Our first long move across Turkey, leaving Istanbul. Leaving the corner market, right beside the hotel…



We drove through the ever-expanding city for over an hour. I noticed what looked like random, odd high-rises out in the middle of nowhere, often with a new mosque. I was seeing some dystopian Pruitt-Igoe, but Suleyman said that this was just the city itself growing, that within a few years these spaces (well, fertile farm land) would all be filled in…
We stopped for lunch at a gas station. Good, if pricey, food—I finally found just a bowl of yoghurt, and some peppers really hot. And the most welcome, given that Turkish coffee is undrinkable…


Then lots of green space, farther along the coast…



And for a hundred miles, roses at intersections and medians…
Not the picture of Turkey most of us have.

Later, bob