Turkey for Thanksgiving (Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 1991)

As I've mentioned in a post earlier this month, we went to Istanbul over Thanksgiving week in 1991. On Thanksgiving Day itself, we went to the Sheraton and had a Thanksgiving dinner, sort-of, that was being served for homesick Americans I guess.

I can see from our photos from the trip that we also visited a cemetery on Thanksgiving Day. This image has stuck in mind since then:



We also visited a large synagogue in central Istanbul that day; I imagined my ancestors having been there. It is the synagogue that had a terrorist massacre in 1987, so getting in the door was no small matter.


Some more pictures from our trip to Istanbul:

Dave took this incredible and sad photo of a gypsy with his bear. There was a real mystery with this. After Dave snapped the picture, the gypsy came to me for money. He had some amount, maybe $5 in Turkish Lira, written on the pan you see in his hand. I offered him instead about $1. That was a large amount of money in Turkey in 1991--a taxi across town cost like 37 cents, and the cab drivers were almost running you over to try to get you in the cab. Anyway, the guy walked away rather than take my $1 equivalent. He'd already done the work, it was $1 or nothing, he picked nothing. It made no sense--was it pride? market support? Years later Martin solved the mystery. The gentleman was offering to do MORE--like maybe have the bear dance. We were negotiating over the price of something in the future, not something already consumed.