This weekend was gorgeous! Friday night Chris and I hosted our first dinner party, which I think went quite well! I actually cooked(!) this! And it was actually tasty! Then Saturday we went all around Sultanhamet, which is the touristy area of Istanbul. We visited a couple of carpet salesmen who Chris and his friends know quite well. One of them, Ibrahim (from whom I bought a great ring! He doesn't just sell carpets...) was kind enough to drive us out a ways to one of his favorite restaurants. We had a huge, delicious meal, before heading back into town for some beers and World Cup viewing. It was later that evening that we met up with my friend Robert, who's travelling around the world for a year, and has been in Turkey for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this day, as I thought my camera had been stolen. Imagine my surprise when it turned up in Chris' car. Oops.

Sunday, we went rock climbing here:
It was really warm and so nice to get out of the city!

This is Chris' friend Natalie who came climbing with us...


















Here's a picture of Chris, almost at the top of the rock he was climbing... When I tried, I got about as far as.....





Here.











But I didn't mind, because I got to look at this all day!












Today's Monday, my favorite day of the week due to the Monday market! I'll venture out in a little while, with my non-existent Turkish (these days I find it easiest to use "Turkce yok", the Turkish equivalent of "No English") so we'll see what kind of wares I'll bring home!