Rain, cards, shisha, backgammon

It was raining a lot today, so we didn't get much sightseeing done. Phil, Dave and I found a nice cafe near the Kabatas metro where we planned to play some cards and grab some drinks. Unfortunately, the staff didn't allow us to play cards at the cafe. We couldn't understand what the reason was, but it seems like cards are only allowed in some places in Istanbul.

Adding to the confusion: 1) the previous day we played cards in the cafe next door and it was fine, and the owner of the cafe even came over to watch us play and try to learn the rules and 2) in another cafe, we weren't allowed to play because it was "within 100 meters of a school"

Later that night we met up with a local from Couchsurfing who Phil knew. He took us out to a shisa (hookah) bar where we smoked hookah, drank chai, and played backgammon. I won both games (against Dave ;). They were my first two games of backgammon ever, and I had a lot of help from Phil.

To be fair, both of them absolutely destroyed me in cards earlier in the day...

(more detail to come later)