Winter Wonderland

This past weekend brought a surprise - significant snowfall. We had about 6 in. of snow over three days. Not too impressive to Midwesterners, but significant in Istanbul. While it didn't shut things down it certainly slowed them. I've never seen Turks have so much fun. There were many snowball fights and snowmen on the streets. The fish-sellers built a snowman in the middle of the fish market and topped it with the head of a swordfish, umm. It is also interesting to note that a Turkish snowman is made simple by packing snow into a torso shape, not with the American three ball method. The initial snowfall was beautiful, but the aftermath has, always, been less desirable. Since almost none of the snow was removed most sidewalks were coated with packed snow and then trecherous ice that has since been shoveled into the street (so it will melt?). We all know how nasty dirty snow is after a couple of days. Turkish dirty snow however has the added trash-factor. The litter that people tend to drop on the sidewalks and streets is normally not a problem as the roving street sweepers are quite effective. But, with snow on the ground most of that trash has ended up in the snowpiles linning the streets. Clouds and snow was a nice change from clouds and rain, but I am ready for spring.