Eastern Turkey has been full of historical and religious significance. We saw the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, gazed up at the fortress where Abraham was flung down by God to land in a bed of roses, smacked our lips over the sacred carp but didn’t dare try to catch them for fear of going blind, and smelled feet in the tiny underground cave where the prophet Job spent seven years and I can’t recall what else. Most of this stuff is really wasted on us, but the stories make looking at rubble and holes in the mountains much more interesting. There’s really too much to remember and take in; it’s a real bummer there’s no cliffnotes for the Kuran. The closest thing we found is a book titled “The Crisis of Islam”, which Steve had to read very discretely given present company.

-Mary