my first evening in istanbul

so. we head out from my hotel, G, S and me. S is meeting up with her turkish school-mate friends later. we head to the area of the new mosque, where we will have our meeting place with them. we decide to sit in a cafe and have some tea while we wait. on the walk along cafe row, we are barraged by offers to drink tea at the establishments of numerous friends. we opt to go to the top of the little hill for our tea. G is stopped 70 times. he actually stops when people try to talk to him. S and i walk on past. i give my sweet-sounding, polite, canadian "no thank you" with an amazing, dontcha love me smile to each of them, thus breaking hearts in my wake.

for the time that G and S have been traveling/wandering together, people have hilariously assumed that G is a frenchman traveling with his hottt japanese gfriend, S. S is korean. konichiwa, say all the turks to S. konichiwa (in the most girly voice i can manage without barfing) is the motto for our hangings-outs with S. konichiwa, S. wherever you are (probs back in korea).

turkish tea is addictive. G was on some 6 times a day kick. i was less addicted but i'm sure after a few more weeks there, i'd be hooked up to an IV. we met S's friends -- 3 sisters, two of whom study in korea. when we met up with them, their mother was there too, so we got motherly turkish hugs (3 time, cheek to cheek) awesome! we had dinner at a nice place nearby - they chose the dishes, and they were all delicious. the company was great & so was the food. they (especially the eldest sister (very beautiful woman) who didn't speak much english and hadn't lived outside of turkey) were very inquisitive and curious about canada, our thoughts on turkey, preconceived ideas we had about turkey, etc. they were so open & warm right from the beginning. and so generous. the eldest sister had paid for the meal! of course, i protested, but to no avail. as in india, mehman is bhagvan -- a guest is a gift from god. and are thus treated well and shown respect. i actually noticed quite a few similarities between turkish culture & indian culture. not surprising, but cool to see.

the sisters asked me whether i had a boyfriend -- i said, nope. they were genuinely surprised at my boyfriend-less, date-less situation. and said they would find a nice turkish boy for me. to that, all i could say was inshallah.

post-dinner, we all split our separate ways. S, G and i were walking in the same direction. well, G went out of his way to make sure i figured out my way home. we split with S around the blue mosque area and G walked me back to my hotel. there is a bar at the intersection near the hotel. G and i stopped there for a beer & a game of tavla.

tavla = backgammon. G is really, really good at it. he taught me how to play and i very quickly became a tavla junkie. with...drawal. so much fun & such a great way to let time pass by.

collapsed into bed.