Scenic Setting and Kind Comrades

After talking Andy into exploring our neighboorhood one more time today, we walked across the street and up onto a roof restaurant that had a gorgeous view of the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia, and the Golden Horn. The view was superb, but the prices were atrocious, so we both got the cheapest thing on the menu, a 3.5 turkish lyra cup of apple tea. We were a little bit out of place in our sweaty t-shirts and dishevelled appearance amongst the glitz and glam of tourists who could actually afford their vacations. We drank the tea slowly as we enjoyed the splendor, and the nice couple at the table next to us struck up a conversation. They were from Chicago and had just flown in that evening. We tried to warn them about rug vendors and they told us of their plans to tour the synagogues and Ephesus, two trips that we wanted to do but didn't have the time and money for. They had old family connections in Turkey, brothers split between Turkey and the states in 1900, and we wish them luck finding them again. They brought us up to date on current events and the husband told us of his trip through communist eastern Europe in the 70s, driving through Yugoslavian borders and getting lost in East Berlin. It made us appreciate our trip all the more. After they had left we stayed a few more minutes watching the reflections across the strait, and asked for the bill. Much confusion ensued and 5 or 6 waiters were running around, but eventually it appeared that several of the Turkish phrases thrown at us meant that the nice couple had paid for our tea, so we went to their hotel and asked the receptionist to leave a thank you note for us. If this was some mistake, then we had to thank them for the confusion. It is so refreshing to come across kind faces in a foreign land. Alamo would have been proud of us (Alamo was the Prague Spaniard who wondered why Americans did not band together as the Spanish did). All in all, it was an extremely pleasant evening.