The Turk-a-thon is over....

This just in...Melody and I rolled the dice, and we lost.
While there's still a teeny, tiny chance we could still make
it to Libya, it's highly unlikely. So, we'll be landing back
in SF on Thursday afternoon. As we say here in Turkey,
Al-hamdu-lellah. Being here has made me appreciate my life
so much. While Istanbul is modern and thriving, there's still
alot of struggle and poverty. Just to know that I can go home with
nothing and get a job and an apartment has made it worth
losing everything to know that I have all that i need to survive.
I've been trying to make a list of all the things I love about Turkey,
and here it goes.

First and foremost, the Turks, or Turkos as we've grown to call them
love many of the same things I do.

Those things are: Pasterires, beer, coffee and meat.
Mmmm...i give my highest honor to the fresh eclairs, and the
grilled kebob meat platter. And happily there are pastry and kebob
shops on every corner. We've also fallen in love with a little
place we call "clam alley". There are tons of fish vendors, and the
specialties are deep fried clams on a stick and calamari, both
served with this creamy lemon sauce, It's so good, so fresh,
and so cheap it's crazy.
Crazy delicious!
You can also watch a million cats perform death defying
acrobatic attemptsto attack the fish stands.
From above and bellow, the frisky feline adventures
risk paw and tail for one piece of that fishy goodness.

They also love canoodling. Everywhere you look there's a cute
turko couples of all ages nuzzling, smooching, and staring into each
others eyes. Very romantic.

They take care of stray cats and dogs. Stray cats are everywhere, and
we've learned to keep wipes in our purses because no matter how
nasty and scraggly the animal, i must pet it, and then take it's picture.
We actually adopted a kitten at our favorite bar.
We named his EFES Shithead Turko Junior.
Efes because we're always drinking there and he's the color of
beer, shithead because he's a little shithead that claws me,
and then climbs me like a tree, digging
his little kitten claws into my flesh, and
turko because he's a turko of course!
I'll post his portrait for you to see.

Men never let Melody light her own cigarette. But, I have a love/hate
with these Turko men. They're really aggressive.
Seriously, we neverget a moments peace.
What's your name, where are you from, what's your
number? This guy chased me down the street, and then gave
me his picture with his phone number on the back.
Really cute, but weird!

That's it for now. I'm going to post some pixs so you can see a little more of Istanbul.