My trip to Istanbul

On that morning of the 5^th of may while I was on my way to the airport riding the metro I realised that my very old bag was shedding all its leather at an impressive rate, It has been so long since I didn’t take a flight that I had completely forgotten about this bag in my closet, I was a bit embarrassed by how much leather I was shedding. Arriving in Istanbul I was really worried that something was going to be wrong with all the paperwork you are required to travel, traveller’s locator form, proof of vaccination, visa ecc…  I was in the chaotic line for passport control at the airport, I didn’t want to accept that I was in turkey until I passed that point, I was certain that I missed something and that they were going to request me to go back without letting me in turkey, even tho I read online so many times what the rules were and so on. When my turn finally arrived, the airport security took my passport, stamped it and let me through, here it was, all my worries suddenly lifted, I made it, I was in turkey. My holiday could finally start, I was so excited that I could finally wonder around and take as many pictures as I want without having to take care of my little puppy that I love so much, but I needed a holiday too sometimes, it’s very hard to take pictures with a dog pulling when he sees something, especially with an analogue camera that limits your amount of shots and were mistakes cannot be erased.

One of the first thing I noticed after I left the airport was the chaos around me, it was like Rome but times a hundred. I could see the similarities with the Italian mindset, everything was amplified. I realised this is how tourists from northern Europe perceive the Roman city by chaos amplification.

The city is populated by thousands of stray cats and dogs, they really are part of the soul of Istanbul. The locals really respect them and feed them, sometimes even take them to the vet at their own expenses, while walking around the city you’ll notice some people (often young girls) with entire bags of cat food leaving a pile next to stray cats and keeping on walking where they were going, I noticed many people also carrying their pets in a bag with a window in it so the cat could see where it was heading. Not sure how healthy this is for them but it’s interesting to see such devotion and respect towards those little furry animals. After noticing this aspect of the culture I wanted to do my part as well, and I bought some really tasty cat food at a local Carrefour supermarket, I decided to feed the first stray cat that I would come across, literally in front of the supermarket I saw a cat, I get close to it emptying my delicious cat food on the ground for it to enjoy, the cat smells it, tastes it with its paw, looks at me as if it was saying “Is that all you got?” and left without eating any of it… I was a bit flabbergasted by the reaction… wouldn’t a stray cat eat anything?  I discussed this with some locals, and apparently, I was in a very “posh” area for stray cats, where they’re used to eat the rest of restaurant often eating fresh meat every night, so my food was not up to it’s standard apparently…

I was staying in an area called Moda, in the Kadikoy district. I have to admit I didn’t really know this area before coming there, I only chose it because I had a friend which had an Airbnb listing in which I stayed for part of my stay. The area was very different than the other places I stayed at in my previous Istanbul trips. This area was so alive and crowded. The area was filled with caffes, but not like the one we have in Rome that I think are extremely ugly and have absolutely terrible taste in interior design, they have no personality besides being an typical Italian café without any taste. This area was filled with caffes very different from one another but at the same time they were all very warm and so chilled. Thy all offered free Wi-Fi which was perfect for me since I couldn’t use my cellular data since I was outside the free EU roaming area. To give an example there was this caffe from the outside looked like a normal building with a big wooden door, once you open the door you walk a very dark corridor, then you arrive in this huge room with a high celling, old walls and tables on many levels, with some candles on tables, some people working on their laptops, two lovers having a good time, a few friends having a beer and a good laugh, I just loved this atmosphere, I was looking for an empty sit in a comfortable spot, but some cats already took the best bench, yes there was a cat that went all the way inside the cafe to chill on a booth.

Another coffee had three floors, each floor had a beautiful wooden parquet, and comfy old sofa chairs in pairs, I didn’t understand how coffees could be so big and chill at the same time, this atmosphere made me want to bring my laptop and work on something, that’s how I decided to keep learning how to make websites, I started in Rome but here I was more incentivised, I would work 10h in a raw without seeing the time go, when something passionate me I enter this state of trance where nothing can stop me and I keep and keep on working. Without this passion I literally cannot achieve anything, this is why I had so many issues in school I think, when a topic didn’t interest me it was torture for me to even learn a single line of text, but when I like the topic I can learn entire chapters absolutely effortlessly. It took me decades to understand how my mind works.

Anyway back to Istanbul, another thing that struck me in this city was how the waste management unfolded. While you walk the streets of this city you’ll come across hundred of people carrying huge plastic bags of waste on their back or by pulling them on a very simple metal frame. Some were young as 10 years old I believe.  Then they would leave them in an empty huge field and keep going.

In the past years I had made some Instagram friends which we reciprocally appreciated each other photography work, I was lucky enough to meet one of them that was really nice and showed me around and explained to me how the boat ferry worked, even gave me a transportation card, we walked a bit in her favourite areas, the language barrier was a bit of a problem but we managed to communicate just enough to explore the city together a little for a few days.

When I arrived in Istanbul 1€ was worth around 15 TL (Turkish Liras) today is my last day in Istanbul 1€ is worth 17.8TL This is really insane, I was getting richer everyday here while people around me were getting poorer. To put things into perspective, a draft beer in a coffee would cost less than 3€ a sandwich 2€  a pack of cigarettes 1.5€  I took the opportunity that the currency was so cheap to bring my newly met friend to a fancy restaurant in the heart of the city, we had the gourmet menu with 6 creative dishes, the experience was delightful and for me wasn’t too expensive due to the TL situation.

