The Fourth Day

	Hark! A dawn over the Bosporus, from the hotel restaurant.
	Blue Mosque and blue sky.
	Even Sophia is looking saintly.

Thursday was "Public Transport" Day. I walked up the hill yet another time, and got a ride on the Tram (a modern surface light rail system). This took me out along a main street to the Old City Walls, and beyond.

	The "you are here" monument. Actually, this tower marked the center milestone of old Constantinople. The Roman roads of the Eastern empire were measured from here.
	Interesting looking buildings along the tram route.

The Old City Walls are still an impressive sight! The wall is a triple wall complex, and the towers of the inner (highest) wall are massive five story (my estimate) complexes. If I was a barbarian, I'd think a few times before I took them on. These walls are also far away from city center (ten trolley stops). Roman- and Byzantine-era Constantinople was a big place.

	The City Wall where the tram line goes through it. This is ten or twelve stops from city center.
	This shows the three wall structure well. A low outer wall, a higher middle wall, and a towering inner wall. This would have been a tough nut to crack until good cannon were developed.

Beyond the walls the trolley went through a couple "new towns" and then ended near a circling freeway. The new towns were composed mostly of high rises that looked about seven stories, or so -- shorter than the high rises I see in Korea.

	Outside the City Walls: A modern mosque with a "mini minaret."
	Large gas station.
	Unusual architecture.
	Entering a "new town."

	More new town buildings.
	This shot is at the end of the line.
	A building at the end of the line.
	A modern shopping center at the end of the line.

Then I rode the trolley back, and down to the dock area. I saw a Mac Donald's and did my version of price checking: the cost of a Big Mac Combo.

There I met an "English Vampire" -- these are people who will talk with you just so they can practice their English on a "real foreigner". In this case it was Gurkan, a college freshman who was an ex-rug seller hustler.

Gurkan: he helped me find Taksim Square and Istiklal Caddesi.

I asked him if he knew where Istanbul's "Silicon Valley" was.

He didn't know, but he said Taksim Square is the hot retail center for Istanbul these days, and he'd take me there, if I wanted. Even though I'm not a shopper, that sounded fine to me. So, we walked across the Golden Horn bridge, and took a bus to Taksim Square.

	Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn. Galata Hill is in the background.
	The Golden Horn has been busy with ship traffic for two thousand years. The Bosporus Bridge in the background is less than ten years old. It's bringing quite a change to Istanbul.
	Taksim Square: old mixed with new.
	This is a statue to Mustapha Kimal, also known as Ataturk. He founded the modern Turkish Republic and promoted numerous other modernizing changes.
	A trolley dating back to the 1920's when this road, Istiklal Caddesi, was developed.

The Attack

Once we got to the square we walked down Istiklal Caddesi... a long way. Then we turned around and walked back... a long way. We were just entering Taksim Square again... just a hundred yards from the buses, when a medium height man walked quickly in front of me, and then slowed down. As I slowed down to avoid him, he started punching me with his elbows (He never faced me, so I didn't see his face.) then he speeded up and started walking off.

It took me about five seconds to realize that I'd seen this take place in the movie, "Harry Never Holds" (James Coburn, Michael Sarrazin, about pickpockets). I was being distracted. (My companion, Gurkan, was saying something similar.) In another ten seconds I had determined that my passport was gone from my left pocket!

We started yelling and gave chase. Sadly, I'm not much of a chaser anymore -- my knees have given out, and I was already tired.

What I did do was get some pictures as they moved off. (Here are the pictures and the full story.)

The theft had to be reported. The reporting process was reasonably fast and simple -- it took about a half hour to get a report typed up. That was all that was going to happen -- no thief catching -- so it was time to head back to the hotel.

As we headed back, I started thinking about who had to know about this. US Embassy (for my passport) and Korean embassy (for my visa in the passport) and the hotel (to help out where they could).

Gurkan had a cell phone, but not enough calling credits. I bought him a telephone card (20 YTL). He started making some calls.

	The ornate gate of a prestigious high school.
	An Orthodox Christian church.
	This road is a major retailing center in Istanbul.
	This is me on the road.

We could have taken a cab back to the hotel, but he said, "We can do it by bus." It was cheaper that way, but it turned out he had a terrible sense of direction. Once we were close, I could find my way back better than he could.

We encountered another problem: third world phone systems. We couldn't get through to the US Embassy, and it was now close to closing time. We got to the hotel, and I thanked Gurkan and told him I'd call him the next day if I figured he could help. (He wanted very much to try and help.)

The hotel people tried to reach the embassy while I looked the embassy up on the Internet. The staff and I finally confirmed that I could go to the embassy on Friday morning, and have a temporary passport by Friday midday. The only problem was that the embassy had recently moved to Outer Istanbul to expand and fortify. Gag! Long way, and a taxi drive. I can spell, "money sucking out of my pocket!"

That night, while I was eating dinner, the hotel manager visited, and located a pair of reading glasses that was a lifesaver for me reading.

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