Greeced Turkey

Hello from Frankfurt! (Confused you with the pic from Troy, didn't I?) This airport is just as disasterous as it was in September. So much for precision German engineering and all that. I can confirm that the Black Family adage of one shower = minimum 1 hr of sleep holds true. (Though the idiotic folks behind Luftansa´s lounge rigged a 30 sec shut off on the showers. Obviously, that means you have to keep one hand on the button. Ha! Take that! American wastefulness trumps the environment, concern for others and all that. (BTW - fyi - did you know that the z and y keys are reversed on a German keyboard, among other differences? It´s miles better than using a Turkish or Japanese keyboard, but forgive the typos nonetheless.)

Let me sum up Turkey: I saw a library with no books and a brothel with no... employees... And I still had a great time! Yup, this means I went to Ephesus, among others. Also went to Gallipoli, Troy, Selcuk and a bunch of other places I could neither spell nor pronounce. Dirt. Broken stuff. History. USA! USA! Nevertheless, I did indeed appreciate ut all. Oh, and I realized that I´m a terrible history student, though I´d still argue that Dido could be considered Aeneas´ wife of sorts. Anyway, Ephesus is still awesome after all these years.

Gallipoli - its major claim to fame is being the site of an average of 550 deaths/ day during WWI, largely spent in stalemate. Worst battle was at Lone Pine. The opposing forces´ trenches (Turks vs ANZACs) were as close as eight metres apart. (BTW - if you didn´t know, ANZAC refers to the Australian New Zealand Army Corps, and so it´s a hugely popular pilgrimmage site for Oz and Kiwis. Watched a woman shove her foot far into her mouth when she started talking about awful Americans - and then switch from wine to gin and tonic to wash away her gaffe.) Anyway, being so close for what could easily be argued as a futile endeavor for so many months, the soldiers formed a bond of sorts. One side ran out of cig paper, but had lots of tobacco, and vice versa, so they shared. Truly a tale that would warm O´Henry´s change-counting-challenged heart. (I can´t even tell you how different this was from seeing the Cu Chi Tunnels, though it was definitely still interesting to learn about a battle from the other side - and being charged by the opposition to hear it! I can happily prepare a compare and contrast piece for those of who are interested.) There are loads of great stories (which I´d also be happy to share), which have secured this as one of the last ´gentlemens´ battles´. You know - don´t start fighting til after breakfast and the like. Don´t worry - I´ll round up all the appropriate links and pics some day.

Went to Samos which is a Greek Island off the coast of Turkey. It was gorgeous! The most beautiful, perfect crystal blue-green water I´ve ever seen (even btr than anything in the Carib, etc) So, it basically went - sit under the umbrella. Get hot. Jump in the cool ocean (ok, Sea). Rinse. Repeat. In fact - it was so good that the whole 14-hr bus ride back to Istanbul thing was scratched in favor of more time in Samos and a 45-min flight from Izmir to Istanbul. Even more important was the fact that I left hating Pythagoras a little bit less for being associated with such a delightful island. (especially one which almost completely shuts down from about 2 - 6 for a bit of a rest. What a brilliant lifestyle!)

A quick word about the weather - it was frickin hot. Like locals warn you to stay inside hot. Like hottest weather in 79+ yrs hot. Like 53C hot. And know what? It still wasn´t as bad as Vietnam. Why? It´s not the heat, it´s the humidity! And with that, it´s off to St. Pete´s. Hope all is well!

ps - could the value of the $USD drop a bit more? That´d be great...thanks. And good that every place I´m visiting uses a different currency, eh?