A stroll through our neighborhood in Istanbul anyone? Come along for a minute and a half jaunt through the streets.
September 1, 2010
Last night we ate our first Turkish meal at White Mill. Even though we were drunk with fatigue the garden setting and hanging lanterns did not go unnoticed. Magical. From the street this place looks ordinary and empty, but then you walk up a flight of stairs down a passageway and descend into a garden lush with trees, vines, green. Not a single breeze stirred the air. No cooling for me yet. At this point still wondering how I will possibly survive this deep penetrating heat.
Walked up to Taxsim Square. We left Cihangir and climbed steadily up the slight incline and entered another world. Dark, sooty, noisy, horns honking, what seemed like thousands of people milling about. Carol used the payphone and called Verizon to get her global phone figured out. I waited next to Carol who was next to a man wearing worn leather dress shoes who was taking deep puffs off a cigarette and exhaling clouds of smoke.
Her phone recovered, we climbed into our first Turkish cab for a quick ride home. 23 turkish lira. I gave him a 50 TL note and he returned only 20 TL change. A gross overcharge. Too hot and too tired to argue. We got out and found to our dismay we had been deposited at the wrong address on the wrong street. $%$#@ Our search begins for Osmanbey Apartment #3. Eventually we find it, but not before buying beautiful peaches from a tiny produce store on the corner. The fruit and vegetables lay gleaming under the shopkeeper's lights, spread out like a buffet in their crates and baskets. Wind blew giant sycamore leaves down onto the street. It's midnight. We're in Istanbul. And it finally feels cooler. I bend down and pick up one small yellow sycamore leaf to put in my journal.
After finally sleeping Tuesday we woke up super early. The weather has changed dramatically! The air is chilly with skies the color of pewter. Rain is falling. We flopped back in our beds and slept until 2 pm ish.
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p.s. While I was off exploring, the cat posse was lovingly cared for by the kind and wonderful cat nanny I found right here on the blog. She went very far above and beyond in doting on Buck, Wyatt, and Corky. I loved getting daily reports of their hijinx.
Istanbul is a city of cats! This one found a drink from a wash basin outside of a mosque.
some of those images in that video looked an awful lot like San Francisco. i remember a blogging pal in Istanbul (i don’t think she’s blogging anymore) telling me that parts of the city looked very similar to the Bay in S.F. (hi, Mary Ann! it’s been awhile!) 😉
welcome home!! i am enjoying your travels vicariously. makes me want to get going on both journals AND travels.!!
More please!
Please, please please tell me more….tell me everything!!! I love hearing about your travels. You make me feel like I am there myself. Glad you are home safe and sound!!
Welcome home, Mary Ann! Loving your photos, journal entrys and video. Margaret Moth, a famous news camerawoman for CNN made her home in Istanbul before she returned to the US where she died of cancer earlier this year. You can Google a four-part CNN documentary on her life (Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story). She made her best friend promise to move into her Istanbul apartment after she died in order to take care of all the stray cats she had been feeding and caring for. Glad you’re home safe and sound.
Ah sweet, sweet bliss, hanging on every word; visual and spoken.
it looks so much like Lisbon. Do cats meow differently in Istanbul?
A little morsel of Turkish Delight – thanks for sharing :-))
I loved watching your video and hearing about your trip. Hope there is lots more to come!