The Sublime Porte in 3.6 Hours

[written on June 6]

Flying across Europe the other morning ~ grey clouds stretched from Ireland to the Alps. Ugh.

However, south of Lake Balaton the Mediterranean begins to affect the weather. Ahead in the clear blue sky ~ white puffy fair weather clouds rise up above the Turkish straights. Then a big turn over the Marmara Sea and down into the orderly chaos of Istanbul.

Home again. Nine years is a long time to spend in one place ~ an interesting job ~ good friends and the unfailing hospitality of the people. Even a brief stop of a few days is a treat.

I visited last in 2006 and already the skyline on the Europe side of the city has changed. More buildings ~ taller buildings ~ interspersed with an equal number of minarets. Old and new ~ side by side, comfortable with each other.

Over on the Asian shore the pace remains ~ as always ~ more calm. It is a place of 100 neighborhoods and 1,000 shops. Or is it 1,000 "köys" with 100,000 shops? No one could ever count but in the warm June weather you can buy watermelon or get your hair cut at 10:30 pm

Out on the Bosphorus an old rust-bucket of the Balcon Line, headed up to the Black Sea, strains and shudders against the powerful current. In the distance an oil-tanker ~ twenty times the size of the freighter ~ glides by in the opposite direction pushed effortlessly forward by the southerly flow. In any other place this would seem a mirage but it is a daily tableau here in Istanbul ~ or the Sublime Port as the European diplomats called the center of the Ottoman Empire a few hundred years ago.