Saying goodbye

It's my last week in Istanbul. My last four days to be specific: I board a plane early Saturday morning and who knows when I'll be back.

I'm horrible at goodbye's. Any kind of semi-permanent -- or worse, permanent -- farewell turns me into an socially awkward dweeb with more acute personal space issues than usual. But how do you say goodbye to a place? Can you soak it all in, breath a little deeper, linger a little longer? I feel like someone who has waited until the last minute to write a term-paper. I am frantically -- breathlessly -- trying to gather up enough parts of the citizen to embody its sum in my remaining days.

I should have started weeks ago.