai alai, or squiring a boat full of models in an inflatable raft across rough seas while smoking a cigar. he wore the same outfit everyday. when it rained. he put on a sweater. he is much more awesome than i. here he was grilling chicken wings. he is…..the most interesting man in the world.

here is a neighboring boat parked in a cove around the bend from the oddest disco/bar i’ve ever set foot in.

when we were told there was a place that sometimes opened up around the corner from us (you must understand we were in the middle of nowhere), i immediately thought of the performance in the movie “apocalypse now” crossed with the scene from the same movie where they have a bridge all lit up and the vietcong are shelling it. it actually was even better than i had imagined. a random dinghy showed up at around 9:30, picked us up and shuttled us into this little building with blacklights and an anatolian shepherd the size of a small horse. it was maybe the most random place i’ve ever spent an evening. here we all our dancing. looks relatively normal.

but this is what the place really looked like (with the flash off). it was noteworthy that i heard nwa AND bon jovi while here.

anyway…..that next afternoon we motored into port. hopped on a bus, hopped on another bus, said by to our friends, ate a mulberry, continue on our bus, hopped a cab, hopped a plane, and caught a shuttle and voila! we’re in istanbul.