The Blue Mosque getting a spruce up.
My memories of Istanbul have always been heavily tinged with romance, of a time of freedom, of wandering and experiencing otherness. The 80s were a time of discovery and Istanbul seemed like the most exotic place to be - with Greece running neck and neck!
Returning here has been wonderful. Of course it is much changed, more touristy and Westernised which is a little sad but it is still wonderful, the people still the same albeit perhaps a little more jaded in the old city. But friendly as always - and always ready to sell you something, to offer you apple tea.
More of Istanbul later, for now it has been a trip down memory lane with the coffee, the raki, the fresh pretzels, bread and bbq sweet corn on every corner, apple tea and carpets, the mighty Bosphorus and Sea of Marmara. The little boats selling fresh-caught fish cooked on a tiny brazier in the boat ? - replaced by large boats, selling the same thing but en mass. The beautiful light, glimmering and vast Blue Mosque now dark and shrouded in scaffold as it gets a facelift. The wharf once a space to wander now a teaming mass of sightseers and boats. But still it is wonderful to be here again!
More anon ........
The entrance to a caravanserais
Close to where the kids and I stayed in 1984o
Back in the 80s you bought fresh fish cooked on the boat. Obviously popular because now theses a large installation
No comments:
Post a Comment