Medic Alert in London and 24 hours in İstanbul

Merhaba!

I can barely begin to recount of the past few days; it has been action packed and full of adventure!

Saturday in London was meant to be low-key before we flew out Sunday. Once Jane and I met up and found her brother Andrew´s flat, we decided to meander along the Thames in search of supper. After great debate we settled on roast beef at a carvery, then continued our walk... until we came across a pair of women, one of whom looked unconscious or near to it. We stopped to help her up, and her friend insisted that she would be fine and that they would get a taxi ASAP. We carried on but i felt guilty, so we circled back to find them. The woman was grateful for my concern and near-expert opinion, and so rewarded us with their pair of tickets to see Titus Andronicus at the nearby Globe Theatre!!! We snuck in time for the beginning of the gore, so opted only to stay for about an act or so. As we walked back home, laughing at our fate, we stumbled upon another person on the ground: this time, a young man looking confused and bruised who´d reputedly been in a fight. Our consciences once again got the better of us, so we stayed to help him out. He was thoroughly disoriented and had taken a blow to the head (and ribs) so we stuck around and figured out how to use his cell phone to summon his friend from across the city. We even fetched him some water and ice from a nearby pub! We finally got him into a cab, better oriented, about an hour later. We reasoned we´d accumulated mega-karma by the end of that evening!

The trip to İstanbul was uneventful. The flight was comfortable (though warm), and they kept us contented wıth delicious sour cherry juice and hazelnuts. Navigating the Atatürk airport was no problem, and we even found our driver OK, just in time for a harrowing trip at breakneck speed across the city. We settled into our modest hotel and were pleased to discover we had AC and a balcony. The appeal of the latter wore off when we realized that with our proximity to the towering Blue Mosque, 4:30 am prayers blasted city-wide on loudspeakers could be heard exceptionally well from our bedroom.

After our breakfast on the charming rooftop terrace (with exceptional view) we wandered off to the Grand Bazaar, where Im proud to announce we DID NOT get lost! We even tried our hand at bargaining (thanks to inviting sales pitches like, ´Can I hassle you??´) and scored a few really nice finds, including a lovely woven scarf which came in quite handy for our afternoon visit to the fantastic Blue Mosque. I´ve collected quite some lovely photos so far but am not sure how the whole transferring process will go... may have to wait for a few days until I splurge on a transfer to CD.

Much love to all!!