Beware the Dropped Shoe Brush in Istanbul

Beware the shoe shine guy who drops his brush in front of you in Istanbul... suppress your natural desire to be helpful and ignore the brush and just keep walking. Yes, we were had. We thought we were being helpful, but we were lead away from the security cameras and his 'cousin' joined him and we were separated from about $20 or $40, we don't actually know...

This happened to us outside the Grand Bazaar.

But, as we were walking in front of the Dolmabache Palace someone tried to do it to us again. This time at least we were smart!!! We just kept walking and then laughed about it with incredulity.

Now that we know, we found a web site about this very subject.... And, in my 'Long Trip Debrief' I have added a note to check for large city scams. I am not going to be duped again! (Famous last words.) Or at least I am going to try and remember that if people eagerly engage you in conversation, they might be seeking something from you. If you, however, initiate the interaction, you are probably pretty safe. I mean, our experience was that the people were all really lovely.

A Long Lost Sister Right Next Door - from the Week Magazine

I had to share the following blurb from the February 28th edition of The Week Magazine:

A long-lost sister right next door
North Dakotan John Maixner spent years exchanging friendly hellos with Walmart greeter Buddine Bullinger, only to discover recently that she is his long-lost sister. Maixner, a brother, and three sisters were given up for adoption 50 years ago, and just last year he began searching for his birth family. When he tracked down a picture of his siblings, his jaw dropped as he realized that he knew Bullinger. The pair now speak by phone nearly every day, and Maixner has reconnected with his siblings and their children. “I gained a huge family,” he said.

How wonderful is this story? I can't imagine having my family split up in such a manner, but to then find them? What a blessing. It's too bad that the article doesn't mention how they found one another. I did find a third cousin through Ancestry.com DNA, though I am disappointed to report that she does not seem all that interested in connecting. I have heard stories about people trying to scam others through Ancestry connections. The scam goes something like this: people become close/connected and then the scammer asks their 'family' to lend them money. An alarming possibility which leads to a lot of distrust on the site.