I arrived in Turkey yesterday for a short trip.  It is not my first time here, but never have I had so many coincidences as I did last night.  On the airplane I had watched a movie called Mutluluk (Bliss), about a girl and her cousin from Eastern Turkey running from their family, who want the girl to be killed after she was raped, for the sake of her honor.  Her cousin is supposed to do it, but can't seem to bring himself to it, and instead choses to hide with her and work by the coast.  They meet a sophisticated professor who is from Istanbul, escaping the superficiality of what his life has become, and is sailing along the coast by himself.  He takes them on his boat to give them work, and they all become friends.  It was a great movie.  This may seem like a random story, but it really comes first in the line of events of the night. 

We went out to Taksim for dinner, which is a very popular area on the European side of the city.  There are streets lined with Meyhane, small restaurants where you eat meze and meat or fish, drink raki, and listen to music.  They have a fixed menu, and you just choose which meze you want, and if you want meat or fish.  They have a lot of character, and both the young and old go out to these places.  The weather is cold, but still warm enough to enjoy dinner outside without freezing, and last night there were tons of Istanbulites crawling the streets of Taksim.  We went to one such place for dinner with a bunch of friends of my friend, who are mostly originally from Izmir. As I was getting to know the girl who sits across from me, she began telling me about her sister and her new American husband who had met at grad school in Sweden.  They were moving to New York, and were really excited.  I was telling her that my sister and I were taking Turkish classes at the Turkish Cultural Institute, and she said "That is where Mike studies!".  Well, it turns out that this girl is the sister in-law of the guy in my Turkish class who had just been visiting his wife in Izmir not too many weeks ago.  Wierd coincidence number 1. As we were getting ready to leave the restaurant we bumped into a guy who went to high school with me and Harika in Switzerland.  Weird coincidence number 2.  Then as we were winding our way down the streets back to the car, the actor from the movie(!!) passed by.  He was the cousin, Cemal, and I had JUST described the movie to my friends.  It is an area where a lot of artists go out at night, so it was not shocking that he would be there.  Weird coincidence number 3. 

Next time I will describe more about the food I am eating, like Ayva Tatlisi (the quince dessert in season), but for now I am just in awe of the universe and what a small world it sometimes is.