In Which I Get A Taste Of My Own Medicine, Which Sounds Kind Of Gross, But That's The Expression, Isn't It Then?

I've been watching the news for the last couple of days from Baghdad, and I caught myself doing exactly what I've been telling friends and family not to do for the last three years... which is to worry about my friends there. (Well, I never said for you guys not to worry about my friends. Actually I told you all not to worry about me, but you see, now I'm worried about them, so it's the same thing. Or rather, my position has now changed, so that rather than having people worry about me, I have to worry about people there. I hope I didn't just lose, or worse, bore you; I'm actually having trouble piecing the last couple of sentences together myself; I think I may have overexplained an unimportant point, just a tad... I need a drink.) See, the thing is, is that when you're there, in Baghdad, relatively safe inside the Emerald City, and stuff blows up or you read about stuff blowing up in various other parts of the city, you kind of shrug your shoulders and go tsk tsk, but you go on with your day, you know? I mean it's not like you don't worry or you don't care, but it's just another aspect of the environment where you go about your daily business. Noony noony noony noo-ny.
But the current crisis in Baghdad, which began on the 24th, and seems to be calm for the moment as of yesterday, really has me on the edge of my seat. Full-out Civil War seems fairly inevitable at this point, and that just means a whole world of badness for anybody still there, Iraqi wise. I'm sure that those inside the Interzone will still be fine, for the most part, and most of the Iraqis I know have emigrated to Kurdistan anyway, where the madness hasn't reached yet and hopefully never will. I'm trying to remember how the news always makes it seem worse than it feels when you're in the middle of it, but the more time that goes by where I'm having cappuccinos, walking around posh shopping areas, touring pretty mosques and museums, and eating McDonalds, the more distanced I've begun to feel, naturally enough, and the harder it is to put my head back into what's going on over there.
But my point is, now I know how things looked like to those few of you who were worried about me (and/or others in Iraq) from the outside for the last three years... didn't mean to minimize your nagging voices to a Peanuts adult character quite as much as I did... sorry about all that! Heh heh. All's well that ends well, aye? No hard feelings? Right-e-o, moving along then.
So Turkey has been real fun, but I've been here way too long... I have gotten to know Istanbul rather too intimately. I don't have much to add, excitement wise, from my last week here. I've mostly just been hitting the pavement and shoving my nose into every available nook and cranny, and even retreading the more choice spots. I really like the mix of East and West here... lots of haijabs, lots of carpets, lots of eyes of Fatima, and lots of other Middle Eastern stuff-n-junk, and also fast food. This has totally been a great place to ease back in to the West. I even went to see the new James Bond movie... it was in English with Turkish subtitles, so that was nice. It's a good one; definitely a bold move in the Bond franchise. I like that he gets his butt kicked all over the place, before sort of coming out on top. It's not really what Bond is supposed to be about, but that just made it more interesting. Anyway, Istanbul, not Bond. Sorry. It's a wicked neat city, but sadly it's not as exotic to me as it might have been had I not already toured several Middle Eastern countries before arriving here, though as I said, I did enjoy the mix. But I feel that I've finally seen everything I need to, and it's time to move on, so tomorrow morning I'll be flying to Budapest for a few days, and then making my way by train to Munich. I will, as usual, tell you more than you probably want to know about how it all goes.

Comments

[scott]

still think you should manage somewhere other than budapest- krakow is nice... you've got time.

[dad]

i think you do understand a little about what we all have thought/felt over the past three years... anyway i do hope your friends are safe... as for me, i get a lot from your writing and am very glad you say so much... thanks mike

[messiestobjects]

Krakow is like, way north... I don´t know, we´ll see... I actually saw quite a bit of Budapest today; don´t know if I really need to stay here more than 2 days, so I might move on.
DAaaAd! (teenager voice) C´mon, not in front of the guys!

[messiestobjects]

By the way, nice to see you here at long last, Scott. You´re just one step away now from starting your own blog... something I´m sure alot of people would like to see...

[Dad]

Yep!! I for two think Scott Should do his own blog...