Samstag, 12. Januar 2013

Following the motto: "There is no bad weather, just the wrong clothes" I made my way this friday to Nisantisi in the pouring rain (ok, i exaggarate a little bit it was a normal rain but 'pouring' sounds so much more lyric).

After arriving with the ferry in Kabatas I took a long walk up the Inönü stadium crossing the Macka Park. Inside of this parkI found accidentally a small ropeway that took me through the park. The best invested 35 kurus of the day! Up in the air you have a wonderful view across the bosporus. Not without a good reason the English press called the Inönü stadium the most beautiful one worldwide.

Upon the hill when you get out of the park you walk straight into the glamourous streets of Nisantisi. Your eyes can hardly follow all of the designer brands appearing in shiny & bright letters. On your right you see Louis Vitton, on your left Christian Louboutin - or was it the other way round?

The smell of heavy & expensive parfum carried around by old women with botox in their faces is in the air. If these women are not pushing their husbands (or sugar daddys who knows??) from one shopwindow to another they are sitting with their girlfriends in on of the famous cafes. There they represent their shopping bags, sipping on over expensive red wine and are gossiping & laughing.

Just one parallel street further you quickly come back to reality. Here the shoes cost only 39 Lira, not 339 (dikkat: with indirm!). To my own surprise I could remeber this street since I have been there few months before. Should this mean that my orientation beacme better during my stay in Istanbul?


But other things I have to learn the hard way over and over again. For example do not take the bus at 5 pm, especially on an friday. The fact that I catched a double decker made the situation a bit better. I was sitting on top in the first row and felt a bit like on my own little sightseeing tour. The bus takes a very unknown route so I enjoyed the view outside and could puzzle all the different districts of Istanbul together in my mind. We crossed the brigde when it became dark and the lights turned on. I was not able to count how many red backlights of the cars where there. Some peaks of the hills were still covered with a rest of snow. And finally I once payed attention to the neon yellow sign with the title "Asia welcomes you" (how could it come that all the times I crossed the brigde I had never seen it counciously?) Also I had the chance to write this whole story cause I did not get sick thanks to the enduring traffic jam.



Freitag, 11. Januar 2013






  ... or better 236 meters above Istanbul

At the second last day of the year 2012 where the weather was perfect besides we finally decided to go to the highest building in Istanbul. The Sapphire Tower is located in the bussiness district Levent which means for us about two hours to get there from univeristy. Once you took the elevator up to the  54 floors you get rewarded by a stunning and breathtaking view over the whole city. Waiting till the sun goes down and till the lights go on makes me one more time thinking of U2's famous song "city of blinding lights" and I totally agree with Bono who sings "oh you look so beautiful tonight" The fact that is was freezing cold on the oberservation deck did not prevent us from taking as many pictures as we could (although our hands felt like ice and we had problems to move them also in the wind).



Back in the warmth we stood about one and a half hour in line for the special 4D cinema in which you take a ride in a helicopter over the whole city. You stop in the famous mosques Hagia Sophia & Sultanahmet and when you arrive in the underwater cistern it even feels like your feet are getting wet, this ist the special effect of 4D. Flying back over the Bosporus brigde you finally land again on top of the Sapphire tower.


We came to the conclusion that Istanbul is the real city of love - who cares about Paris?


you know you love me - xoxo


Donnerstag, 10. Januar 2013

time flies, snow falls..

my last two weeks in Istanbul have yet to come and the snow makes me stuck in my room. People are going crazy here with the snow and it is very risky to go on the road so you better stay home with some tea and nice music and reflect the last months. So many adventures happened that I have not written about yet. Luckily I got my calender with the notes inside that help we while writing here.


A really good thing to do when it is so cold outside is to go into a hamam, an original Turkish bath. I did this when my friend visited me here and I can warmly recomand you to to such a place when and where ever you are in Turkey. You first lie on a warm stone for about half an our that your pores can open and your skin gets prepared. Then a lady comes with a glove and peels off your skin. You end up in a massive cloud of foam with a nice smell of lemon. When she is finished your skins feels so smooth and soft like you are newborn. After that you can relex in the whirlpool but take care that you don't fall asleep because you are so dozy.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/0b/5e/a2/cemberlitas-hamami-istanbul.jpg

Sometimes it is fate or sometimes it is just a nice coincidence or why do you meet a friend from your primary school time after 15 years just in Istanbul? The only thing in order to meet her is that I had to take the ferry to Eminönü. There I  got warmly welcomed by that girl I could easly recognize still after such a long time. We spent the whole afternoon in a cozy cafe with a stunning view over the bosporus talking and gossping - some things just don't change in time :) On our way back to the ferry station we where eating balik ekmek and whatched the tourists passing by - like real Turkish citizens ;)



 


Donnerstag, 3. Januar 2013

Leaving another year behind..

