i was in the 212... (istanbul)

kool maudit · #1 Posted **May 6, 2013, 3:53 PM**

i had wanted to visit istanbul for a while, and honestly, i was worried that i had maybe built it up a little in my mind. i hadn't.

what makes a great city? population sometimes matters; history sometimes matters; even skyscrapers sometimes matter... but none of these things are central, in and of themselves.

i think a great city needs to do things its own way. it needs to have a recognizable architectural vernacular, some characteristic foods and social rituals, a slang, a literature, a self all its own. a great city is, at heart, a great way of doing things.

i am going to miss this place. i am also going to be back often. it's cheap. i'm close. istanbul is easily one of the best things about pristina, at this point.

so here's a partial look. i haven't seen it all yet, but i'm not forcing it. it'll come. i regret not having some pictures of the weird area near koca mustafa station that i explored last night - it was like i had been transported to cairo. i haven't been to kadikoy. i haven't explored berat.

there's so much. but here's a bit of a start: art-hipster karakoy; tourist-hell sultanahmet; blandly ambitious levent; champagne-and-sushi nisantasi; eerie tarlabasi; cooly self-contained cihangir - this is a tiny little bite of the turkish metropole, neé byzantium, area code 212.

it's a great city, and it's a city person's city. enjoy.

novaCJ · #2 Posted **May 6, 2013, 4:05 PM**

damn.

SignalHillHiker · #3 Posted **May 6, 2013, 4:07 PM**

Gorgeous.

You take beautiful photos and choose great scenes.

Is the title an Azalea Banks reference? I don't understand the Istanbul connection...

kool maudit · #4 Posted **May 6, 2013, 4:36 PM**

hey signalhillhiker...

istanbul's area code in turkey is "212"

SignalHillHiker · #5 Posted **May 6, 2013, 4:44 PM**

Cool, TY! And, again, wicked awesome set.

Beedok · #6 Posted **May 6, 2013, 4:48 PM**

If it were a bit colder and not in an earthquake zone Istanbul would be one of my top choices for cities to live in I think.

kool maudit · #7 Posted **May 6, 2013, 5:11 PM**

it's not that hot there... the sea breezes keep it sort of temperate, and heavy snowfalls aren't that rare.

KevinFromTexas · #8 Posted **May 6, 2013, 5:11 PM**

Istanbul is so interesting. It seems to resemble a little bit of all the good things from everywhere else.

kool maudit · #9 Posted **May 6, 2013, 5:14 PM**

i thought there were echoes of other places, too - maybe this reflects its imperial history.

it also, for reasons of geography (hills) and architectural vernacular, can look like a much larger version of san francisco sometimes, particularly in cihangir, nisantasi, and the surrounding areas of beyoglu.

Beedok · #10 Posted **May 6, 2013, 5:15 PM**

Looking up the climate info, the summers don't look too bad, but the winters are still way too warm. I need snow on the ground for a few months at least.

brickell · #11 Posted **May 6, 2013, 6:25 PM**

well done. I know it's probably the touristy thing to do, but the Hagia Sofia is such a beautiful specimen. I'd love to see it someday.

Some of these shots look Italian to me. Maybe it's a Mediterranean thing.

kool maudit · #12 Posted **May 6, 2013, 6:37 PM**

i was disappointed not to see the interior of aya sofia, but it was a nightmare tourist scene. endless lines, touts, fanny packs... maybe i'll go back mid-winter.

kool maudit · #13 Posted **May 6, 2013, 6:49 PM**

re: italian-ness, the galata neighborhood in which some of these pics were taken was genovese in the middle ages. the buildings are 19th century, but there may have been some sort of cultural hand-me-down type thing in effect.

ColDayMan · #14 Posted **May 7, 2013, 2:25 AM**

If there were ever an intimate mega-city, that's the one.

Urbanguy · #15 Posted **May 7, 2013, 4:09 AM**

Great set! I have yet to go there but it's very high on my list of places to travel to.

fflint · #16 Posted **May 7, 2013, 5:43 AM**

I too am fascinated by Istanbul. I really must go.

The metal fences are weird--are they trying to prevent squatters? And I got a kick out of seeing those MayDay posters, considering how this year the government tried so hard to outlaw everything and anything related to it.

Kilgore Trout · #17 Posted **May 7, 2013, 6:48 AM**

Now that's a city.

Orhan Pamuk once wrote something about Istanbul feeling cold and grey when he was growing up – it felt far from the imagined Mediterranean. I've seen photos and videos of Istanbul in the 50s and it did look pretty drab. Yet everything recent I've seen makes it look exuberantly colourful. What happened?

Those blocks of mass demolitions are pretty disheartening.

kool maudit · #18 Posted **May 7, 2013, 8:54 AM**

the metal fences are in a neighborhood called tarlabasi, where most of the buildings have been condemned. it's been like that for a while though, and there's a sketchy demimonde that seems to use those buildings for whatever, entering and exiting through cracks in the gating.

i know the redevelopment plans are still active, but i have no idea when it's actually going to happen. that neighborhood was a little dicey in parts, even in the day.

Centropolis · #19 Posted **May 7, 2013, 12:08 PM**

come on say what, wow!

Centropolis · #20 Posted **May 7, 2013, 12:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

i thought there were echoes of other places, too - maybe this reflects its imperial history.

it also, for reasons of geography (hills) and architectural vernacular, can look like a much larger version of san francisco sometimes, particularly in cihangir, nisantasi, and the surrounding areas of beyoglu.

i was thinking the same thing but because i havent actually been there i was afraid that would sound weird.