Istanbul

After two quarters as a full-time grad student, I think I owe myself a vacation for Spring Break.  While many years back Florida or some similar beach resort would have been the place to go, this year I am heading off for ten days in Istanbul, Turkey, for a couple of reasons:

1. It allows me to check off another "been to" country
2. Turkey might be a place I would be interested in living once I finish the graduate degree, so a brief reconnaissance might be a worthwhile plan.

I am going this one alone (i.e., not as part of a tour group or with anybody else), though it does turn out that one of my classmates is friends with a local tour-guide, and I have lined up, at a minimum, a first day tour of the major city sites with him.

I don't think I will spend any nights outside of the city itself, though I might take a day trip or two, depending on how things are going.  Unlike most of my prior visits when I seemed to pick things that were heating up (Egypt, the Middle East, even a cruise), things are relatively quiet in the country this time, though there is excitement "just across the Black Sea" in Crimea with the recent vote to leave the Ukraine and join the Russian Republic.  

I have to admit, it's been over a year since my last vacation, and nearly a year since boarding a plane, so this one means quite a bit to me.  Anyway, I have one last class meeting tonight, then it's off tomorrow morning.