"Please Return Our Diamonds Before You Go to Jail"......and others

Charles Taylor, exit stage right. Tip of the hat to a UN special court in the Hague for throwing the book at Taylor, the former leader of Liberia who abetted war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone and dealt in country's blood diamond industry. It took five years for the court to reach a verdict, but better late than never. I hope this a start of a trend of prosecuting heads-of-state and other political leaders who partake in crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, there is still much to be done. International tribunals need to find a way to get at these guys even while they are still serving, like Sudan's Omar Bashir and Assad in Syria. This has to happen, but putting Taylor in the clinker is a good start.

I am going to leave you with the last of my Uncle Paul's Istanbul tale, but before that there is the small matter of a "Game of Shadows". I watched the second Sherlock Holmes movie on Saturday, and just completely forgot to write a review. I am not sure it really matters, I am probably the last American to have seen the film. Either way, it was going to be a short review: Its bloody fantastic. Just a really fun, entertaining film. Robert Downey Jr. continues to be one of my favorite actors, he is such a riot in GoS. Jude Law, and all other involved are of course very good as well, but Stephen Frey gets special mention. Very funny in his somewhat minor role. Anyway, its hilarious, laugh-out-loud at times, there is loads of action, and the story is good as well. I am glad that Guy Ritchie got a hold of this franchise, he has done so well with it. Just see it if you haven't, I don't really need to go into any details.
Grade: A
If you liked this movie you might also like: Of course the first Sherlock Holmes, but really any Guy Ritchie film is worth a look.

And now, to wrap up Uncle Pablo's recap of he and Aunt Elena's trip again. A special shout-out to him for providing FC with this recap, I was flattered to have a contributing writer, even though the pay sucks. I again apologize for the gap in the posts, I started posting it, and then progress was interrupted by my own travels. Either way, give it a read, hopefully UP will contribute again in the future (despite the poor pay):

Unfortunately, it was my turn to be infected by the Istanbul intestinal bug.  I slept poorly with a stomach ache and woke up fully sick, losing most of the previous night’s sumptuous dinner in our bathroom.  We went to the hotel’s restaurant/breakfast area and chatted with some of our group for our final get-together.  I didn’t manage to eat anything, though Elena was pretty well recovered.  Besides being unable to eat, I was completely devoid of energy and walked around like a person half-asleep.  We at least managed to say goodbye to some members of our group and Taylan, with whom we took a photo.  Then it was time to pack up and head to our other hotel for our final day’s stay. 

Since I had no energy due to the tummy bug, it was a struggle just to pack up, check out, and walk over to our new (old) hotel, the Hotel Sphendon.  We got to the Sphendon around 10:30 or so, and our room wasn’t available yet, so I slumped like a pile of laundry on a couch in the lobby.  Elena was anxious not to waste our last day in Istanbul, so she took off.  Her plan was to visit the Dolmabahce Palace, which wasn’t on the tour.  After 45 minutes or so, the hotel staff informed me that my room was ready.  Unfortunately, this room was on the fourth floor (no elevator) and smaller than our previous room at the Sphendon, but it was still facing the courtyard and was very quiet.  I just collapsed on the bed and slept.  From that point until the end of the day, I alternated between reading “Lonesome Dove,” usually lasting about five minutes, and then going back to sleep.  Later in the afternoon, Elena came back, saying that the Dolmabahce Palace was nice, but basically she had to wait two hours for a one-hour tour of the palace.  She said that the payoff wasn’t worth the wait.  She had also done some shopping to get rid of our leftover Turkish lire, but she still needed to dump some more of the currency.  She asked if I wanted anything, and I said maybe just a banana.  Elena came back a few hours later having done as much shopping as she could and having had some dinner.  I managed to eat about half a banana, drank some (bottled) water, and left it at that.  We turned in for the night.

In the morning I was on the mend and managed to have some bread, fruit, tea, and orange drink (not the fresh-squeezed orange juice of the Obelisk, unfortunately).  Elena and I paid the hotel bill and quickly got a cab.  We tried to soak in as many sights of the city as we could as we drove along the Bosphorus to Ataturk Airport.  Even though we ended our visit to Istanbul on a bit of a sour note, Elena and I agreed it was a good tour and a good trip overall.  Ricky Steves gets another “thumbs up” from the travelling team of Paul and Elena.