I arrived in Istanbul on September 9th, at 11PM. By the time I arrived at the house to see my grandma, it was 1AM. Istanbul is changing very fast and growing.. Traffic has always been bad but it's gotten way worse. I thought it was really hot and humid until everyone told me how much worse the weather was the week before I got there, so I stopped complaining. OK, so that's a lie... :)I found my grandma looking much better than I expected. She's still not able to walk except to go to the bathroom. But her mind is 100% there which is a huge thing at her age, but everyone knows their own pain. There's an Armenian lady who's there during the day to do the house chores and keep her company. Although my grandma doesn't have family around her, she's really lucky to have really great neighbors who visit her all the time.
This lady, Ulviye Hanim, lives downstairs from my grandma, and is one of the neatest people I met in a long time. She has no teeth at all in her mouth, and she talks with an accent from Diyarbakir, and is so sweet and says the funniest things. It's a joy to listen to her talk. She, like my grandma, hardly leaves the apartment and visits my grandma at least once a day. She says sometimes they both end up napping in their seats... Ah, the joys of getting old... :)
One night after work, my friend Natali and her hubby Markar took me out on the town, to Istiklal caddesi. In this place, they serve a salad called American Potato Salad, but I think it was more Russian... pretty close. :0)
On this day, Natali, her mom and her aunt and I went to the Bosphorus, to the town of Bebek, to have some desert. We had this desert called Kazan Dibi. It's like a rice powder pudding. Really yummy!
This is a video of the Bosphorus, the bridge that connects Europe to Asia.
In Istanbul there are more and more women who are covered up. From my conversations with people, it seems the number is increasing partly because more and more people are moving from villages into the city and there's also influence on young girls to cover up coming from their families.
A cafe with hookahs and servers dressed in old ottoman attire.
P.S. There are no female servers in Turkey in restaurants of cafes. There are also no female hair-dressers, either.
My mother's cousin's husband bought some fresh fish from the docks one night. When he bought them, half the fish were still jumping in the plastic bag. One of the fish broke thru the first bag and was flapping around for 10 minutes. When we were on the boat crossing the Bosphorus, he was still flapping around. I felt so bad for the poor thing. He was a fighter.
After the fish dinner, we had some Turkish coffee. I had a lot of Turkish coffee there, even in the late hours of the night. For some reason, it didn't affect my sleep there.
My mom's cousin Viktorya and I took a stroll along the Bosphorus in Kadikoy. Kadikoy is on the Asian part of Istanbul.
There are a lot of homeless animals in Istanbul. Most of them have been updated with their shots and are fixed. They wear tags on their ears to be accounted for. It made me really sad to see them homeless but it seems like people try to keep them fed. Also sometimes I would see the dogs play with each other. In my grandma's street, I saw two dogs chasing after a cat, who kept hiding under cars. I was worried for the little thing, but I found out from the neighbor that they play like that all the time and never hurt each other. That was a relief.
In Kadikoy, we went to Sali Pazari, an open market where you can find really good deals on stuff. I got a couple of dresses and some souveniers...
More homeless animals... The mother cat started charging towards me when I got close to take pictures of the kittens. Again, the locals had left some kibble for the kittens. Such is life for the homeless animals in Istanbul.
There are also a lot of beggars in Istanbul, especially during Ramadan, when people feel more charitable. Seeing little children beg is really heart-breaking.
A horse and carriage melon salesman... On the same road as cars...
With my mom's uncle's son, Arda, and his wife Hayriye. I hadn't seen Arda since he was probably 9-10. Time flies...
A cousin of my mom's, Uncle Levon, and my mom's uncle, Uncle Ovagim.
Hayriye, Arda, and cousin Viktorya.
With Uncle Ovagim's dog. He bit me twice on my cheek. I think I was invading his personal space too much. But we eventually made peace.
Surf's up!
It's actually a piece of a boat, I don't know what piece, but I thought it was funny.
At this dock in Ortakoy, a fisherman jumped on and had a bucket full of fresh fish. 3-4 cats started coming towards him, and he started yelling at the cats "don't you even think about coming near this bucket!!!" And then he tossed each cat a fish. I thought that was sweet. :)
With my friend Hilda in Ortakoy.
This was my last day in Istanbul. The next day I flew out. In Heathrow, I went to the wrong terminal by mistake and had to go thru customs twice. Lucky for me, I had enough time and made my plane.
Good to be home... :)
