istanbul

Istanbul

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In January I went to Istanbul for about a week. An amazing and ancient

city. Some parts are very conservative while others, like Taksim,

where we were staying with the illustrious Nese, are chocked full of

five floor buildings with a club or bar on each level. The city is

built on seven hills and you are constantly walking up or down steep

inclines. This also means that almost every top floor of a building

has a spectacular and uninterrupted view, usually in more than one

direction. It's a bit of a cliche but the city really does feel like

East meets West in terms of culture. Unfortunately it rained pretty

much every day me and Casey were there - hence the dark and mysterious

pics... I have a tonne of pics so this will be a long one.

I did manage to get one sunset out of the whole trip while riding a

ferry up the Bosphorous. I was coming from visiting a castle where I

managed to get chased by stray dogs when I got too close to them

fighting over some kind of horse skull. It turned out for the best

because this Australian fellow was laughing at the whole thing and we

played back-gammon and drank tea the whole way back.

I should have paid attention to the sign.

Wasn't going near this one.

Turkish food is amazing. The pastries and baklavas there were the best

I've had. Too much good food to get in to - and combined with a super

hospitable atmosphere everywhere it was really nice. Every restaurant

baked its own bread and served Salep - which is basically really thin

yoghurt with a bit of salt in it. Super refreshing to drink.

These guys had a boat based restaurant going which was impressive...

... given that the straits were really dire that night.

Markets come out at night.

Istanbul is a bit like Havana in that there are not that many street

lamps on at night. So it kind of feels like you are a character in

"Double Indemnity".

Sultanahmet. One of the biggest mosques in the city (there are

hundreds). Apparently there was a big stink when it was constructed

because it had too many minarettes and was coming a bit too close to

Mecca in grandiosity.

Inside Sultanahmet.

The Hagia Sofia was also really impressive. It no longer functions as

a church or mosque and is now a museum.

This is Sulimanye mosque. The whole city is marked by hundreds of

buildings by the architect Mimar Sinan and this is one of his best.

It's amazing how many of the buildings in Istanbul are his work or

derived from him.

There is a cemetery attached to Sulimanye. Interesting to note how

important cultural reference is for NOT getting the heeby jeebies in a

cemetery. No Christian imagery or western style tomb stones = no

ghosts right?

Heating coals for smoking nargile.

Backgammon and chess are really popular. Seriously, all ages.

Deniz, Nese, Casey and me smoking and drinking coffee. Coffee there is

really tasty but hard to finish because it is the consistency of mud.

Pump ya brakes and drive slow homie! 3,300,000 Lire cab ride... That's

how we roll.

Back in the 4th century Constantine 1 had some massive cisterns built

to service the city.

Night life is a bit under-represented in this post given how many bars

and clubs we went to. I guess I was too busy learning how to dance in

9/8 Turkish style to take photo's. It involves a lot of out stretched

arms, eye contact and aggressive hip thrusting. My new dance moves

have gone over really well back in the A'dam. Clubs really varied

widely - from gay bars with table dancing trannies and lots of bad

euro-trance to salsa music. One club was playing all thugged out

hip-hop which is rare for there (thankfully) and was populated by a

whole bunch of 7 foot tall guys (and girls) from the southern states.

Apparently they were playing basketball there. Strange to ask some guy

where he is from and have him answer "Yeah, A'm frum Jawgia, you know

- Hot-Lanta" while in Istanbul. By far the best night out was with the

band in this picture. Traditional music. Everyone in the place in

cluding the band was dancing. Awesome.

The Sultan's seal.

At the grand bazaar. Best sweater ever?

At the airport.

Taking off from Turkey.

The clocks changed here today - in the losing an hour sense of course.

I think it would be better if every time they changed we just gained

an hour. Eventually day and night would just reverse. I wonder how