We always had time on our sides
Now it's fading fast
Every second every moment 

We've gotta make it last        

- Nada Surf-                                                                                

I think it is been a long time that I wrote something here. You can`t imagine how fast time passes in Istanbul. You spent an evening at Kafeinhouse just for going through your notes of the consumer behavior course and when you look once again on your watch it is half past 12. This is because you are sourrounded by nice people, having fun, laughing and talking about whatever. 

As I am addicted to cookies I was very happy to find some new ones. These are special ones. They are a bit similar to fortune cookies (not concerning the taste, they contain choclate of course) because they are respresenting your feelings and moods. On each of them you find a painting represeting different moods. This is a perfect opportunity for learning some important words in Turkish (midterm went very good by the way - cok mutluyum :)) Sorry for the wrong spelling, I have no Turkish letters on my keyboard.

As,k                                     Love
S,ans                                    Luck
Sanglik                                 Health
Mutluluk                               Happiness
Dostluk                                 Friendship
Is,                                        Work
Nes,e                                   Joy
Bas,un                                 Success
Para                                    Wealth



Walking around in the small streets of Beyoglu i found this little stror called Dogo. Look how lovely their special shoes are. I felt in love with the cherry blossom ones. In reality they look even better and have a writing on it. "how lucky we are to live under a cherry blossom".
http://www.dogostore.com/category/Ayakkabi-43/Ms.Dogo-44/Bootz-47/product-1622--CherryBlossom

 

http://web.stagram.com/p/252655868823047721_151890

 

Behind the Istiklal Caddesi you find a bit hidden the Fransız Sokağı, the French street which offers a great varity of bars, restaurants, wine locals and often playing live music. Everything is colorful and the atmosphere is warm and lovly.

http://www.orientblog.de/aktuell/die-franzosische-strase-rue-francaise

 

Nothing is impossible and everything can happen to you while you are walking through Istiklal Caddesi. So we found ourselves in beetween the shooting of a scene for a famous Turkish soap called Kayip Sehir and we did not realize that Ilker Kaleli was standing next to us :)
http://www.diziler.com/dizi/kayip-sehir/oyunculari

Have you heard about Leman Kültür?
http://www.lmk.com.tr/istanbul
This cafe offers you an impression of the work of famous Turkish cartoonists, the walls are full of their paintings and you are only surrounded by Turkish people because tourists don't find the way there very easily ;)

Orhan Pamuk Museum of Innocence

 

In Physics Aristotle makes a distinction between time and the single moments he describes as "the present". Single moments are like Aristotle's atoms - invisible unbreakable units. But time is the line that links them.

This quotation I saw Orhan Pamuks famous "Museum of Innocence" This museum presents everthing that the characters of the same-titled novel used, wore, heard, saw, collected and dreamd of, all meticulously arranged in boxes and display cabinets. Your imagination becomes borderless. You find yourself thinking about the time the couple spent togehter in different places around Istanbul.

Impressive is the wall of cigarette butts, 4213 pieces in detail Kemal - the hero of the novel -  colleceted all from his beloved Füsun, the woman who is his (unlucky) focus of life. Red lipstick is sticking at some of them and below you find notes like saturday night in front of the TV.

I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.  - Neil Gaiman- 

Monet Istanbul'da

To the Sabanci family which is one of the most richest family in the whole Turkey we owe the same-titled museum in Istanbul. Right now there is an exhibition of Monet showing his latest period paintings, which are characterized by bold blush strokes and brilliant colors. Monet famously declared, "the only thing I want to paint is good weather" and he was impressioned by light, the effects of light on nature, the way water reflects reality and distorts it.

Look how close his pictures come to reality

Reminiscent of far Eastern Philosophies his approche combines opposite the big & the small, the overall & the detail, the legible & the illegible as if to better signify that they are all expressions of one single reality.
Walking through the big garden around the villa with an amazing view over the bosphorus lets the time stand still for a moments of deep relaxing.

 

Republic Day - Cumhuriyet Bayrami (but the i without the dot ;))

Happy Birthday dear Turkey - on the 29th of October we were celebrating
the 89. birhtday of the Republic.

Knowing that Üsküdar is one of the favorite places to go for having the best view over the whole silhouette of the city we took the never ending bus to get there. But once more the effort was totally worth it. I have never seen anything comparable like the firework they prepared for this extraordinary day. The days before were also mostly free for the Turkish people and it seemed that Istanbul - the city that never sleep - took a little beaty nap for getting ready for this celebration. On the streets you could hardly find any traffic jam which is here as seldom as no snow on top of the Zugspitze and actually a very nice feeling.

Of course we were not the only ones having this great idea and so we ended up in a crowd of very proud Turkish people who were all singing along with the traditional folk song that was launched by loudpeakers. With the traditional sun flower seeds in our hands (I learnd how to bite them with your teeth now) we were standing and watching the breathtaking firework starting at the Bosphorus bridge. I have rarely seen something so beautiful like the colorful rage and patterns of the rockets in the sky - absolutly magnific! There were even able to make some stars and moons representing the flag of Turkey. I was just standing there with my mouth open, a litte bit absent and simply enjoying the prettiness I was lucky to see. The illuminanating lights reminded my of the song city of blinding lights by U2 and I just can agree with Bono "oh you look so beautiful tonight"

Thank you Turkey and especially Istanbul for this wonderful night I feel honerd to have been a part of this wonderful party.

Unfortunatly pictures can't describe what you could see in this night but they will give you a little impression and if you like you can also watch the video of my friend Luisa who was not getting tired of holding her heavy camea in order to keep a memory of this night - thank you so much!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMXreDKcsU&feature=player_embedded