istanbul, 21 may

the flight yesterday was long, but tolerable as far as overnight flights go. i sat next to this nice guy who was headed to istanbul for his brother's wedding. he switched seats with me so i could sit next to the window, and gave me his airplane magazine since my crossword puzzle was already done, and volunteered to hold my trays so i could fold up my table. i slept a bit, maybe three hours, and watched "a series of unfortunate events" (again). we had a ride waiting for us at the airport, a minibus, which promptly got lost in sultanahmed, the old city. so we got an unplanned bus tour while our driver navigated the teensy streets and tried not to pull his hair out.

once i'd showered and rested and felt a bit more human, i walked next door to the kalyon. we're staying in a bunch of different boutique hotels in sultanahmed, mostly according to our own special little caste system. the nice thing about mine is that its backdoor leads right into the old town. also, we have mtv. it's pretty incredible how much actual music is played here. it has its share of wild boyz et al, but i've watched more music videos in two days than is played in an entire week of reasonable-hour u.s. mtv.
anyway.

after lunch with our friends from lithuania, i wandered around a bit by the water (the sea of marmara!) and walked up to the old city. i'm a pretty confident traveler, and i have more experience than most with muslim villages, having spent so much time in iran. even so, i was uncomfortable walking around alone for long stretches of time in istanbul. i kept finding myself in dead-end back alleys; strangely, i felt better there than in the touristier areas. i didn't want to keep my camera out of my bag, which meant i had to keep turning it on and off and opening and closing my bag. i think a lot of the men that spoke to me were intrigued by me because it's not plainly obvious where i come from, especially since i was alone and not speaking to anyone. still, i don't want turkish men following me around trying to find out what country i'm from. i really just wanted to be left alone to absorb the sights, and it was unsettling to have to keep a watchful eye out all the time. after a short while i gave up and went back to the hotel, figuring it'd be easier and more pleasant to sightsee when others arrived.

i ended up sleeping for most of the rest of the day. my computer was dead dead dead and wouldn't turn on, and i had forgotten to bring an adapter with me. so i took a 4hour nap and then read 2001: a space odyssey before falling asleep again at midnight. true to form, i slept til noon. that makes 16 hours of sleeping yesterday and today. mighty nice for my first day of not-vacation. i figure i've got to get my sleep in now, to make up for lack of sleep in the recent weeks as well as to stock up for greece, so i can get up early and not be grumpy.

today a new set of osi folks came. i had an early-ish lunch, by turkish standards. once erin and matt were recovered from traveling, i met them (and emily and helena) to walk to sultanahmed for lunch. i nibbled on appetizers and had a cappuccino while they ate, and then walked back to the hotel with emily and helena to make sure they didn't get lost and also to try to connect to the internet, now that i can plug my computer in. unfortunately i can't get it to work. and, sadly, i don't have a wireless card to take advantage of the kalyon's wireless internet. i've asked at the reception desk how to dial a local number MULTIPLE times, but no one seems to understand me. maybe there'll be an internet cable next door that i can steal.

more to come. stay tuned, folks!