Turkish breakfast anyway outside in the rain – the vine leaves dripped, the snails climbed the walls, the cats made beds of the seat cushions. Best bit: honey with some sort of clotted cream, there were also baked eggs, olives, different cheeses, tomatoes and cucumbers, sesame spread, yogurt stuff of some sort, a bunch of things I am now forgetting as well as bread and tea of course.

I did the “tourist thing” today: Hagia Sophia, Archaeological Museum, Topkapi Palace. In the harem I was struck by the landscape paintings on the wall, the only landscapes the women would have seen.

My “subway staring habit” gets me into a little bit of trouble, in Turkey men seem to stare directly at your eyes (rather than the regions favored by NY construction workers), so I find I am always catching peoples attention by looking around too much and with too much focus. But the people are quite beautiful here, and of very diverse features and so it is hard not to people watch.