My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

took my camera and destroyed all the photographs that I had taken.
What a pity!
I understand that today St. Petersburg is even more beautiful, after
the falling of the Soviet Union and the CCCP, which represented
the emblematic initials for Center Committee of the Communist
Party. Before I returned home, I purchased a few items used by the
Soviet military, such as a Garrison cap, pinned with small badges;
the Russians call it Pilotka which is now part of my collection of
artifacts.
Turkey
MIDDLE EAST or ASIA MINOR
My wife and I flew to Istanbul, a huge city that is different from
most cities that we had visited. Extremely exotic! We were very
surprised that most people dressed as Europeans. It’s interesting to
note that Turkey is located in a small area of Europe and in Asia,
so it is in fact a Eurasian country. It is a dream city, full of historic
places that we made certain to visit. The sites that still remain in
our minds are the Blue Mosque; the Hagia Sophia Church; the
Topkapi Palace, where the treasury jewels were kept, and the
Harem, where the Sultans were entertained by many women; the
Grand Bazaar, where we purchased a few souvenirs and enjoyed
the aggressiveness of the merchants. We also visited a carpet
factory, where my wife was so enthusiastic to purchase a beautiful
handmade, but when they told us the price, I almost fainted.
In Istanbul, we boarded a cruise ship. The first stop was Kusadasi,
on the southwestern coast of Turkey. We took a bus tour of
Ephesus to see the ruins of that ancient biblical city, once a
religious center of early Christianity. We walked through the ruins
192