From my hotel window last night.
The gardens of the Dolmabahce Palace.
No photos allowed inside...oops.
Shauna waits for the tram on a book bench. We tried to take a taxi home from the Palace, but the driver told us to get out at the Spice Market because the traffic was too bad to go all the way to Sultanahmet...even though we explained that Shauna felt sick. When I wouldn't pay him what he asked for -- 28 lira, when the ride all the way home should have been 20 -- he swore at us (I'm sure that's what he was doing) and spit at us. We had to take the tram the rest of the way home, but we did make it. As Shauna says, "there are jackasses everywhere." That taxi driver's the only one we met in Turkey, however. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to get the taxi number; Barb would willingly have straightened him out.
I had just one meal at the McDonald's around the corner...very heavy on the curry.
Here's the nifty bag that take-out comes in (in which take-out comes, for the English teachers).
In the park near out hotel, crowds and vendors gather for iftar -- the breaking of the fast.
Some nights there's music, other nights speeches and sermons. The celebration goes on for hours, stopping briefly for the last Call to Prayer, then resuming until I'm not sure when. Last night I saw a father and his young son walking home at about 1am; earlier this week, when I went to the ATM at about 7am, there were a few couples and families asleep in the park.
I 've been meaning to take some photographs of the park gatherings since Ramazan started; but, when I went out tonight, I did feel a little self-conscious about taking pictures "up close and personal." Perhaps I'll take more after our last dinner together tomorrow night. Hard to believe I'll be home in a couple of days.
Views from the rooftop of our hotel at dusk.
The barrier that surrounds the roof is clear glass, about 3 feet high. The plants you see in the right of the next photo are on the roof. The glass barrier is hard to see, and it was a bit un-nerving to be up there alone.
Conquering my fears -- looking 10 stories straight down. At this point, I was glad to be alone on the roof.
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