I know this in translations, but the situation is intriguing. If I was married, and my wife was inviting people into my home that I felt had disrespected me in the past without an apology, I would be angry with my wife. I'm stubborn I know, but I also have principle.
Am I too hard headed?

I may have missed it, but çankaya is a very popular turkish wine. Thats what they served to Bill Clinton when he was here and it seems the popularity soared after that.

For me its good and bad. Of course, i speak my best turkish with people that speak no english. And there is usually no discussion that we cannot have. So for me, since all my friends speak good english (they all take it in school so of course they do), its just easier to speak english.

Now the bad....
No matter what I do, I will never lose my accent. So even the turkish I know perfectly, I will never even come close to speaking it like a native...
So I admit, when I am out, and people have to ask me to repeat myself...I get a little discouraged...
my pride is too big...

Illegal english jobs are plentiful in Istanbul. Honest they are. Walk though Sisli above the metro and you can find many english schools that will hire native speaking, un-degreed people. And since its illegal technically, they probably pay them less.

This is just me personally but I'd much rather stay in hotels in Taksim than in Sultan Ahmet. Especially with the new metro line thats takes you down to Kabataş from Taksim, so it is maybe a 15 minute transit ride to Sultan Ahmet from Taksim. Your still close enough to Sultan Ahmet to do that during the day and then you have Taksim at night. Sultan Ahmet is a little slow at night no matter what you are looking for. My very good friend Bahattin manages the Savoy in Taksim right across from all the döner places at the top of Istiklal. Tell him that "Keith" sent you and he will give you a very good deal.

I dont want to take this thread an entirely different direction, but I want to add one last thing. If animals are treated well, before they are consumed, I dont have a problem with their utilizaation. I do feel sorry for the animals that live an "assembly line life."
But animals that live in fields, or are hunted..they dont know death is coming. I think some of the "true vegetarians" think of these animals too much in humanistic terms. I dont think there is a good way to reason to with people on either side of this. You either look at it one way or the other. "No offense to my friends the vegetarians by the way..."

This is just too simplistic.
Some men prey on women.
Some women prey on men.
And it just so happens that turkish beach resports are just one of many places in the world that this occurs.
Single people go on holiday and put themselves in the frame of mind to fall in love and unfortunately be taken advantage of.
I can honestly say this almost happened to me my first visit to brussels back in 1990. But, that is another story...

I have points on both sides of this discussion. First, abstaining from eating pork was part of all three middle eastern based religions (Islam, Judism, and Christianity) At some point, Christians relaxed laws on pork much in the same way that abstaining from meat on all Fridays was reversed in the last 30 years. So the precedent here definitely predates Islam, which is the "newest" version of where are all three of these religions came from anyway.

For the people that feel that animals are not here for our consumption, realize that most domesticated animals that we eat today would have been extinct long ago through nature's survival of the fittest. Cows, pigs, sheep, etc would have been elimnated long ago by predatory animals and lack of a safe environment.

Without a doubt, polonez brand sucuk is the best. Fry it on both sides til a little crispy. Dip your ekmek in the grease....ah..cok guzel...