Mastodawn

Can't quite take in the fact that a week from now i was idly dreaming of the food smells in Taksim Square and tonight i was standing there, smelling them!

Long walk from Taksim to where i'm staying on the edge of Sultanahmet. Through arty friendly neighbourhoods in Beyoğlu, past a huge green glowing tower, through fiercely lit shuttered tunnels, across the Bosphorus, the bridge lined with people fishing, lost in the twists of a deserted bazaar, a base in a between zone
https://mastodon.scot/@ultrazool/116145331525390720

zool (@[email protected])

Always wanted to visit but never been to Istanbul, spur of the moment decision to change that next weekend, flying there because i'm an ecological vandal

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The Galata Tower. A nice feel to the neighbourhood walking up to it, this shopfront workshop with craft sessions caught my eye, you can go and make your own mosaic lamp for €35

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galata_Tower

https://www.highlightsinistanbul.com/

Vast, lavish mosques each with a different illuminated banner, they are "mahya", made with LEDs now, previously with oil lamps, strung for Ramadan. The messages are quite humanistic

Spookily quiet bazaar district, mediaeval layout, chaos architecture, populated by stray cats and late-night workmen, quite suddenly emerging into a glossy district of silver workers. Telling myself i don't need any silver. Looking forward to seeing more of this in daylight :)

A duet or duel between the two big mosques in Sultanahmet Square, recording the lunchtime call to prayer from a little park in between #soundscape #audiofoto

Wandered over to the tourist core in my plan-less state, explored the gardens of the Topkapı palace and the squares around the Hagia Sofia but felt no impulse to go into these places

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClhane_Park - the big column was left there by the Romans in the 4th century ago. Now reading that i missed a whole museum of Islamic Science and Technology nearby; having seen glimpses of those instruments and devices in the equivalent Western museum in Oxford recently, have to try and return there

Making a conscious decision not to go into curated spaces, just take what comes aesthetically

Did briefly go into one mosque, not with deliberate intent, was drinking tea in a patch of sun until it sank behind it, felt appealing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Hagia_Sophia - built around the same time as Hagia Sofia, originally a church. Very solemn and open feeling. The courtyard opposite had artists' studios around the edge, bought a small print of whirling dervishes. They do shows, that doesn't appeal much

The oddly quiet neighbourhood i arrived in yesterday was bustling by morning, it's dominated by shops selling craft supplies and makes, you squint down into a basement and see a half a dozen styles of sandals on a desk, a room piled with sandal bases, or a tiny mall connecting basements

Most of the upper floors must be used as warehouses or workshops. Explored the other direction to find a more living area this evening, ate at a hole-in-the-wall döner place, drank unexpectly rose-scented tea

Allowed myself to be tempted into a particularly pretty sweets-and-spices shop, be plied with tea and samples of Turkish delight, and emerge with a fancy presentation box full of thick rolls of the stuff, weighing almost a kilo, which they thoughtfully shrink-wrapped to prevent me from noshing up immediately. So i'll bring fancy Turkish delight home to share with loved ones, and stop looking at it here

A lot of day, earned the right to drink tea in the hotel cafe and attempt to shader code :)

I made this lamp! With a bona fide effort to place all the tiny glass beads by hand, towards the end of the session gave in and shoved the rest of the gold ones on with a spoon, as previously instructed. The lamp now has a big base which i *might* be able to pack

Sticking the mosaic to the glass bulb is done with clear silicone gel-glue like you'd use for plumbing. There's glass-cutting gear and scraps in the hacklab...

Process photos; the crafts workshop was a lovely offering as a tourist experience and looked like good business, staffed by students, set up for parties, quite a few couples passing through the perfume-mixing area. €35 is a good amount in Turkish lira, it covers all the materials, option to pay more to make a bigger lamp

Wandered back the route i'd taken on Friday night, chance to see it all in daylight, and found Taksim Square covered in police presence, layers of kettling barriers, Gezi Park full of buses to cart people off in, if needed, and water cannon parked round the corner

No-one seemed alarmed, no event obviously going on, the news suggests it's International Womens Day that merits this treatment!

https://www.turkiyetoday.com/nation/istanbul-closes-major-roads-and-metro-lines-for-international-womens-day-events-3215805

Cut back through the campuses of the Technical University (and yes, i am wondering if they need any research engineers, i'd like to palm off a scientific revolution on someone), issued myself an Istanbulkart and caught the tram back to Fatih from Kabataş

The workshop was in part an appointment with myself to get out of Fatih; as spectacular as the area is, it's all tourist service.

