Unexpected connections

Today I got up early and responded to an email I had received the night before... from Catherine, a former colleague from Vancouver, BC who I hadn't seen since 1996 when I met up with her in Vietnam where she was working (The time before that was in 1993 in Japan where I was working). Being still sore from my surgery, we arranged to meet in Ortaköy as it is only a 5 minute taxi ride from Beşiktaş. A few days ago, she was in Romania and I never imagine she would get though Romania, Bulgaria and reach Istanbul on time to meet up with me... I mean, this was no easy feat as she came almost the entire way by bicycle! (She arrived with bike in Amsterdam in June). Along with another traveling friend she met alone the way, we were 3 Vancouverites enjoying a late breakfast and Turkish coffee in Istanbul. Wonderful! It remains to be seen whether Catherine takes my advice and takes her bike to Northeast Turkey and cycles on down to Iraq. She would likely be the first female Vancouverite to cycle through the Turkish border into Iraq! How cool would that be?

And this meeting with Catherine wasn't the only surprise. In truth, I expected to be on my own this trip to Istanbul. I had arranged a hotel in Taxim and brought enough work to occupy myself the whole 5 days in Turkey. It was not to be so... from the time I arrived in Ataturk Airport, it was one unexpected connection after another. In the airport, I ran into Fadime (not real name) a friend of a friend- a Turkish divorcee living in Hawler who was traveling to Turkey with her new husband, an Arab man also living in Iraq. I saw her in the Erbil Airport, but hadn't recognized her with the headscarf, a new custom she has adopted to fit in better with her husband's family. We had a nice chat before I headed to my hotel.

The next day as I was heading to the hospital for my consultation, I received a call from Gokhan, the boyfriend of Tz who informed me that Tz was NOT in Italy, but in Istanbul and that I should come to their house to stay instead of the hotel.

And tomorrow I take a taxi to the airport at 4:30 am as there are no seats on the Istanbul-Erbil flight and I will have to fly to Mardin and travel overland from there... But Mu will meet me on the Iraqi side of the border and take me to Hawler... where S (another Canadian) is waiting. You will remember her from many earlier blog posts: she is the Kurdish-speaking one with the mermaid-styled Kurdish dress who met me in Puerto Rico this summer. I never imagined she would miss Hawler so much that she would return just 3 months after leaving.