A couple of days ago, when I was feeling particularly glum about the flat that got away, I went on the main property website for Turkey and fired off WhatsApp messages to everyone with a flat that looked nice and within our budget. The first of these viewings was this evening: a flat in Galata, […]
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New possibilities
This evening we met up with someone the GF had been communicating with, and who works in the property world. He turned out to be a German Turk, rather nice fellow – nicer than the last, and with a more trustworthy air – and talked quite frankly about the scene in Istanbul. It seemed genuine, […]
Oh no
Distressingly, the flat the GF and I most wanted to see – the owners have disappeared. No longer on the market? Hard to say, but there is another similar flat in the same building with a higher list price, which is making me wonder if the owners are quietly disentangling from the dealer we have […]
Church, mosque, museum, mosque
I had a working weekend but planned it so I could take some time off. This afternoon we went to the Chora museum, formerly the Chora church, then the Chora mosque, and soon to be the Chora mosque again. Nothing can quite replicate the astonishing luminescence and life of Byzantine mosaics, certainly not photos. The […]
Istanbul pads
Last night the GF and I went flat hunting with a local property person we’d found online whose portfolio seemed to have the sorts of properties we would like. It didn’t start well: he took us to one we’d seen on his website, which looked rather pokey, but when we arrived it was well beyond […]
The virtues of lockdown
I have been mulling for some time now, perhaps since the start of the pandemic, on the moral attached to being in lockdown. The GF and I were talking about it this morning, of how locking down, of shutting down, was given a sort of moral weight, and more a political weight: we care for […]
Loose ends
A number of loose ends tied up today, around work, which was a relief. And a return to following my life improvement plan, with less faffing and more doing things that actually matter. My study of raags is going particularly well, although I remain as unmusical as a sundried turnip.
To the palace
Sunday was at Topkapi. As before, easy to get to, a simple tram ride across the Golden Horn, to the domes and towers we see every day from our window. I had thought it might be relatively empty but it really wasn’t, though most of the other visitors were Turks, Iranis, South Asians, etc. Turkey […]
Emerging markets
This afternoon we went across the Golden Horn to Fener, a sub-district just beyond the dramatic bits of Sarayburnu – an old Greek/ Jewish/ Bulgarian/ Armenian neighbourhood which recently received a UNESCO imprimature for heritage for its churches, synagogues, mosques, and scores of graceful Ottoman era row houses, tall and narrow, with moulded ceilings, wooden […]
Golden hours
I have taken to moving to the balcony around 6 or 6.30 every evening. It’s the time when the light is rose-coloured over the Gold Horn and Seraglio Point, and the sea takes on a deep, glowing blue. It is one of my favourite times of day – this is a cliche for anyone who […]