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Got my boat ticket on Tuesday. I took the afternoon off from work and went down to Karaköy with an advance on my July and August lira salaries and got a 1st class ticket on the July 2 boat, "Izmir", going to Trabzon.
Yesterday I went down to the Kapalı Çarşi shopping for leather coats and a vest. Stopped off at the Iranian Consulate on the way up the hill from Eminönü, hoping to see about a visa, but apparently they are closed afternoons.
I tried 3 or 4 different leather shops on the way into the bazaar, intrigued by the old tradition of getting a friend to take you to a "special" shop where the prices are lower and quality higher. They all seemed very much the same to me, same merchandise, same prices. At the 2nd or 3rd place I tried, one of the men offered to take me around the corner for a vest. It turned out that he'd been a waiter at the old girl's college 20 years ago or so, after that several of the other fine eateries around the city, and in Stuttgart for 10 years. He took me to a little shop out in the center of a han inside the bazaar, wher I was able to get a nice vest and two long coats, all for reasonable prices, and lower for the coats than I'd been able to get at the other stores.
Tom Davis and I are putting on a mammoth going-away garden party on Saturday. Been in preparation now for 2 weeks - 60 people, beer kegs, the school PA...
Things have been moving pretty past, for Istanbul, lately. Friday afternoon Wolfgang dropped by to check on the preparations for the party and see if there was anything he could help with. One thing led to another, as things will with Wolfgang, and we ended up that night with a group of ten people at the Çiçek Pasaj for closing time. We'd tried to make the Marine House Happy Hour, but they were closed up, although they did invite us all in for a few beers.
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Saturday night and afternoon was the big party, which went off quite well, but not nearly as
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Sunday night I was relaxing at home when I got an invitation to go to a basketball game with Davis and later to Selukele. Selukele is the notorious gypsy village on the walls near Edirne Kapı, and I've been wanting to go there ever since I'd first heard about it; so we are all up and off a half hour later.
Tom played his last basketball game for Beşiktaş, and was feted afterward in a restaurant until 3AM, with musicians and much food and drink. I developed a blister on my finger from snapping my fingers while dancing. At the end of all this the Turks were too tired and sensible to continue on to Selukele and see naked 14-year gypsy dancing girls, so we were forced to be our own escort, Tom, Dennis Arnold, Dan Golden, Rick Epting, and I.
We ended up wandering all over the city from one unsavory place to another, "searching for decadence", and ended up coming through the gates a little past dawn. Three hours of sleep and off to proctor entrance exams, maybe as hung over as I've ever been. Awful torture to have to stand up and walk around for 3 1/2 hours in that conditon. At least I felt no compulsion to look civilized.
I slept all of that afternoon and got up in the evening to go to the Faculty Dinner. Bunny Webster asked me to bring over the rock 'n' roll tape I'd made for our lawn party on Saturday, and some records. So after we'd all gotten well into the drinks and food, Bunny got behind those big speakers he'd bought for the school. and started playing records to get everyone dancing. And everyone danced, all the young people, Mr. Chalfant, Nona, Anahis the bookstore lady, I danced with May Fincancı. After a bit Bunny put some waltz and foxtrot music, and that drew out the Turkish faculty.
I was feeling restless all that night, noone there I really felt satisfied staying around, but it was very pleasant out there on the terrace, cool clear night air, bright lights, dark corners and alcohol.
All the rest of the week everyone seemed very busy correcting all of the exams, which I'm glad I didn't have to do.
I started packing Tuesday afternoon. Stuffed all of my records into boxes and started packing books, that exhausted me, and I quit.
Thursday night of last week Wolfgang came by, and we polished off a bottle of rakı listening to tapes, then Dennis showed up and we all decided to go out for chicken. This night ended up being a little like a typical night back in the States, racing all over town on a summer night, playing Stevie Wonder music, going from place to place eating and drinking.
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We tried the chicken restaurant in Levent, but they were closed, so we decided to try the pizza place in Cümhürriyet, Pizza Pino's. Got a couple of pizzas and cokes there, the place was empty except for us and some Rumanian tourists, and Pizza Pino's closed on us then, so we decided to go over to the Pudding Shop for tatlı. Race down the hill past Taksim Square and the Galata Tower, across the Golden Horn and up through Sirkeci to Sultan Ahmet and pull up to the curb right in front of the door. Usual Turkish and hippy clientele, but just closing up for the night, so we just had time to grab a pudding each and read some of the messages on the bulletin board ("Jim, waited for you here 3 days. See you in Teheran on the 20th.") before we got booted out on the street.
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