Istanbul, Pigeons

Our cruise ship, the SS Odysseus, was docked on the east side of the Golden Horn. Rather than join a tour group, we went on our own and walked past a line of sidewalk vendors selling bread and pastry, fishing boats offering fish for sale, and a ferryboat terminal disgorging crowds of commuters. We crossed the Golden Horn on the Galata Koprusu (a two-level bridge with many restaurants), to the Eminönü area of Istanbul. At the Yeni Cami (Mosque), a thousand pigeons were lined up as if by a drill sergeant, waiting for tourists to feed them semit bread (Sesame bread rings). The pigeons remembered that from yesterday

A couple of hours later as we recrossed the bridge over the Golden Horn on the way back to our ship, it was nearing lunch time, the restaurants were becoming crowded, the fishermen were still selling fish, the street stands were still selling pastries, the ferryboat terminal was still disgorging passengers, and those same street scenes will continue until we return some day soon!