Stateside

Back in the States for less than a day and I've already been called a "dirty skimmer and a tax collector" for refusing to hand over all the baklava that I promised to carry back for one friend. Precious, precious baklava. It's going to be tough to resist immediately booking another flight over once this stuff goes.

So, Istanbul! So much to say: it was my first trip to a Muslim nation, which wasn't so jarring considering Istanbul's secular temperament, but hearing a call to prayer for the first time is an astonishing, goosebump-raising experience. While I was there I ate the best meal I've ever had. My haul of Near-Eastern spices, teas, and china makes Marco Polo's look like the contents of a college student's minifridge. I visited the palatial Çemberlitas hamam for a traditional Turkish bath, though I failed to hit up the one built for Barbarossa or the one (featured in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) that's seen the tushes of Franz Liszt, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Edward VIII. On the visual-sensory tip, in addition to such awesome sites as the Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, and Süleymaniye Mosque, I saw a Byzantine church replete with mosaics based on apocrypha—you won't find illustrations of St. Zacharias and the Twelve Suitor Sticks of Mary in your family Bible. And I developed a minor back problem carrying home books on the great imperial architect Mimar Sinan.

And, of course, "I" should be "we" in all the above, and it's been too long since I've been able to say that. Great times; adventures and pictures are forthcoming.