At the time we lived in Istanbul, there was only one WalMart type store, and often it was easier to go there to find something than to hunt through the myriad of small shops that was our other option for shopping. However, this store, named METRO, was about as far from us as possible without being out of Istanbul proper. We lived on the Asian side of Istanbul, on the coast of the Sea of Marmara in an area called Goztepe. To get to the big market, Ahmet Bey would pick me up in the company car (which at the time was a very old Mercedes 9-passenger limousine, with windows so old that they were wired closed) and head out of town to catch a "ring road" that tripled the driving miles but cut in half the driving time to get to METRO. The ring road was a freeway and was sparsely used then, though by now I'm sure the city has built out beyond that area and it probably is as congested as our freeways are now.
One day I had to make a trip out to METRO and since Jerry was in an all-day meeting at the office, Ahmet was free to drive me. We got on the ring road, went over the second bridge (furthest up the Bosphorus) and then headed out in a wide arc toward the part of Istanbul that is beyond the airport. As usual, there wasn't much traffic on the road, but what little there was got conspicuously lighter as we went. At one point there was an overpass and Ahmet noticed there were some armed military guards patrolling across the overpass. He called it to my attention and said he didn't know why they were there. Shortly we came up to an on-ramp and noticed that police had blocked cars from entering the freeway. This was mighty peculiar.
Within a mile or two we noticed that we were the only car on the freeway in either direction, and by the time we got to our destination we were totally confused. Neither of us had a clue as to what was going on; all we knew is that at least we weren't being chased, so if they were trying to capture someone who'd committed a crime, they knew it wasn't us!
The next day Ahmet Bey telephoned and said the newspaper announced that President Ozel had been in Istanbul the previous day and was scheduled to fly back to Ankara in the afternoon. He said the ring road had been shut down for Ozel’s safety in getting to the airport.
Ahmet and I just laughed our heads off. Apparently seeing a long limo driving on the road about the time Ozel was expected, the governmental guards weren't sure whether or not this was the official party so they let us breeze on through rather than make an embarrassing mistake with some legitimate officials. I'm sure if they'd been able to see the wire holding the windows together in our limo they would have realized this was definitely not the car they were expecting. Ahmet and I joked that the next time we had a trip somewhere we would put little Turkish flags on the front fenders to insure that we'd have clear sailing!
In spite of the age of that limo, driving the ring road in that manner gave both the limo and Ahmet-Bey a boost in status among his fellow drivers, and when the company replaced the limo with a 4-passenger Ford Tempo Ahmet was sorely disappointed.
This episode is a memory I cherish from my time in that amazing country.
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