So I’m reading up on Istanbul and trying to get my bearings (as much as one can do from reading a travel guidebook each night before bed) and I run across this, and I quote: Turkish men have a taste for soulful romance delivered with a twinkle in the eye…Enjoy but keep it light…

And if that’s not enough, there’s this: Istanbul is on an earthquake belt and it rumbles regularly. The last major quake was in 1999 where, tragically, roughly 23,000 people died in Greater Istanbul…

I think the first one has me most concerned!

(Mom, don’t read this. And to think you freaked out when you heard I was going to Africa!)