Things that are everywhere in Istanbul

Cats: are seriously everywhere, in many shapes and sizes (there are four very small ones that like to sit with their mother on the steps to Julia's house currently). Some of them look quite sick, but most seem to be doing well. Marlene says she's never seen a cat hit by a car (which are also everywhere in Istanbul), and from watching a few handle their way in nightime traffic I can believe that. They are extremely smart. They also make sounds I have never heard cats make before. Walking home last night we saw two of them singing to each other before going their separate ways under cars and down the street...

Dogs: I didn't realize this at first, because they are always sleeping. If you do not look down, you might not see them at all. If you do look down, however, you will see them in scores, lying on the asphalt (which is also everywhere in Itanbul, which in turn means the city doesn't cool down that much at night). Occasionally you see one walking; once, while drinking tea overlooking the Bosphorus, I saw two play-fighting. They have tags in their ears and I believe they are selectively steriliyed by the city. I speak to them in French, but so far the response has been pretty minimal. The cats seem more interested.

Roses: other flowers, too. The advantage of a city in a warm climate (same thing we saw in Austin). Adds a lot in terms of colour and smell. In Uskudar - a neighbourhood on the Anatolian side that goes from the water up a very large hill, with several levels of streets connected by stairways (and roundabout, but still steep, streets for cars) the roses seem to jump out of all sorts of places - cracks in steps, sides of houses. The air quality in Istanbul is surprisingly not bad -- it is always at least breezy, which avoids the stagnant smog-trap thing (although I hear later in the summer the sunsets can be black) -- so the rose-smell carries.

Street vendors: selling things at surprisingly (to me) reasonable prices. Water everywhere -- there doesn't seem to be anything in place to counter the thousands and thousands of plastic water bottles that must get used here every week. Pretzley things, grilled corn, etc. Then there are walking vendors with carts - Marlene tells me she could do most of her shopping just by sitting in her front window all day and stopping each vendor as they go by. "Hipermarts" are a fairly recent development, I hear, and the quality of the produce doesn't seem to be as good as the fruit stands (and here I remember my delight that the neighbourhood I live in Toronto has fruit stands -- how long will it take us to undo some of the stupidest effects of "development"?).

Cops: with baseball caps! and submachine guns! which seems to have all the obvious consequences...