Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Walk through History...

Today I went on a walking tour. We walked for just about 3 and 1/2 hours. All together it took a bus, train, tram, and ferry to get to our destination and a tram, ferry and bus to get home. It should also be noted that the weather was cool with slight breeze and a dampness in the air as it sprinkled sporadically through hours 1 and 2 and then decided to come down a bit harder the last hour and even wearing a jacket with a hood.. I was still quiet wet when I arrived back home.
It was great fun to see more sights in Istanbul. The number of participants was perfect... just the right size and a fun group of people too. One of my students and his father came and the student spent much of the time talking to me. He was most comical when we needed to form a line to climb up or down stairs (Istanbul has a lot of stairs...always steep, narrow at times, and sometimes very small). I will post one day about stairs... it will amaze you to know the different kinds and how often one encounters them. One final note: I was most impressed with the beautiful roses (color, scent, how they grow on the bush) and the history of the Byzantine walls- sea and wall.. 1,000 years these walls protected the one to two million people of Constantinople. Wow!
Now back to my story. My student would tell me that he had to allow me to go ahead of him on the stairs because I was both a lady and an elder... this was funny to me because I do not find myself old. In all honesty, I remember feeling older when I was younger than I do know that I am getting older.. 33 to be exact. This dear young man kept me so chatted at that even when I was on my way home (he left 5 stops ahead of mine on the tram) I continued to hear an occasional- "Miss Adams." This is because with every sentence he would first say, "Miss Adams."
In summary, the tour was just amazing and the rains and near constant chatter of a student could not put a damper on my journey. I loved every second of it!