Continental Irony – Erich

Four! As of today, the four of us have set foot in four different continents: North America, Africa, Europe, and now, Asia.

We took a ferry from the European side of Istanbul to an area on the Asian side called Kadɩköy. We met a new friend, one who Alrica knew from online, but we had never met in person before today. She lives in the area, and she showed us the sites.

We had a great time, but the irony was that our first trip to Asia was incredibly European. Understand, none of us expected one section of Istanbul to be radically different than the others we have experienced. And Kadɩköy was not radically different, but it was different. And in some ways, it was even more European.

There were streets lined with shops that looked similar to many streets you might see in European cities (and American cities.) One didn't see many women in headscarves of any sort. The clothing was very American. That has generally been true in most of Europe. The number of New York Yankees caps I have seen has rivaled the number I might see in most any city in the United States, except of course, New York.

Pencil thin Atlas perhaps?

People were out picnicking in a park. There was some cool public art. We ate pasta! I mean, come on! Pasta!

From what our friend told us, the people of Kadɩköy very much want to be more like the Europeans and much less like traditional Turks.

So we had a Europeanesque Asian day. But it still counts as continent number four.