New Pics from Turkey and Cyprus up

Check them out here!

You won't see pictures of the Imperial Treasury of the Topkapı Palace, because we weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was the craziest set of treasure I have ever seen. Lots of diamonds, rubies, gold, emeralds as well as the famous Topkapı Dagger, which was to be given to the Pasha of Iran from the Ottomans, but he died before they could get it to him. So they decided to keep it. (They were probably like, "phew! we really didn't want to give this away!")

There was also an amazing collection of religious artifacts, like Moses' stick (the one that Charlton Heston threw on the ground, dumbass), the footprint of Mohammed when he ascended to heaven, Mohammed's beard (!), and I think what was supposed to be St. John's arm. That was some weird shit, it was still in it's armor, but you could see the mummified hand inside.

The treasury just showed the opulence of the Ottoman empire, which someone still resonates today. Everything seems elegant here. I love just sitting by the Bosphorous and watching the people drink tea and enjoying themselves. (Yeah, I just sit for hours and pick a group of people to stare at until they get uncomfortable). People are so chill and inviting. The weather is great (oh by the way, I felt my first rain in 4 months last night!).

Also, down south, we visited the Greco-Roman ruins of the city of Ephesus, which was pretty cool, too. The Artemis Temple, one of the seven wonders of the world, wasn't there anymore.

I moved into a sweeeet apartment, a block from the Galata tower. From the living room you can see the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia and the Topkapı Palace... and an amazing rooftop terrace. I'll be doing some reading and hopefully relaxing for 10 days here before moving on. I'm reading this great book called Wizard of the Crow by Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. I should be reading about Turkey, though.

Enjoy the pics!

P.S. Oh, Youtube is blocked here, because of some online fight between Greeks and Turks, where the Greeks insulted Atatürk (a crime in Turkey). No more videos of labiaplasty and scrotum reduction, sorry guys.

P.P.S. They also blocked my cell phone, so for all of you who never call me, now you have a real excuse. (Apparently, you can't use a foreign cell phone with a local SIM card.)