I hit the wall around 9:00 pm last night after traveling back into town to have dinner with Mary and Andrea. French onion soup and chicken schnitzel. Very good but I shouldn't have eaten. Mary woke me up this morning at 6:00 am to ask me to stop gurgling in my sleep. Apparently my "gurgling" was causing her to have a dream that she was attacked by buzzards! The house is dark and quiet. And cool! It's been terribly hot since we got here and Mary reports that it is going to be hotter today. Mary made a call home to touch base with her parents. Andrea and Mary are off to have their eyebrows plucked, nails done and a pedicure this morning and will then come back for me. I am relaxing this morning.

The girls returned, sans Salih, about 10:30. A metro ride on an ultra clean subway put us back in Taxim where we met Molly/Duncan and Jenny/Keith. Molly and her husband arrived yesterday afternoon and looked fresh as daisies.

Our plans to go the the grand Bazaar by tram were dashed when we arrived at the bottom of the bridge. The tram was "broken". A dash to the ferry dock got us on the Bosphorus Cruise ship again. I commented to Andrea that we have been at or near the Ferry dock or the spice market every day we have been here. But she's beginning to stress out from her duties as tour guide so I shut my mouth. The cruise was cool with the breezes coming off the water.

Now, I don't mean this as a criticism, but it appears that Turks have no concept of a queue. If there's a door to go through as a group, they simply all rush for it. Everyone trying to jam themselves through the opening at the same time.

Dinner at a different restaurant. The wine was much better this time. A short trip back to Enimunu on the 5:00 pm boat got us there by 6:30pm. We met Salih at the Starbucks in Kadikoy, close to the bridge. Then we were off for drinks.

We watched Salih read the fortunes of Molly and Duncan. A great evening. We adjourned to the Pera Hotel bar. Five desserts shared by all and drinks. The Pera Hotel has been frequented by Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming, and Greta Garbo and is listed in the top 100 to go before you die.

I guess I can scratch that one off my bucket list!