This is the last in a series of photos I took from a bus ride - promise!  But I love this image - it's a great big blue truck speeding across the bridge (going from Europe towards Asia) with the ancient castle Rumelihisarı in the background.

It's amazing how much like a modern painting a window can look from a bus when it's raining/sleeting/snowing outside. 

The poplars here tend to be planted in smart and neat rows - creating a fun combination of chaos and order.

The hills of Istanbul used to be green green and more green.  Sadly now there aren't so many trees - and the way they prune them - agh!  But these here are a special kind of pine that I don't know the name of.  I like the way these passing clouds - for just a short while - framed their swooping shape.

Along the eastern side of the Sea of Marmara, there are many factories that dot the coastline.  They still emit a lot of pollution - but it's improved quite a bit in the last few years - I've actually seen dolphins in the Bosphorus now, most likely a direct link to the government cracking down on illegal - and up until recently not so illegal - dumping in the region.

I found the great composer peering down upon students and faculty while visiting Bilkent University yesterday.  Indeed, the music department has their cafeteria named after him - and they're serving up waffles and pizza with vegetables -

I took a lengthy ride on a double decker bus today - here we're zooming from Europe straight into Asia.

...well of course, carpets!  At the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul -

What do they say?  When one closes another one opens - I mention this at the start of my new blog design - hurray!  I've said goodbye to wordpress and hello to Wlad Marhulets, who has created my own site from scratch - he is also a ridiculously amazing composer - check him out here.  Also worth mentioning is how Turks recycle materials - such as the doors that they've collected from this building and used it to barricade the construction site for a newer, surely bigger building.  Notice the incline - the hills of Istanbul are steep!  Especially the ones right between Teşvikiye and Beşiktaş on the European side.