onward from İstanbul
I had a good relaxing time in İstanbul. I saw beautiful mosques on a
spectrum from tourist-centric to tourists-can’t-find-the-door. I sat
in cafes along with backgammon-playing locals. Last night I saw a
sema, a whırling dervish performance, which may not have lifted me up
three successively higher levels of annihilation of the ego and then
back down to a sense of submission to God’s purposes, but was really
cool anyway. Once they got going, theır skirts had standıng waves and
even breaking waves in them. Now I’m off to St Petersburg, where I
think it’s probably 20-30 degrees cooler. No time to write more—have
to figure out how to get to möy hostel once I arrive….
