The day started with a breakfast on the Buda side of the Danube. Trams rock. I had Hungarian savory French toast. It tasted like French toast, but instead of syrup, the “sauce” was a light sour cream. Pretty good actually. Tram back to the apartment, finish packing and hop a metro to the bus station where we had tickets to ride to Vienna via a 3-hour, quite comfortable bus. The original plan was to take a train, but the man-cub did some research and found the bus. It takes an extra hour over the train, but costs $30 round trip vs $90 one way. Yeah, I’ll take that deal. I still get to see the countryside, but I get to save a few euros. True, I couldn’t get up and walk around, but the seats were comfortable, they had built in video screens like an airplane, and even hot chocolate!

We arrived, and hopped in an Uber. Dang, but traffic was bad. It was 4:00 pm on a workday, though, so I guess not unexpected. We eventually made it to the AirBnB and it’s quite, quite nice. It’s an easy walk to the Museum Quarter, and lots of cool restaurants and shopping, if that’s your gig. It’s not mine. We did do some walking around, and hit a burger place for dinner (The cub likes his burgers.) Pretty chill place, with a wide variety of dippers for your fries, including mango curry, and chipotle chocolate in addition to the usual - and boring - ketchup.
Started on finding the things I wanted to see with the Anker Clock built in 1911. It was convenient to where we ate, and was really interesting. I took the photo at 7:10. Can you tell? I bought us an apfelstrudel and we walked a bit more, desserting on it, gawking. But soon the man-cub, being who he is, didn’t bother with bringing a beanie, or scarf, or anything other than a coat, got cold, so we headed back to the ABB and called it a night. Tomorrow is another day.

Last day in Istanbul, as we leave early tomorrow. Our flight back to Budapest leaves at 8:15, and with the distance to the airport, we probably should be out of the hotel and on our way by 5:00 am or so. Not a big difference in wake up time for me, but significant for Spencer, for sure, since he is not in school.

Today was pretty casual, we walked north to the Goleta Bridge and across over to the Goleta Tower on the north side of the Golden Horn. The streets on the north side are wider, and more modern, but the sheer number of people and cars and trams is still, to me, oppressive. I will be ready to go, I think, tomorrow. I’m looking forward to visiting Vienna later this week, and Prague next. I’ve enjoyed the time here, but as big cities go, it’s not a top one for me.

Ten Takeaways:
1. The only thing more prevalent than the faint-to-overpowering stench of cigarette smoke is the presence of Turkish flags. Both are everywhere and in-your-face obvious.
2. If you ever want to sit outside at a cafe, you will inhale smoke. Period. A lot of places discouraged smoking inside, which drove the large number of smokers to the outside tables. Too bad for non-smokers looking to dine al fresco.
3. Traffic in Fatih is insane.
4. The city overall is clean, with very little trash to be seen, and the smell (aside from the omnipresent cigarette smoke) is decent.
5. The crush of people in any public area is not for the claustrophobic faint of heart.
6. The airport is beyond huge. We walked over a mile from the plane to the exit upon arrival, including the discounts from using the sliding walkways.
7. Perhaps it’s the omnipresence of religion in general and Islam in specific,but I felt more out of place here than I have in any major city.
8. The coffee is good and inexpensive.
9. The beer is marginal and not inexpensive.
10. I don’t understand how 50 vendors of the same products can survive in a 100 meter stretch of street.
Bonus 11. I never felt unsafe or felt like I needed a money belt. All the people I encountered were friendly enough and respectful, despite the actions of governments.

And now, some photos of our last day. See ya in Budapest!

In the midst of the traveling, I’ve been having the strangest dreams. Three of them hold tight in my memory, and occurred over the course of the past three nights. Since the first happened prior to my arrival in Istanbul, I can’t attribute them to the food here. Definitely isn’t the beer, which is marginal. But the facts they were so vivid, and have remained in my memory, made me think to jot them down.

Dream the First:
I was in a physical altercation with a female who was very close to me. The situation made it one person, but who I saw was another. Both shall remain nameless, and their current relationships to me unmentioned, since it was just so odd.
In the dream, I was enraged (for reasons unknown), and the woman was calm, and deliberate. And mean. Everything I did was countered with a cutting yet calm remark that only served to make me more angry. I finally found a papier-mâché thing (patterned in green and white, for whatever reason) that I dropped a chair one crushing it. That seemed to deflate her. She stopped all resistance and simply sagged, and said “Fuck.” I walked away, crying.

