Just strap a diaper on me & call me Super Girl

The curse is not broken. Linda had to put our dog Blossom down while we were gone. Apparently, Blossom had cancer and tumors began to erupt after we left. There is, of course, more to the story, but that is not mine to tell. We were hoping she'd make it under palliative care until Friday morning, but that did not happen. She collapsed again on Friday.

And while I'm not hospitalized, the hacking cough my sinusitis turned into is about to take my head off. I'm headed (as usual?) to the non-emergency clinic today for a prescription. None of the items we picked up at the pharmacy in Istanbul really helped. The 8 hour medications worked 6 and then only 4. On the flight from Istanbul to London, we even had a run in with some lovely Americans while I was hacking up a lung that tic'd Dave off so much he was ready to take out an 80 year old biddy in my defense. We even got a "You people..." out of them. Ahhh, the post-SARS world. At least the child crying next to them was less distracting to her evil-eye.

Where we were in Istanbul was perfect. We were downhill from Taksim square and so spent the final day just in the area. I wasn't up for much more than strolling action. We did take in a hammam, but let me get this out there right now. We're spoiled here in Seattle with the Olympus Women's Spas in either Lynnwood or Tacoma. The hammam had nothing on them. Those bath houses & scrubs (especially) set a hard to be standard. That said, the Galatasary Hammam the hotel recommended was a disaster. Sure they got a lot of suds going - using a straight soap which made my skin itch afterwards. Sure, they washed my hair, and it stuck out like Bozo the Clown after it dried it had so much "body". The dressing rooms were dingy, dirty dingy, not charming dingy. It wasn't used by locals. Why should they pay 100 Turkish Lira when they can get a good scrub for 30? Glatasaray was more expensive than the bath houses here in Seattle & with a lot fewer amenities and a lot more black mold.

Istiklal Caddesi (Street) is amazing the way Khaosan Road is amazing, but in a cleaner, chic-ier way. There are still dreadlocks to be found, I heard something like 400 night clubs, buskers, coffee houses, kebap restaurants and pedestrian streets filled with everything from burkas to stilettos. I still loved the little shops in my Galata Kulesi (tower) area.

The piazza around the Galata Kulesi housed filming crews at least twice while we were there. One of the films took place at the bar where we'd made friends with the owners & the help. Every night there were some busker wanna-bees practicing their juggling, guitars, and existential philosophy. One night a group of them set up a little balloon with a lighted sterno pot to lift it. Once it finally took off over the trees, it flew out over the buildings with lots of wood in them. I left my hotel windows open at night for the fresh air and the sounds of life. Below us was the corner store which sold a sultan's wealth of the EFS Beer each night, bottle-by-bottle.

The trash collectors & the street people work together to keep the city clean. The trash collectors collect & the street people sort through, pulling out recyclables. Istanbul actually has a lot of walking streets in the few districts Dave & I were in and they were clean. Even with all the tamed wild city dogs and cats around. The Turks tag the "wild" dogs here to show that they've been given their shots & neutered. We saw a large number of Anatolian Shepherds lolling around in Cappadocia with the blue tags in their ears. In Istanbul, same thing, but not so many Anatolians as much as general shepherd mixes.