at present sitting in the lobby of world house istanbul pleasantly sated on pilaf and looking at a fruit stand selling fresh fruit juices (including pineapple) through the open patio window where a couple sits playing backgammon, and fore to them a triplet of italian girls drinks turkish coffee and gesticulates under a wallboard portrait of a woman with red lips wearing a bathrobe against a brickwall background, washed out colours and her done-up-but-let-back-down black hair.
up the spiral staircase done in stone, going up to our eight-bed dorm, there is a map showing tourist attractions and someone has marked "sundance" on in pencil, near olympos. there is a sign in block lettering warning not to go with strangers to bars. the backgammon board smells like cigarette smoke and wood varnish.
istanbul has different kinds of businesses tucked into the nooks and crannies of the city. today we seemed to be wandering in the hardware store and machine parts district where little shops put floor models of huge industrial air compressors on out display in the already crowded sidewalks. there is a clothing district, the bazaar district, the leather district, the scuba district. our hostel is in the music shop district -- every other store has violins, ouds and tanburs on display.
evening now and it is cooling down.
very different than when i visited last. bustle in the streets, especially fruit vendors. fresh orange juice for a lira. sunny today and so hot that cats and dogs co-existed peacefully and sleepily in the limited shade. as well i am little bit able to get by in turkish. i know all the words on the vocabulary factoid card and then some, and i proffer them easily. people tell me my turkish is excellent. it is half bluff, but only half.
