Nov 14
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Nov 12
From the bridge at sunset, men throw lines towards small fish riding the tide out of the Black Sea, through the center of Istanbul and into the open Aegean. Some get caught on hooks and are carried straight upwards like a spider climbing its string, then get tossed into a white pail, which when full the fisherman carries down concrete stairs to where he can sell his heaving pail of silver slime and gasping gills to fine restaurants lining the lower level of the bridge.
Read the rest of this entry »Nov 10
We almost skipped this when I saw the entry price was $10, but Im glad we didnt. The Basilica Cistern is one of the most amazing things Ive ever seen.
Imagine entering a small, cement, single story building in the middle of downtown Manhattan, then walking down a long flight of stairs to the depth of the subway and coming into a single giant underground room the size of a professional football stadium. Thats how big the Basilica Cistern is.
Nov 07
I had no idea Istanbul was so clean and modern and so heavily traveled by westerners. If it werent for the magnificent mosques, hoards of delectable Middle Eastern food, bustling street markets, polite, yet classically eastern touts and sung Islamic prayer bursting city wide from loudspeakers five times a day, one might think they were in Paris or Rome. Like the fully western cities, Istanbul is loaded with fine dining, first-rate cafés, high class hotels and fashionable shopping. It has a meticulous city center, attractive cobblestone walkways and plenty high-priced religious dwellings and ancient ruins to gasp and awe at.
