I can see why they built a city here

Berlin - The TV tower is crooked because of aspect distortion in the panorama setting.

It turns out Istanbul is pretty nice. It’s good to be back in the land of jaywalking, reckless drivers, cheap (and flavorful) food, $.75 rides on public transport, street vendors, and chain smoking old men playing backgammon on the street corners. I didn’t realize until coming here from Germany that I actually like eastern Europe far more than western. It still has a soul. Having been here for only three full days I don’t yet have organized reflections, but if you’re reading this then your standards are already low enough that I don’t suppose it much matters if all you get are my scattered thoughts.

The food. The food, the food, the food. What to say about the food? Child-sized self-basting spits of lamb roast on every corner. When you’re hungry the smells you experience walking through the city streets are unbearably tantalizing. After you’ve eaten it’s slightly sickening.

Did I mention it’s cheap? Pictured above is an Urfa kebab. When I ordered it I expected the strip of spiced minced meat and a few small garnishes. When I told the waiter what I wanted he asked me something incomprehensible in Turkish and I somewhat foolishly nodded and said yes. When they started bringing out plate after plate of food I groaned in anticipation of yet another experience getting ripped off. When they brought the bill, however, it turned out that everything in the picture, plus a large salad that didn’t fit in the frame, was included. The total for the food: $5.

The intersection of the religious and secular here is fascinating. Only in Pakistan have I ever been somewhere with anywhere near such a high density of mosques. I hear most or all of the calls to prayer. Often I can hear it from several different mosques simultaneously, and all of the mournful-sounding voices blending together creates a kind of enchanting effect.

On the other hand, Turkey is officially a secular society. Alcohol is freely sold and advertised. Women dress more or less as they like. The public is indifferent to PDA. It’s curious. Very curious.

I wouldn’t normally think of the public transportation as something I would really like about a city, but I’m very taken with it in Istanbul. Getting around, in and of itself, is enjoyable. For one thing it is cheap, at least compared to the $3+ metro rides in Germany. For another the payment system is ingenious: for slightly over $3 you buy an akbil – a little piece of plastic with a round magnet on it that you slip on your keychain. You then load it with credit and use it to pay (at discounted rates) for metros, trams, funicular trains, buses, and ferries.

Did I mention there were ferries? The Bosphorus ferries are an essential part of the city’s infrastructure. Huge numbers of people use them to cross between the Asian and European sides of the cities for work, school, shopping, etc. In addition to being a fairly convenient means of transportation, however, they’re also just really enjoyable to use. I can swipe my akbil get on the ferry (~$.70), order a $.50 glass of tea, and read a book and enjoy the sights and sounds for a 25 minute ride across the Bosphorus. The views are gorgeous.

I finally got around to organizing my pictures more on Flickr. They’re now categorized by month and location. The only ones I’m missing are a few pictures from a morning I spent in Cologne. I usually upload in the evenings when I’m too tired to edit, crop, etc., so you’ll notice that mixed in with the good pictures are a number of mediocre ones that I haven’t gotten around to taking out or editing to a respectable standard yet. I ask only for your patience and understanding. And, as always, be sure to check back obsessively for new uploads.

For some reason this struck me as outrageously funny.