We had to go to the flat today to discuss with the contractor and architect some decisions and instead of being the usual thing where we stared foolishly as the contractor tried to explain in Turkish, it turned out to be a very useful session indeed. This is because I overheard two of his workers […]
Snowy Sunday morning
I woke up late this morning and it was snowing. Not a lot, though it varied from light flurries to quite thick. It settled a little bit, and there were streaks of snow on the fairytale cap of the Galata tower. I don’t think I’ve seen large quantities of snow since my first winter in […]
Sleeting Saturday
I went to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water and realised it was snowing. Then it was raining, then it was snowing, so I suppose the net result is sleet. Quite exciting, though; if it must be this cold, I hope there is a proper snowfall. For the last few days I […]
Winter
It’s finally winter in Istanbul. The heating was on all day today, and even the window was closed for a good long time. Outside, the air feel properly wintery, whether or not the sun is out. The forecast says it might fall to -7 in the coming days, but I’m sceptical, as the forecast has […]
Boxes of chocolate
Today the GF and I distributed chocolates to all our future neighbours, with a card carefully written in Turkish (translated by a friend) apologising for inconvenience due to the noise and work going on in the flat. It was rather satisfying, even though we just left the box and card at each door instead of […]
Important people
In the morning we went off to the northern Bosphorus to visit a friend who has a house there at a rather pretty spot which opens up towards the Black Sea. We arrived in time for brunch and a TV show the friend had been awaiting, featuring an important person they knew. So they propped […]
Scutari to Chalcedon
We took the ferry to Uskudar today, after some hemming and hawing and backing and forthing about what to do, where to go, etc etc. Eventually we went to Uskudar, Scutari as was, partly because of a relative of mine who often sings a Turkish song that goes Üsküdar’a gider iken. As usual the ferry […]
Everything is open
Everything is open, I don’t understand how lockdown works. Well, I suppose it means there are fewer people out, which is certainly a good thing in a pandemic. But even the famous fish sandwich on the Golden Horn was open, and the famous fish sandwich man was there. We popped into the flat and saw […]
Surrounded by history
During our stroll we spotted this in a han where they manufacture metal springs: a broken Byzantine column repurposed as a water pump.
Peran Christmas
We had our first Christmas in Galata, Pera as was. In the morning I dashed to finish some work, and managed just as the GF arose. We went off to bring a Turkish breakfast from a nearby cafe, along with a couple of glasses of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Since our dining room is dark […]