Istanbul, Briefly

Amy and I recently went to Istanbul so I could present a paper at Privacy in Statistical Databases 2008. The following is a short summary of our trip.

Smoking, cats, and yellow taxis are ubiquitous in this city. Refrigeration, ipods, and trash cans are not. We would wake up in the morning exhausted, which I would like to attribute to jetlag. The food was good, though not great; I enjoyed most of what I tried, including the ice cream, pizza, and Kebap and excluding the cold seasoned-rice-in-a-mussel thing at the fancy dinner accompanying our cruise up and down the Bosphorus. The old churches and mosques made me shake my head in wonder, and some of the ancient artifacts in the archaeology museum still have me shaking my head. We explored the city and walked on two continents in weather that was by turns pleasant, blustery, and drizzly. They call the largest bazaar the Grand Bazaar, but the grandest in my opinion was the Spice Bazaar, the name of which evokes thoughts of exotic far eastern sights and smells. It lived up to its name. In addition, I managed to make my presentation without any results too disastrous and feel more informed for being at the conference.