4 days later...

I'm back in London after an epic weekend in Istanbul, Turkey. The 700 pound cost had me second guessing my decision to participate during the entire preceding month, but now that the trip is done, I can honestly say that it was the best big purchase I've ever made. Our group of forty students and four adults toured the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia, a few palaces, and went on an hour long cruise down the Bosphorus. With smaller groups, I ate lots of lamb, saw the whirling dervishes, shopped at the Grand Bazaar and walked from to Europe from Asia one night after going out in Taxim Square. At the Bazaar, I haggled over a few pieces of inexpensive jewelry and emerged with a silver Hand of Fatima (the daughter of Muhammad) necklace, a few little beaded bracelets, and a gold ring, all of which set off the metal detector at airport security, and got me privately wanded down. The Bosphorus cruise was my favorite. I learned from Orhan Pamuk's book Istanbul: Memoirs and the City that the name Bosphorus translates to "throat". It's a shockingly appropriate name considering that the Bosphorus breathes life into Istanbul and offers respite to the a gigantic city which is in the midst of a cultural, political, and religious crisis following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It is a gorgeous river that spans as far as the eye can see and shines brilliant blue turqouise during the day, gleams golden at sunset, and mesmerizes with it's black instensity at night. Between the river, the 22 million person population, and the indescribably ornate mosques, Istanbul is a city so sublime that its ineffable.