I was supposed to do this trip already in December, but due to covid restrictions I had to cancel my trip literally the day before, the Italian government posted on their health ministry website that Italian citizens were not allowed to travel in turkey for tourist reasons, of course I could have lied and said I had family there or was working but I always prefer to be honest with people, I don’t like lying and this was a very serious issue if somehow they took it on me for breaking the rules. I was really sad about cancelling my trip, I also had already booked an Airbnb. I contacted my Airbnb host explaining that I have to cancel due to covid reasons, she was sad about it since this is her main way to earn money, I felt bad for her so I gave her all the money due anyway and paid her in Bitcoin.  Because of this gesture she was nice enough to promise me that the next time I will book a trip to Istanbul I can stay a week at no extra expenses in her Airbnb, after that we kept in touch and she offered that we do a road trip together in may while the weather is decent, where we would visit Antalya and other summer cities, I was really excited about this, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to even meet in the end, her brother was supposed to get married in early May, after which we were going to go on our road trip with a few of her best friends, but they changed the wedding date to a week so everything got more complicated, I could have travelled alone and visited other cities like izmir but I ended up chilling in Istanbul working on my websites and taking pictures. I eve registered to a gym for a month in which I only ended up going twice (health has no price right?) 

Turkish people love American culture, you can see it everywhere in the streets, perhaps that’s why they love those caffes so much. I drank my first iced lattes in my life over here and honestly, I really liked them, I felt like I was in California when ordering my Lactose free Vanilla iced latte. But they’re so good, I don’t even drink coffee usually. This lifestyle of bringing your laptop to a coffee working while drinking that ice latte was seducing to me, maybe a few years back I’d have a beer instead but since I’m alcohol free now, coke zero or Iced latte were my drink of choice. I got a lot done, when I return home, I’ll try to find similar caffes hopefully where I will chill with my beloved Kody and get some work done. I know that this lifestyle is very normal in most cities, to me it’s a novelty.

Back to Istanbul, I explored various areas, I briefly went to Santa Sofia area, but was instantly disgusted by the number of tourists, I really cannot stand French and American Tourists, I try to stay as far as I can from them. I then walked in a different direction to see the real Istanbul, I got in an area really chaotic (that’s how I knew I was in the right direction), this district was full of African people selling clothes, some streets were selling exclusively shoes, another street only had children clothing, there were people transporting boxes and packaged clothes in every direction all the time, it was really fascinating to see, I had never heard about this side of the city.

On another day after walking in random directions I got in one of the poorest areas of the city probably, there were a lot of demolished or soon to be demolished buildings, there were fields where those “garbage boys” were dropping their huge bags. I didn’t see many homeless people in Istanbul but there were some in that area, actually it’s pretty impressive how few homeless people are in Istanbul, someone was telling me that it’s part of the culture here to always take care of your family, but I’m not convinced by this argument since homelessness is often a result of mental illness, substance abuse, or just extreme poverty from escaping their native country because of war or just seeking a better future. I also notice that there were many people selling water bottles on the highway, selling tissues in the street, transporting garbage, trying to sell lemons to people sitting in caffes, I think that those are the real homeless of Istanbul with almost nothing in their name, while in the EU those would probably be begging for money instead of trying to sell something. I felt really sad for them and wondered how they can survive selling tissues or lemons.  I really enjoyed that area to be honest, I was the only tourist, the local kids were looking at me as if I were from a different planet.

To reach the other side of the Bosporus in Istanbul you can either take the bridges or take the boats, they’re basically like buses leaving every 15min or so, I really enjoyed those trips on the water, looking at the architecture of this beautiful city from a distance. There was a man selling hot teas and sandwiches at every crossing, the temperature difference was so drastic, in the city it was fairly warm, then you’d get close to the Bosporus and suddenly it was absolutely freezing, so many passengers were warming themselves up by drinking this hot tea and then would leave them on the floor, this is another thing about Istanbul I noticed, in many shopping areas there were those “Tea boys” walking with a tray covered in traditional tea glasses, many shop owners would buy them and then leave them on the ground next to the door, the same person after a certain amount of time would come back and collect them. That was also something very similar to what we have in Rome with the coffee culture, instead it’s waiters walking to shops with a tray covered in coffee cups.

This reminds me of the Grand Bazaar, because this is where I noticed this behaviour the most, of course it happens everywhere but the Grand Bazaar has an unusual density of commerce’s therefor there were tea glasses at every corner, I really enjoy the Bazaar, even tho it’s obviously one of the most touristy place in the city, but I cannot stop thinking about the history of this location, you can feel that those walls have been through so much, they estimate it to be around 1500 years old, while walking in the alleys and getting lost in the maze I couldn’t stop my mind from imagining this place a thousand years ago selling spices and carpets and other precious metal objects, nowadays it is filled with Chinese made products and fake designer bags or watches, the sellers are very pushy, they always want to convince you that you’re missing the best deal in the universe by not buying a $400 fake Rolex, which made it a bit embarrassing when I just wanted to look at the shop windows to feed my curiosity and a 12 year old kid wanted to sell me his watches, there Is also a great deal of fraternity between the shops, if you do not find what you are looking for they will show you the way to one of their friends shop. I considered buying those bags as a gift for my mother but I realised they are actually better quality and cheaper in Italy, the country of leather.

I spend probably 3 hours inside the Bazaar, I was waiting on some spots for 15min at a time waiting for people to clear the way so I could take the perfect shot of some light coming from a high window hitting the thousand-year-old pavement. As an artist I really enjoy those places, I was also a bit concerned that literally nobody was wearing a mask, I was always wearing one and felt a bit stupid to be honest, but the area was so crowded that I knew I’d catch covid instantly If I didn’t do so.