Merhaba!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently in Istanbul for a congress, and what a great, colourful and vibrant place it is! Don't miss the muezzin call on the panorama balcony of the Galata tower. Reading Orhan Pamuk's latest work Istanbul. Memories of a City along the way certainly helps to get a good background impression of the place.

But first of all, I need to thank Shinji (again!) for the idea to this blog, for without it, I would never have met co-blogger Atilla and his lovely wife Banu! Atilla represents Turkey on this blog, and I learnt that he was one of the very first people to have joined Shinji and thus helped to get the ball rolling. We've had very interesting discussions over excellent Turkish food at Haciabdullah's, and we found out that Turkey and Switzerland, despite of being so close on the alphabet, are very different places indeed.

So, an experience not to be missed when travelling to foreign places: Meet your Topics 192 correspondent.