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Day 2 – part 1 & 2 – September 2 2024 – Istanbul: snaps from the hood

Hello Gin & Tonic (HK airport).

and then we boarded … early … into the heat and confusion of this artfully retro-styled aircraft where the stewards show not the slightest of effeminate affectations as per the dos and don’ts in Turkey from my Ûdemy Learn Turkish in a Month language course. Both are paragons in this respect and never even so much as a titter passes from their lips.

and then we waited, bekleyoruz … and waited … and tried to remember how to operate the artfully retro-styled remote controls on retractable strings. … but to no avail as media access was not yet to be had.

after the allotted time putting up with the large Chinese crybaby who lost his earbud, whose little voice as in a dream I heard through my plugged ears saying, Are you deaf?! I’ve lost my earbud! He later virtually disassembled the seats, tearing away at the velcro-attached cushions. Some were sympathetic. Some frowned. The stewards didn’t weigh in. …after that, this

and of course Zahar Hadid on our minds.

these are a feature of Turkish life. The Camels are, at today’s exchange rates, NZ$61.94 / 12 = @NZ$5 a pack. More than 10 x that in the biopolitical zone of NZ. (I have just done these sums and am nostalgic all over again for the culture that was lost in NZ, the gestures, the secret language of cigarettes …)

first Turkish / Istanbullu kedi:

toeing the line

Checked in at Han Point Boutique Hotel we explore the lower zones of Fatih.

and were told by our charming concierge that we should not go there at night, which we sort of gathered anyway from the smell during the day.

note the bay extension, or cumba, a feature of Ottoman houses.

this decorative motif will recur on several of the pillars in the Basilica Cistern. Is it the Evil Eye?

Beyazit funneled us into the Grand Bazaar, a little before opening time.

and into the oldest part of the bazaar.

People do the damnedest things for selfies. The young woman in this snap had presently been preening and pouting for her shot in front of the woman in the small box.

off the Grand Bazaar into the peace of the booksellers niche below İstanbul Üniversitesi,

at the extreme rear of this shot perhaps you can see some kittens? they are about to knock over a stand near where the men are in intense discussion.

and our peace was about to be perfected by …

the çay man cometh, dangling his tray from his fingers …

these are the arcades of the design school attached to İstanbul Üniversitesi. All closed.

The view from the terrace at Suleymaniye Mosque:

To the left out of shot will be the Suleymaniye Hamam, designed by the greatest architect perhaps anywhere at all ever, Mimar Sinan. In his 50 year practice he designed and built 350 structures up until his death in 1588. The hamam will be the site of a great disappointment as tonight a reservation will be made for Day 3 in Istanbul … Of course the following is also one of Sinan’s works,

(There will be an overlap here with my camera roll showing the interior of this mosque and my new wife.)

Shown above, a kedi of the quiet place outside the mosque of Suleiman.

Meanwhile, inside … see above … and the following, Part 2 of this post.

As you can see, nothing is really summed up by this final shot on the cellphone from Day 2, except for a sort of aesthetic confusion.

Day 2 – part 2 – September 2 2024

Lunch on the terrace at the University quarter restaurant named after Mimar Sinan, and on his street too. Not surpassed as a view or gustatory experience. Partially because I was desperately hungry, and in part because it was an extraordinary place to be and eat.

Pumping house music just made it more surreal.

The women in headscarves to the right had ordered a two person breakfast which seemed to be more about a demonstrating something than eating. They would soon copy a table several back and hold bits of food up on forks for giant seagulls to take from them.

Back through these streets, under the aqueduct,

… to the tram bound for Sultanahmet and the Blue Mosque:

Looking demur, my new wife.

Meanwhile, outside.

And then we discussed whether we could should or would, could take it in, after so much and so much build up … and decided upon excess.

Aya Sophia:

In the mosque reinstated visitors have access to the gallery. No pictures can convey the outward squatting bulk of this building, but inside, as Alphonso Lingis notes, a mysterious lightness, produced by the perforations … which is really unmatched in the mosques we have been inside. And of course the fact that this was not built as a mosque … and the curious truncation of the space is worth noting, perhaps due to the absent presence of an iconostasis, an altar screen that was once an architectural element but that is no longer.

And some pointers to the Byzantine legacy:

The Doge of Venice, which ended up with a hoard of what was not destroyed in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Half of the European cultural patrimony lost in about two weeks, says John Ash.