I walked down to Bosphorus and found myself my first beer(s) in a week. This is a 1 way straight: I guess it is so hairy that the larger ships wait in the Black Sea or Marmara Sea until it is their direction to go. It gets as narrow as 500 m right at old Istanbul, and there can be a strong current.

I was told last night that the buildings that collapsed in 1999 in Istanbul from the distant Izmit quake tended to be about 5 stories. The higher buildings survived. The opinion of the geoscientist who told me that was that the construction of the taller building was better. On my walk today, I saw some buildings that seemed to be really badly built...2 or 3 stories...just some brick-like material partially cemented together. I was thinking it was pretty safe here in this area a little north of old Istanbul, but I'm not so sure now...
Chris