comments encouraged..

this week i

worked. a lot. from istanbul.

had the city to myself..

..just because.

toured the staples. the arachnid blue mosque..

and the not-as-pretty on the outside but better on the inside, 1500 year old aya sofya.

overheard americans: "which corner do you think has the elevator?" next to the sultan's time machine room, idiots.

worried these would fall down, land perfectly balanced on edge, then roll toward me indiana jones boulder-style.

rode a ferry..

back to asia

..but just for the day.

ate kurdish breakfast.

saw valentine's day slash halloween slasher severed heads n hands-themed vendors..

..and golden horn fishermen. here fishyfishyfishy. ha! gotcha you dumb fish.

walked through the palace where ataturk died. wire to buckingham palace: our guards are both frozen and encased in glass. your move.

dove down into 1500 year old cisterns. they're just columns and nothing. i guess one of the emperors preferred hades to bacchus..

..and base eleven to base ten. wait, no, in a base eleven system, the first seven digit number would be 11^6 = 1,771,561. so they just like ones.

flew home.

2/9

this week i

rode west along the black sea.

overnighted in the pleasant port of trabzon.

entered the land of muslim idolators..

..there's no other word for it.

ate to my heart's discontent.

find turkish buses comfortable but unscenic, the opposite of what i want. this whole trip has been delightful cramped sedans and minivans.

made it work..

..the secret? don't take no for an answer, and whatever you do, don't break your smile.

kept on to samsun. notice the parallel universe of our reflection.

fought hard to sit at the front window and was damn sure going to make the most of it.

saw ankara between the bus and train stations, but nothing more. one more overnight to istanbul.

crossed the bosphorus in the morning snow. china to europe overland in thirty days.

do things > have things.

felt good to be somewhere that made sense even if it didn't.

rented an apartment for the week.

worked remotely. no other guests, this was an upgrade.

reunited and it feels so good. too long in the wilderness.

let it snow.

2/2

left the kazakh harbor for azerbaijan. barring the unforeseen, this largely guarantees i'll make it from china to europe without a plane. why would anyone do that? think of it like climbing mount everest, only more reasonable.

tried pictionary to ask a non-english-speaker on board what kind of cargo the ship was transporting from aqtau to baku (it surely wasn't passengers). no luck.

queued up the gilligan's island theme with the deckhands. ginger grant and mary ann summers, right here.

was damn sure not going to get seasick. on my last multi-day boat from panama to colombia, i fed the fish for twelve solid hours. this time, nothing in the stomach but mr. lemonhead here till i'm as grounded as punxsutawney phil.

had better-than-expected quarters. what did i expect, you ask? well, for starters, to sink.

watched a lot of this.

mind-shouted land ho! only landlubbers say it out loud nowadays.

dropped anchor.

thanked the captain, went on my way.

spent the day in baku. observing..

old and new cities

honest government or poor translation, unlikely it's both

precarious scaffolding

cult of the fountains, i swear

you didn't believe me. now do you believe me?

oh look honey, that mask is crying a river of blood hmm and my tummy's growling how 'bout we eat here?

we all thought it but you said it first, azerbaijan

king midas went on a rampage

non-victorian women need skimpy underwear too, you know

omgomgomg wifi tape wditod

took a night train to georgia.

found a y2k bug at the border.

hummed ray charles tunes the whole time.

wonder why this happens. get your own silly cartoon patriot.

guess you can steal our smartrip card technology..

..and okay fine cafepress technology too. just stop marketing your gadgets with uncle sam. sheesh.

indeed am taking your picture, my georgian friend. you can stand there and pose with all the cool in the world, you're still going to have to explain why you're hanging out on the kiddie playground with no baby.