current Vice Pres entourage SPOTTED!

Wow, its been months since my last post! Nothing is up...yeah right!

So to get it started again....

Today I saw Dick Cheney's entourage on the streets of Istanbul. Yes, times like these make me high. I'm such a geek.

So I exit work, on a main street of the city, and wait for a bus. But then I notice, the street is EMPTY. Weirdness. I see a few cops. OK, something's going down, but they're not in riot gear. I just stand still, waiting to see what's going on. No Turks seem to be bothered, but I'm listening to the people around me, also waiting for the bus. No one seems alarmed.

The street I work on is on the same street as some important national landmarks (a national palace built by an Ottoman sultan & Ataturk's house), also across the street from a 'military depo'-a weapons museum.

Then there's a helicopter with a search light...hmmmmm....did the PKK get out of the mountains and set loose on the streets? No....no riot gear....

Then the police cars start racing down the street, in single file fashion. I don't know how many. Many of them were unmarked, but their cherries going off...Next an ambulance...

Hmmmm....shit went down in another part of the city?

The cop cars don't stop coming....it looked like a car chase...OK, must be a dignitary...but Turkish dignitaries don't travel like this. Then 2 small buses with people on it, followed by yet more cop cars...

Ah yes, coming from the US Consulate miles away. When the procession finally ended, traffic returned to normal.

US officials always travel like this.

When the bus stops in Taksim Square, where I was going, there's the car of a 5 star Turkish general. You know that's the case because its a posh car, red license plate, with 5 gold stars on it.

Later Super A tells me,"Some guy from America is here. Flew from Ankara to Istanbul today. What's his name? Ch-ch-nie?"

Fascinating people, absolutely fascinating. After a rough day, this made it so much better! I love being right smack in the middle of it all, even though some days suck. In the middle of the mix, where stuff is going down, oh yes oh yes oh yes! I AM HERE!

I might not know that its Easter, but I'm here!