s. Service
very poor now, due to the war; long waits at the stations.

The people are poorly clothed, with gaudy sashes and queer headpieces.
Just at present they are celebrating some fast days.

The women work like the men, but always have a cloth wrapped around
their heads. We met a military transport; the men are brown and
healthy looking. Their whole equipment seemed German in origin.

Near the ocean, the farming is carried on on a large scale.

At the Bay of Kutshuk, I saw camels grazing, for the first time.

The ocean itself seemed brown, green, violet--all colors. At the shore
people were swimming, and there were two anti-aircraft guns mounted.

St. Stefano is an Oriental town in every sense of the word. At the
shore there are neat little European houses. Here, there is a wireless
station, etc., just as in Johannistal.

Then came Constantinople. From the train, you cannot see much; mostly
old, dirty houses, that look as if they were ready to topple over at
the first puff of wind.

At the station, I was met by several German aviators, and taken to the
hotel.

The evening, I spent with some officers and a number of gentlemen from
the German Embassy.

[Illustration: READY FOR THE START]

[Illustration: BOeLCKE AND HIS BROTHER MAX IN FRANCE (AUGUST, 1916)]

JULY 15, 1916

Early in the morning I rode to the Great Headquarters and reported to
Enver Pasha, who personally gave me the Iron Crescent. Enver, who is
still young, impressed me as a very agreeable, energetic, man. Then I
went through the Bazar, with an interpreter. This is a network of
streets, alleys and loopholes, in which everything imaginable is sold.
Then went to the Agia Sofia, the largest mosque, and to the Sultan
Ahmed, which has been changed to a barracks.

In the afternoon I went to the _General_ (the ship on which the German
naval officers live). In the evening we were in the Petit Champ, a
little garden in which a German naval band played.

My valet amuses me. He is very unhappy, because he cannot feel at
home, and is being cheated right and left by the people. He had
pictured Turkey to be an entirely different sort of a place. He was
very indignant because the merchants start at three o'clock, at night,
to go through the streets selling their wares.

JULY 16, 1916

In the morning I went out to the _General_ with Lieutenant H. to see a
U-boat.

In the afternoon, a Greek fun