Turkey!

Typing on a Turkish keyboard is interesting--most frequent problem is that the i with a dot is a different character in a different place on the keyboard. I don't see any triangle brackets for code.

Trip is going very well! On and off light rain in Istanbul but not cold, clear but windy and cold--a few degrees C above freezing--as we go along the coast. But we are so happy we are here in the winter. Usually no other tourists in sight--even at Troy. At Assos we pulled off the road and went in an open gate to explore the theater (4th century BC)--no one around but a sheperd with his sheep. The driving is mostly easy because there are very few cars on the road--that it costs almost a hundred dollars to fill up the tank of our compact car probably has a lot to do with that as well as the almost total lack of tourists this time of year. Most of our hotels have been very nice, just one where the shower was a hand shower in the corner of the bathroom (with a drain and curtain but no separate floor area with a rim to hold in the water) and they turned on the hot water only in the evening. And that was worth it to wake up and see a tiny fishing harbor right out our window, no one around but cats and a few fishermen. Cats are everywhere.