On Asia's Doorstep

(Or as the French and Germans like to think of it: Europe's doormat.) On Friday 2 November, a little chilled, lonely, and coming down with a cold, I took a flight from Warsaw to Istanbul and left Eastern Europe for Asia. When I landed, a friend and colleague from my last semester of college, Zikri Altun, was patiently waiting for me with his graduate student Ilhan. From that point on, Zikri and his family have taken me in as one of their own. At left are pictures of Zikri at Marmara University on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, of Zikri and me in his office, of a cool light display over an Istanbul street, and of Zikri's graduate students Ilhan (left) and Ayshe (right) somewhat nonplussed as I refuse to stop singing Lou Rawl's "You'll Never Find".

Click here for more pictures of my first few days in Istanbul, including those from the tour of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia on which Ilhan kindly took me.