Howdy from Turkey. I went on a little tour yesterday on the day off to see some Byzantine/Christian/Roman sites.

Our trip took us up and over a mountain range which is Southeastern Turkey, near Adana. So, the first part was straight up. Then, at the top there was a huge plain with mountains on all sides -- it was pretty cool. We saw the second highest mountain in Turkey, but I forget the name of it. The tallest is Mount Ararat. I didn't go there, but supposedly some ancient derelict junked his old boat there. Maybe I'll see that on the next tour.

One of our guides, Mustapha, was crazy. He would describe stuff at these underground caves, then point down a small passageway and start sprinting to the next room. Since he was about five feet tall, this wasn't difficult for him.

Me, that was another story. I had to duck-walk.

As you may be able to tell from the picture, he also sported a rather goofy toupe', and our main guide told us he was 26 years old. Right! If he's 26, I'm the ruler of the Ottoman Empire!

Anyway, I asked him what was the Turkish word for "rug." He didn't get it.

As this photograph shows, we were up at a significant elevation, and there was snow. Some idiot just wore shorts and sandals, though. I took a picture of his feet in the snow.

For the record, Japanese tourists DO NOT appreciate a good Turkish snowball fight the same way that Americans -- like me, for instance -- do. What I saw as a harmless invitation for a little multinational pseudo-conflict using nothing but frozen precipitation as a "weapon," they seemingly took as a serious challenge to their national sovereignty! Doesn't it snow in Japan? Aren't they a constitutionally pacifist country? Wow. I guess not.

TVOR