They are playing dueling prayer calls right now from the mosques. The callers in Istanbul were much better. The county-side on the way here was beautiful. We are currently nestled in the mountains in a new town, Safranbolu, famous for growing Saffron. Guess what I am going to try and buy tomorrow? It should be much cheaper than at home. We drove past another town famous for its ski resort. Along the road there were beautiful flowers planted in several places. At one point we drove past an old Roman aqueduct.

This morning we drove to a new, private university, Koc, to hear a lecture on Ottoman poetry. It was a lovely school and everything is in English. They had a building named after Henry Ford, interesting! The school was located up in the hills north of Istanbul and had a view of the Black Sea to the north. It was very modern, had a great cafeteria, be envious Katie, and they even recycled.

Stopping at the rest areas, on the way here, was interesting. They looked very modern but the toilets were a hole in the floor! You stood with your feet on each side and squatted. You still had to flush. My roommate says it is that way in many countries she has visited and it isn’t so different from peeing outdoors. I guess she is right when you think about it. This is very different from the bathroom in the restaurant we ate at last night where everything was high tech. It even had an electronic toilet seat cover that spun on a new plastic seat with each use. Now, that is luxury!