To Turkey and back(?)

I know we went to Turkey. I'm not sure I'm back yet. We got home about 2 a.m. Monday morning, so it's been a week since we left Istanbul on Saturday, but the experience was so intense that I have dreamed of travelling, seeing old rocks, and being in Turkey every night since then. The landscapes are beautiful and varied; the people are friendly. I began studying the language and feel like I left in the middle of the lesson. I miss the music of the language.

I took so many pictures that I could send 4 a day, and it would take a year to share them all. And that doesn't count the film clips. I hope to take a few at a time, grouped by subject rather than date or location, perhaps, and give you a feeling of what we saw and experienced.


Let's start with coffee---Turkish coffee...what else? The ground coffee is boiled in a little pot and all is poured into a cup without filtering. At some point you have to stop drinking because all that's left are grounds. The cardinal rule: if you want sugar, it goes in during the boiling of the water and grounds---don't stir! (In fact, it never comes with a spoon. You have to tell them when you order the coffee whether you want sugar, and how much.)



My first cup, the first night. It was served with Turkish Delight, but that is another story. Yes, it was the Hotel Titanic, but we survived.

A few days later, the coffee came in a silver container...

The patterns on this cup and saucer are typical of the designs and colors of Turkish pottery. More of that later, too.