istanbul

the blue mosque

some unbelieveable structures in the land of 'east meets west.' first time here, and i'm amazed at how unique the culture / environment is all around me. not quite europe, not quite asia. all turkey, and all it's own.

where's the party?

while leaving the bazaar, i happened upon this scene of this little car being filled to the gills with bread and beverage products. it was already full, i had thought, until this guy carrying additional bread came by and started stuffing the left side even more... a happy new year, indeed, for him and whoever gets to help unload it all.

2008 arrived last night with a lot of noise and colorful gunpowder (right outside our apartment window). things continued even into this morning, as we had another moderate sized earthquake (being, at my somewhat-qualified- soCal-native guess, a low 5 on the richter scale.) last week we officially had a 6. i keep reminding myself, through all the rumbling and the chilly sprint out the door, that the nearby mountain ranges (13k to 23k feet) had to come into existence SOMEHOW.

-updated: the new year's quake was actually a 5.7. i was close...