She Is,tanbul

In no chronological order....between: pre-departure papers, unpacking & re-packing, visa lines, sunshine in my face for (most of) the week, exotic compliments, walking above sea-level & looking down on layers of city, trekking back to the hotel because it's midnight and I'm without a "spoon", stimulated by bold colors, neon colors, and natural colors, sitting at the bar by candlelight with a drink and a smoke exchanging names with Turkish sociology majors, dining daily on the cheapest to most expensive cuisine in the city, passing street after side street smelling cigarette, cay (tea), and dead fish, turning the corner to Taksim, re-learning'Thank-you' as "Sal," not "Tak", constantly double-taking the shops that might all sell the same but knowing each ceramic bowl is truly detailed differently, then 4 Turkish Lira dinner on the water (salad, bread and fish), hookah and tea with Armenian tabu radio hosts, & then a toast before every second draft of beer, the East side view of Turkey in Asia, Prayer call heard at least twice a day, visits to old mosques and big mosques, and Blue Mosque, before a well-preserved Sultan's Palace, sharing the streets with stray dogs and cats, toasted water chestnuts for a snack off the street, American music on officially any European dance-floor, palm reading after my Turkish coffee cup reading, apple tea (no sweetening necessary), Salep, bottled water (nothing less or your stomach's in trouble), Turkish delight, Turkish haggling, Turkish translations, "Yes, please" meaning, "Come into my shop," seeking out the minority beef with Turkey and within Turkey, scoping the nightlife (but never alone), & back to bed before 9 a.m. breakfast.....I got just past acquaintance with this city when all of a sudden we were boarding the bus to the airport for our flight back to Copenhagen. I think Istanbul was a serious love affair for all of my class and it has taken awhile to shake off. It was such a wonderful taste of old Europe (but not technically) that I never would have thought to explore until I signed up for my core-course four months ago. It only helped that my class gets on pretty well together and by the end of our trip it was a good exhaustion from six packed days of lectures between visits between meals before free-time. By far, a city I know I'll be able to continue a relationship with someday along with the rest of this continent.