We got picked up in the neighborhood of Pera, on the outskirts of Istanbul, by Hasan, co-owner of the company, and his associate, also named Hassan. They picked us up in their diesel-powered volkswagon van from, what seemed the early '90's. It was my friend Ray and I and the two Hassan's, and it was our second day of a 14-day trip. It's hard to make this a "long-story-short" kind of thing because, for some reason I can recall so many details about that day: our tourist-friend