Readers, note that I am skipping posts about Sydney for now. I've been in Istanbul for three days and have been so busy that I'm running out of time at the end of the day to blog. I arrived in Istanbul after sunset on October 31, with barely enough light to make out the red tile roofs of the city's buildings clustered at the west edge of the Sea of Marmara. It took a long time to exit the loaded 777; I was in row 42. But the visa process was quick and exactly as stated: hand over passport and $20 U.S., the unsmiling clerk affixes the stamp, and you're in. Customs and immigration were fast, too, and not too long after landing, I caught sight of Sue's red hair just beyond the exit from the secured area. We greeted each other with a big hug and then headed out to the curb. She phoned Umit, the driver, and we dodged a couple lanes of traffic, arriving at the pickup point just as he pulled up in the giant BMW Sue had warned me about. Sue's husband, Sa...
Comments