What we like about travel

One of the things we really like about traveling is the people we meet along the way. For example, when we were in Istanbul a few weeks ago, we went on a Bosphorus cruise on a ferry. The ferry took us past some beautiful old Ottoman style buildings, and then to a little village where we had lunch at a fish restaurant.

All of us on holiday in Istanbul ...

On the way back, we happened to sit on a bench across from a bunch of young men, also obviously tourists. Of course, we started trying to talk with them, with great hilarity as none of us spoke a common language. One of them had enough English that we learned they were from Iraq,engineers attending a conference in Istanbul. We talked about Bush (they don't like him, said with lots of head shakes and obvious emotion), Obama (mixed response), the war ("I'm sorry," was all I could say), and the topple of Saddam Hussein (which they loved!). Pretty soon we were posing for photos as if we were family.

Geography lesson

They wanted to know where we were from, so I drew a map of the US, with a little star by Seattle. They looked a little blank, so I added Vancouver (still blank) and Hollywood ("Ahhh ...). Then one of them drew a map of Iraq to show us where he was from. Funny how little we know about a country we have been so involved in as a nation. And funny too how little they know about us.

So maybe this is how diplomacy really should work. A couple of not-so-young Americans having spirited, if language-challenged, conversations with five young men. Kind of nice to know that somewhere in Iraq there are photos being shown of Bill and me, vacationing from Bosnia, surrounded by engineers from Iraq, on a ferry in Turkey.