öööö Turkish Delight öööö
I haven't posted in a while for a couple reasons. One is that we've been traveling a lot. Going from Southern Cyprus to Northern Cyprus, in particular, was bizzare. The Turks and Greeks used to live together on Cyprus, the cultures and people relatively intermeshed, until a series of events led to a civil war in 1963 and the Turkish Cyproits went to the North and the Greek Cyproits to the South. That's the way it remains today, with much animosity about the whole ordeal. For example, if there is a Turkish Cyproit stamp on your passport, Greece may not let you into their country. But they don't mind a stamp from mainland Turkey. Ah, the impecible logic of politics. The border between the North and South is a tangle of razor wire, propagana posters, bullet ridden buildings, and UN and Turkish troops. Passing wasn't difficult though, and we enjoyed the beautiful castles, clean air, and good food of Northern Cyprus. We met a bald, goateed American, Mathew, from New Orleans who spoke in a loud friendly voice. It was good to talk to an American, at least one who is down to earth and has that southern sort of friendliness to them. He gave us some good advice about the town we were staying in, Girne. Then we took a ferry to Turkey and a 16 hour overnight bus ride that was maginificent, at least as far as overnight bus rides go. Comfortable seats, beverages and snack service, and polite stewards. On a bus. For a reasonable price too. We finally arrived in Istanbul 5 days ago, and I love the place. Rolling hills, ocean on three sides, very clean air, creative people. Like San Francisco with a call to prayer five times a day. Nick and I got an apartment today and he started his internship at the Sephardic center (a Spanish-speaking Jewish community) yesterday. We've seen a lot of great things here so far but I haven't been able to post pictures in internet cafes. Hopefully this will change soon, but for now I'll just have to try to figure out how to describe this indescribable city.