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Hi Dad, never mind the phone line cutting through this photo — I was too lazy to walk the additional 30 feet to get on the other side.

This scene caught my eye because they were planting crops in long, narrow blocks, and it reminded me of when we were looking at the Google Earth satellite photos of Syria and noticing the planting patterns they were using there.

"Çare" means hope, and "sarıgül" means yellow rose.

For months I saw this grafitti and thought a lovesick man obsessed with a woman named Sarıgül had criss-crossed the country, spraying this grafitti on bridges, roads, and the backs of street signs.

Finally, in December, a friend in Mersin, Melih Mutluay, corrected me. He told me Sarıgül was a politician, and these signs were grafitti in support of him.

Melih got a good laugh out of my thinking this was some lovesick guy’s grafitti. I guess I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Witness my spending over 4 months thinking bottles of urine were bottles of apple juice.

The sign says "Birecik is a city that reads books."

I ate yesterday’s breakfast on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river, so I was between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Making it a breakfast eaten in the cradle of civilization.

Chris is a friend of mine from our University of Chicago days.

I must be an agent. I could be CIA. Maybe Mossad.

Nohut are garbanzo beans (chick peas), and they make great filling for a dürüm (burrito-like sandwich). Ayran is the drink made from yogurt, salt, and water.

Where is the traffic?