Back to Istanbul

Yep. Made it back to Istanbul today. And the sore throat has already started to return.

Thank you pollution!

It's cool to be back someplace familiar, and it was really cool to be so warmly welcomed back by the staff here.

I'd so love to go dancing tonight, but I'm pretty tired. I'm probably going to snore quite a bit as it is, and I do try to be considerate of the others in my room...

Oh, bliss! Whilst writing this, I'm also IM'ing with the Colombian darling from Budapest.

Speaking of bliss: after a rather strange and frustrating couple of days of bizarre interaction with NC, he also (to my surprise) came to see me off at the airport. He was particularly sweet, and the goodbye was very simple and touching. I had been rather angry and frustrated at him, but his gesture of coming to the airport, after having just recently finished working a 12 or so hour graveyard shift, was especially touching. But then, I talked to him a couple nights ago asking what was up with his weird behavior, so...

In any case, it was a lovely send off. Especially as it was so utterly and completely unexpected. It was a gift.

Just like it was a gift to be so warmly re-welcomed back in Istanbul.

I head to Brussels on Monday (no, not on Wednesday...), then London on Wednesday. It will be strange to be somewhere where I can actually understand and speak some of the language (French in Brussels) and where I won't have to preface queries to strangers with 'do you speak English?' (London). Though, I will be very sad to leave Eastern Europe.

Though, I'm thinking my next stop after London will either be Croatia or Florence. And then I will definitely go to Germany to visit some friends there.

I can also tell you that I will *not* be looking forward to living on the British Pound, no matter how briefly I'm in London...