We managed to stike out a bit more from Istanbul’s standard tourist track today: visiting the university and a more conservative neighbourhood called Fatih. It made for quite a lot of walking, altogether, but it offered more of a glimpse into how city dwellers here generally live. Ivanka’s ability to pick up a smattering of Turkish very quickly has been quite impressive. She is already able to communicate desires and numbers to shopkeepers: something far beyond the capacity of my father or I. Probably, spending the last few months living just across the Black Sea has been useful, for her, in this regard.
Starting in one hour, we have a fourteen hour bus journey to Cappadocia. During the ride, I mean to sleep, write a second battery of twelve or so postcards, and give a more comprehensive look to the language book that Antonia gave me (I have already finished the one on food, and look forward to trying some Raki). We will be staying in a place called Goreme, which supposedly caters a bit more to the backpacking sort than to your standard tourists. We will be spending four days and three nights there and given how it is generally listed along with Ephesis as an essential tourist spot, I am quite sure there will be internet access.
The bus system in Turkey is great! It was an usual occurance on the many bus rides that I took to be given a treat of some sort along with a sort of hand sanatizing cream by the bus attendants much like airline attendnts. This sort of service made the long bus rides more tolerable.
Glad you made it safely through the bus trek.