SUNDAY

today we’ll walk down to ortakoy. it’s about half an hour away on foot, the jewellery market is there.  we’ll take the ferry up the bosphorus for a look see, then have lunch. we’ll let sean off the hook and save the jewellery market for after lunch and he can escape back to civilisation.

yesterday's brekky spot - today's will be similar i'm sure

Yesterday we caught the bus round past ortakoy to a wonderful cafe on the water for big brekky.  wonderful ships passing really close, wisteria in profusion overhead. it’s still chilly but we had the overhead heaters on us so we sat outside right on the water’s edge.

then back up to Taksim Square and another walk down the long winding antique street (i must come back for a good scrounge on my own) and to see Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocents.   it’s a strange atmospheric place which is all put together with objects that come from his book of the same name – a great romance which looks true but may not be. none of us have read it so we can’t decide, i find his books hard to  penetrate.  i think it’s an amazing marketing ploy – he must be selling stacks of books, but it was interesting to walk up through an old ottoman house, very narrow and vertical, four levels.

amazing old 'miss haversham' of a house -

 these ottoman houses are in glorious decay because they must be restored exactly to the original - people simply can't afford to do it so they're left to rot. paradoxically the more they deteriorate the more beautiful they become.

 inside the antique shops - amazing collections of exotic things

COLOUR colour

everywhere

 


Istanbullus love their cats,  the street cats and dogs are all looked after by everybody - food and water are left on the footpaths everywhere for them.

even the gas bottles look good

then more walking, down the hill past the Galata Tower to Istanbul Modern – that gallery is terrific, huge spaces full of fascinating work and right on the bosphorus so of course we had to have a glass of wine and watch the ships – AGAIN :0)  and why wouldn’t you?








tram home – tired but happy, and snoozes,  dinner and scrabble.

from the balcony -

 mr and mrs - she sits
all day, hardly moving.
he calls in now and then
to give her a break and
to bring food i imagine
although i haven't 
seen that yet. they
look so vulnerable there

 

the setting sun catches the windows of the houses over on the asian side.