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Saturday was a simple but very productive day. I spent the morning getting rid of whatever was bothering my stomach from the night before, then staggered out into the apartment at around noon, saying I was about to go out and go instrument shopping. Alihan immediately picked up the phone, had a brief conversation, then said, "OK, my daughter Tanya is coming over soon to be your guide." It took about 30 seconds for my pride to wither, then I said, "OK, I guess I'll wait for her." So off we went. First back to Mustafa's, where Friday's offer had improved a bit, from including a soft case to including a hard case. Useful for international travel. I poked and prodded the thing a few times (just to make sure it was dead), then said OK, and Mustafa bought a round of tea to seal the deal. As we were waiting for the tea to come, Tanya remarked on how yummy the kofte restaurant next door smelled; Mustafa overheard her and offered to buy us lunch as well. Nice! It was very very tasty, and effectively jumpstarted my derailed digestion.

Then across the street to Emin's, which was populated by not only Emin but also a bunch of really talented drummers. I sat and stared, mostly, as Emin demonstrated the myriad different drums he'd designed recently. (Apparently I was quite lucky to find him in, as he doesn't spend much time in his retail outlet anymore.) It was really fantastic to watch all these folks play, and Tanya was sufficiently intrigued to pick up a dumbek and get a wee lesson (one might also theorize that neither Emin nor Tanya found the other to be unattractive).

When I got back, Alihan gave me a choice between eating food that his wife had prepared and left for him for weekend, or going out to eat fish on the canal. That was a real stumper. But I finally went with the fish, and we had a lovely meal -- raki to drink, some calamari, eggplant salad, seaweed, and bits of fish as appetizers, and then grilled palamut for the entree (apparently it was palamut season -- you'll see in tomorrow's pictures that they were being sold everywhere).