Dream the Second:
In this one, my (currently dead) father killed me. Yes, I died. So did he. He was driving the Phteven wagon. We entered a cul-de-sac and at the end, we needed to turn around again. Wrong way? Dunno. I didn’t seem to care one way or the other. There was snow on the ground and my perspective changed to an overhead view, and I watched as Dad drove onto the grass of the house and the end - as if he couldn’t turn tight enough. He the mowed down two arborvitae that were the end of a column of them leading to the house. I remember viewing the tire tracks as we drove away.
We exited the cul-de-sac, and made a left turn back onto the main road. We approached a descent, but Dad turned too quickly and we drove over a cliff.
I distinctly remember thinking “WTF, Dad?!”, as the car tumbled in the air. I then realized I was going to die, and then everything was a jumble. It looked like a movie to me, since that’s the imagery I know. No pain, but then there was nothing. For some period of perceived time, everything was a uniform gray. No sound, no sensation of touch, either. Then I woke - feeling more than a bit disturbed.

Dream the Third:
Ok, so this one was weird. (Like the first two weren’t.) It included large predatory cats, the running community I associate with, and word games. Good mix, eh? This one may be difficult to explain, but hey, I’m on holiday and I’ve got the time. Breakfast isn’t for another hour.
It started with a word game where everyone had to contribute to a story a word or a phrase at a time. The rules of the game were that each word had to be either six or four letters long, and alternating: a six-letter word had to follow a four-letter word, which itself followed a six-letter word. Got it?
I had come up with the cunning phrase “fucking daft wanker,” which was approved despite the first word having seven letters. I know, right? But hey, dream rules, like dream physics, don’t have to be consistent, now do they?
I thought of my entry as I approached an aid station staffed by a group of folks I run with. I was intercepted for a hug by one woman (YAY! Thanks Kaycee!), and was berated by another for not saying hi. In my defense, she didn’t exist when I approached, only after I was heading past. To my chagrin however, she is incredibly special to me and it hurt to appear to spurn her.
As happens in dreams, immediately after this, I was running (dunno why, but there was urgency) and I and others needed to cross a shallow draw. I think I was channeling Ash Canyon at this point. Anyway, the shallow draw morphed into a steep canyon with knife-edged ridges cutting across it. As we tried to slowly pick our way across, we encountered a group of five large predatory cats: three kits and two adults.
They looked like some sort of cross between a bobcat (tail) and snow leopard (coloration) but had the size of a tiger. At this point all I will say is sorry to Craig Young who was mauled next to me, and the rest of the aid station personnel. I woke up when the five cats attacked it.

Now it’s time for breakfast with great coffee. Then off to the bazaar. Normal stuff.

It’s hard to go wrong, when the start on a rooftop restaurant has this view, and this food.

And guess what? It didn’t. Our hotel is the Sunlight Hotel. Nice room, if a bit small, and a great location. No alarms are needed, unless you’re 20 years old and can sleep though the dawn call of the local muezzin, that is. After breakfast, Spencer and I had a wonderful time touring the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and getting twisted and turned around in the streets and warrens of the district.

​I (probably over-) paid for a tour guide for the Hagia, but it was just for the two of us, and it got us into the museum far ahead of what we would have waiting in the crush. The history and wear on the stones really struck me. The marble steps in some places had worn down to being a smooth ramp, rather than a stair, and the mix of Christian and Muslim art and mosaics was interesting.

I was less impressed with the Blue Mosque. A lot of it was behind screens and remained hidden. I don’t know if it was for renovation or otherwise. Also, the crush of people in the entryway was overwhelming, as was the smell of feet. Yes, feet. Everyone had to remove their shoes before entering. Maybe all I was smelling was my own Hokas with 500 trail miles on them, but maybe not. All females had to wear a headscarf, and nobody was allowed in wearing shorts. We did the walkabout inside then headed to wander the streets.

Lunch was Adana kebabs for me and something with chicken and apparently delicious for Spencer, seeing as it was gone quickly. We each had a local beer (Bomonti filtered and unfiltered) to go along with it. Total cost was about $20. Not bad.
​Some photos:

The fridge is empty, and the backpack luggage isn’t. It mist be TTGTFOD: Time To Get The Fuck Outta Dodge. I’m off to Budapest and parts thereabouts. But first stop is Hungary, where I’m picking up the man-cub and we’re going exploring!

The original plan was to go to Istanbul for a few days, then meander back to Budapest via train through either Sofia or Bucharest. But, discretion being the better part of valor, and me not wanting my man-cub to be exposed to dangers unnecessarily, I’m eating the costs of tickets and accommodations. Not a huge amount, only $350 or so, and compared to possibly having “issues” in Turkey, it’s worth it. its also cheaper than the ticket I bought for someone who didn’t go with me to Panama. So, I feel I’m still ahead!