The local egg seller came driving up the street with a megaphone blaring his pitch. The basket was sent down with cash for an order from the fifth floor of the building opposite ours.

Up at noon. Chatted with fALk and Willow for a bit before Michael came down. Decided to go and take a look at the exterior of the house we are hoping to get and to visit the cafe and gallery of Michael's fiance Yeşim. We all pile into Michael's Tofaş, a Turkish branded Fiat. Got over to Ortaköy very quickly. It is very upscale compared to Beyoğlu. Great views across the Bosphorus. Had a quick glance at the fifth and six floor place we hope to occupy and grabbed some pastries and fruit to have for breakfast. Settled in at a cafe that Michael had made t-shirts for. He made himself right at home, jumping right into the kitchen and slicing up our fruit. Had some tea and our breakfast items while Michael and Renee ordered spicy omelets. After breakfast, we headed down to the sea side to take a look around.

After we had our fill of the sea, we headed over to Yeşim's Kumquat Coffee. Got some tea and settled in to abuse her wireless connection. Tried to get Willow's Toshiba laptop online, every indication was that the hardware was operating fine, but it would just not see the base station. I gave up after 45 minutes, deciding that the antenna might be disconnected. An hour later, fALk found a tiny switch on the side that turned the antenna on and off. This had been the culprit.

  
Kumquat Coffee, owned by Michael's fiance Yeşim.

My bags were due at the shop from the airport after 18:00. When it got to 20:00, and the others were getting antsy, I called and was told that the driver was stuck in traffic and that he could be expected after 21:00. Fifteen minutes later, the bags arrived. Took them into a storage area and cracked them open. The Apple G5 did not fare so well. The back leg was crushed and sticking out from the case. Did not have any way to fire it up and test it out. Will have to do that later.

  
My G5 didn't fare so well in the long journey from Los Angeles to Istanbul.

Headed back to the house around 21:30 and then out to dinner from there. Passed by Indigo, the club we are supposed to have a residency at. Found a little place for dinner that had a variety of veggie dishes. The wait staff brought out a huge tray with a bunch of dishes for us to decide on. We ended up with seven. They were all pretty tasty, with a really spicy tomato dish being the favorite.

Headed back towards the house and witnessed the last bit of a heated argument between a gentleman working a giant fryer and what appeared to be a customer. The customer had blood coming out of his nose and dribbling down his chin and was yelling at the other gentleman, gesticulating wildly all the while.

  
Our nice veggie dinner and sampling the Turkish anise liquor.

Decided to try one of the bars we had seen near Indigo. The bartender was very friendly and spent a great deal of time trying to pitch an expensive cocktail on Willow. We decided to try the Turkish specialty of Raki, an anise flavored liquor, which at 45% alcohol was pretty potent. The drink is served cut with water and a cube of ice, along with a second glass of water. I am a big fan on anise, but I did not find the drink particularly appealing. Headed back home and watched some of the video I had on one of my hard drives. They did not go over all that well and we ended up watching Breakin All the Rules with Jamie Foxx.

Michael returned at 01:30. I went and had a shower. So good to get clean and have some clothes to change into. It had been a long four days without a possibility of getting really clean. Came back up to join the others in a conversation about musical likes and dislikes. Stayed up until 06:00 again.