Seasons passed, climates changed and we finally reached the end of a year again. The days, months and seasons passed over us in times made us laugh and relieved our hearts and in times made us sorrowful. Just as there are things it took, whipped off from us, there were also times when it made us aware of ourselves even more than the previous year.
inspired by Havatas


This photo was taken in the cute little cafe we had our new years eve dinner. They just had toast and hamburger but sometimes the small things are the best and the people there were so friendly that I really wanted to hug them.

Did you ever try Skittles Wodka? It is like you drink the rainbow and it tastes really delicious. Inspired by and with the help of my friend from England we first separated the different colors, put them into bottles and filled them with wodka. Like magic the skittles give their color to the wodka and dissolve completly. What is left is a relly fancy drink, perfect to celebrate new years eve, CHEERS!

in prgrogess
preparations

Mittwoch, 12. Dezember 2012

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it. -Claude Monet-

The funny thing in this city is that although Turkish people do not celebrate christmas a lot of shops decorate their windows with christmas stuff. Cevahir, one of the hugest shopping malls in Istanbul, is completly in christmas fever, from inside as well as from outside. Everywhere you find lights, christmas trees and presents. Unfortunatly I missed the German christmas market organized by the German grammar school. I heard that Glühwein and gingerbread were sold there. Luckily I have a dear friend how brought me along some filled gingerbread hearts, thank you so much Gülşah! I also recieved a real chocolate Nikolaus from Germany, that really made my 6th of December!

So grab your self some Spekulatius and open yourself for the impressions of christmas feeling in Istanbul, ho ho ho!






December Istanbul'da

I was always floating around the city
Going with the flow without ever knowing
where I wanna be.



Ok, I have to admit that the weather is not always that nice as on this very nice moment I caught on the ferry on our way to Bebek. Bebek by the way is a very nice district of Istanbul where the rich and famous are home so it was obvious that we had to discover this place ;) The Starbucks there has a beautiful view over the whole city. We were sitting on the 2nd floor with our beloved brownies and watching the sun setting down and all the colourful lights turning on. Especially the two Bosphorus bridges looked amazing (you have not often the chance to see both of them together). 


Unfortunatly it is also raining a lot in Istanbul and the streets are definetly not made for rain. So after one hour the streets are full with mass of water. People in Istanbul never go out with an umbrella. As soon as it starts to rain the streets are full of shouting people who are selling umbrellas. But the thing is that the umbrellas they sell a so trashy that they only last for maybe one rain, and when there is wind - you are screwed. That's the quality you get for 5 Lira. At least we don't have minus degrees and there is no snow, which I actually imagine myself very beautiful on top of the mosquees..

The best thing you can do when the weather is bad is to go shopping ;) As I don't have so much time anymore before I fly back home to Germany I started to buy souveniers. Although Istanbul offers you a variety of nearly everything it is not easy to find the suitable things for your homies. And I don't like just to buy something that I got at least something, you got me? Of course I also bought something for myself. Do you remeber my post about the braclets? From time to time I got much more of them also because I discovered a little shop that sells every accessoires you can imagine. It is always croweded with fashionable Turkish women and sometimes their boyfriends are standing outside, kind of bored, smoking and carrying all of the other shopping bags of their girlfriends.


I also started an experiment I was very scared of all the month. But I could not handle the fact anymore that my hair is growing longer and longer. So I finally went to the hairdresser at our University (yes, we have one at our University because the spoiled Turkish girls go there nearly every day, sometimes just to have their hair straightend or curled, unbelievable). Luckily I went together with my Greek roomate who can at least talk Turkish. But how do you explain what you want when you first don't really know what you want and second you don't have a language in common? Ok, so I got first my hair washed and then he started to cut them. Shyly I told him that he can go on a bit and cut some more - which really surprised him. As I was satisfied with the result he washed them again (for what reason ever) and started to dry them and put every kind of care products and hairspray inside that he could find. Suddenly he realized that my hair is to thin for all this stuff and I looked like I had put my finger into the socket. So what to do no? Yes, wash my hair again. Maybe for an excuse or for a favor he also massaged my head and told my how beautiful my eyes are. After one and a half our and 35 Lira poorer I left the store again and finally I have to admit that he did a good job.

Sonntag, 9. Dezember 2012

I Listen To Istanbul

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
First, a light wind blowing
A soft wind swaying
The leaves in the trees,
And far off in the distance
The tinkling cups of the water-seller;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
Now the birds are passing
In high clamoring flocks,
Nets are pulled in at the fisheries,
A woman's feet graze the water;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
The cool covered bazaar,
Mahmutpasha, the courtyards
Filled with warbling pigeons,
Hammer sounds from the docks,
Smells of sweat in my lovely Spring wind;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
An old world drunk in its head,
A waterfront palace with a dark boat shed,
The humming of the lodos ceases inside;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
A pretty young girl walks by
Chased by taunts, come-ons and curses,
Something falls from my hand—
Surely a rose;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
A bird is fluttering in your skirts,
Your brow is hot, I know,
Your lips are wet, I know, I know,
A white moon rises behind the pistachio trees—
I understand the pounding of your heart;
I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed.