tea sugar a dream

The words in Turkish for “thank you” are “teşekkür ederim.” Phonetically in English, this sounds a lot like ‘tea sugar a dream” (when said with a Turkish accent).  Turkey has been a wonderful host, and we must say thanks.

The above is a slide show of a bunch of street shots I’ve taken over these days with a focus on the characters that we’ve encountered. If you use a Mac, you can also view it at: http://picasaweb.google.com/102268653845615318598/SlideshowIstanbulStreetScenes?feat=directlink

Time is rushing by: tomorrow we pack up and fly off to Paris.   

We did a couple of things today though nothing too ambitions.  We walked down to the Spice Market via an ambling route.  At the market, I shopped for Turkish Delight.  I purchased a 1 kg box of a variety of Turkish Delight hand-packed to my personal requests.  I had it shrink wrapped to ensure that it would last until morning.  Actually, it is my goal to have a little bit left to offer Greg, Lauri, Dayton and Gaye in 2 weeks’ time.  It will take every ounce of fortitude that I have.

We also bought picnic lunch material from a deli at the Spice Market.  We brought this back to the hotel and had a very leisurely lunch on the terrace.

Today was a beautiful day in Istanbul.  It’s easy to think that sunbathing requires a beach, but we had a pleasant afternoon just finding sunny park benches, sitting and watching the world go by.  We basically did this all afternoon.

Later, we crashed the Four Seasons hotel, just because it used to be a prison and we're practicing in hopes that we can crash the Ritz in Paris. 

I went out for yet another walk and Diane drank yet more tea with local merchants.

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