Why would I want to go to a spice market? I was out voted. Actually I didn't mind as we walked through curved streets filled wall to wall with merchandise. It's the second largest market in Turkey next to the Egyptian Market also in Istanbul. Go figure. Although the Lira (Turkey Dollars) are .53 cents to the US dollar, Saffron still comes out to be about $25 per ounce. (Luther said, "Sufferin succotash, saffron's a stack of cash. No spice for you.") That's okay there's plenty of everything for everyone around miles of city blocks. I needed a pair of shorts and the guy shook his head signaling with his hands that I was too big--too many bagels. A half a block later a man came out telling me he had shorts that would fit. Word spreads when your ready to buy something. They are hurting for tourists. One of the workers in the Palace said they usually see about 10,000 tourists per day but he estimated this day turned out to be about 3,000. (Luther said, "You mean you can fit three times more people into this little place? Humans are 2D walkers. Once the ground is covered by people you can't fit anymore but monkeys can fit five times as many. They are smaller and walk in 3D. Some on the ground and the rest swinging from tree to tree." I said to the guard, Don't mind him, he's a monkey nerd.")
On the Bosporus boat ride we met three Chinese that work in Bose, Turkey in the silk business. They were impressed that Carson could say some words in Mandarin. They became buddies. (When they asked if he were a monkey, Luther replied, "Oh, sure, sure. Here we go again." They asked if he meant, "sure" as in the Chinese word for yes, or "sure-sure" which means sometimes he's a monkey? Luther looked away. I said, "bad monkey. Be nice.")
Luther decided to go to Taksim Square, the spot where the uprising against the Turkish prime minister's decision to bulldoze 400 trees for a mall. One of the last pieces of big green spaces left. When the police moved to push out the peaceful protesters they used tear gas and water cannons. That force made things a lot worse. Thousands came into the square to protest louder. Lots of injuries occurred and scared off many visitors from coming to Turkey. Lucky for us we either know how to take God's name in vain by testing God's protection or we are plain ignorant. (Luther says, "My vote is for both and against the lucky part.") So we are going to accompany Luther anyway and check it out this evening. He'd like to interview a policeman and protester. Since there's still thousands there we might find some. (Luther said, "What's the worse that could happen? We could get some sudden exercise and we won't need any spice for our next meal." Then he said to me, "If you are coming with me then you must promise to pronounce the words right! It's, `I'm a tourist.' It is not `I'm a terrorist. Got it?'" I said, "I'll do my best." He said, "That's what scares me.")
It's sad to note this is our last day in Istanbul. Tomorrow we leave on a plane bound for Izmir. It will be my first time driving in Turkey with a rented van. I think we'll be testing God's protection again.
(I told Luther, "I hope someday they'll learn to spell their country's name correct. Everywhere I look I see, `Türkiye.' I think they should be learned better." Luther said, "Sufferin succotash, aye-y-aye. It's `teach it correctly' and they are correct!" I didn't understand what he was yelling. I think it's probably some foreign monkey language.)