Walked back to the bridge through the eerie bazaar mid-morning, found it still mostly shuttered at this end. The traders there are unhappy, selling derived goods no-one wants in an internet age of Temu on one hand, Instagrammable experiences on the other. The old town's heart failing, its fabric decaying behind shutters. You wonder how long it has been becoming this

Another #audiofoto #soundscape walking through a section of the bazaar covered with a tin roof. It's a nice mode of use of space, half open. You guess the covered market is a gesture of feudalism, tax the contained edges. You wonder at how life is being lived, all the other things that do not involve selling objects which could happen there

Our high streets are in some way the same. Differently phrased activity below. Above, the same space of absence and decay

There's a good graffiti scene visible in Beyoğlu. I didn't see a single piece that would have brought No Murals out

Ate supper after sundown in the blissfully quiet and calm Art Cafe tucked away behind the Little Hagia Sophia mosque. It's full of paintings, some clearly by the proprietors, and like sitting in someone's living room. The people are all lovely smiles, there are peaceful cats in there. An oasis of contrast to the rest of the area.

Bought a cup of something called "salep" on the walk home, best described as a hot liquid nougat with nutmeg on. I can still taste it. Never again

Umbrellas whirling over a street in Kadiköy, on "the Asian side" of Istanbul

You catch a ferry to the Asian side, the trams and metro don't run across the Bosphorus. The ferry's integrated to the Istanbulkart payment system, costs about a pound, 20 minutes each way. The scale of the place! You could spend a lifetime exploring here, and never find it all

The ferry trip to Kadiköy was a tip from one of the students teaching the craft workshop, in the form of a TikTok meme about the contrast between the European and Asian sides

It's a bourgeois enclave, still with a big shopping district but featuring more things you might want, like art supplies. Leafy upscale residential streets, little places to perch in the sun and drink tea. My random route entirely dictated by whichever side street had the most sun and green-ness to it

There's a hipster bit, mixed feelings about some of the graffiti there, its soul quality inversely correlated to prosperity, but also some beautiful work. I loved the maximal-expression, minimal-effort nature of the second piece here

Feet led me past fancy apartment blocks to a canalside park and shoreline walk with a bike path, the first i've seen here, it's not a cycling city (at least any more?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fikret_Mualla_Sayg%C4%B1 - subject of the statue, a local painter

Dutifully sent pictures of the Fenerbahçe stadium to impress the kid, then the surroundings got built up very quickly, multi-lane roads, impenetrable boutiques, the kinds of private hospitals people visit to get dental implants and BBLs, i retreated across the canal to window-shop antiques

The antiques mostly left me cold, very rococo, but there were some intriguing ones specialising in mid-20th-century audio equipment, "Antik Teknik" is very much a thing

Posters for the IWD event yesterday, that i didn't see up anywhere on the west side. Wonder how it went down in Taksim, part of me wishes i'd gone along, but more of me would quite like to be able to come back to Istanbul

Cat hotels in Kadiköy

Ranging from any old box wedged into someone's balcony rail, to sponsored boxes with cat shaped holes propped on pallets, to a proper wooden structure looking like a multi-storey bird box.

Yes, i did briefly start thinking about how you'd instrument the fancy catbox 😿

Speedran through all the bazaars in Fatih after getting off the ferry, shortest route home. Spotted people doing a version of the "look, i'm just trying live and work here" walk that one adopts in central Edinburgh during the Festival; followed in their wake and stance until they popped into someone else's shop to trade something up, then trail someone else. It's all a network, i think. No look, no stop, only smells and music

Up to the hotel terrace to watch the sunset and hear the evening calls. The weekend receptionist, a Syrian medical student who i'd chatted with for English practise, was setting up to share iftar, the fast-breaking meal, with friends, they offered me a share. I'm not fasting but eating very moderately

Plain student iftar, rice and lentil soup and yoghurt with cucumber, a lot of it, ate every bite. A blessing

Got some börek for snack tomorrow; got to get up at stupid-o-clock to get myself home

So much i haven't seen! Never made it to that Museum of Islamic Science and Technology. Or to the Museum of Turkish Calligraphic Art i must have walked past at least twice, but only just spotted on the map...

Impulse-booked this trip the night before the Middle East war broke out everywhere. Probably wouldn't have taken the risk, had i waited a day.

Times being how they are, if you've always wondered about visiting That Place, wherever it is, perhaps you should...

Sarah Dal Mar 9

@ultrazool Istanbul is a phenomenal city, I've really enjoyed your photographs! Thank you for sharing, makes me want to plan a trip there again

Donald R Noble Mar 9

@ultrazool it’s been interesting to follow along, safe travels home

Sean Gillies Mar 9

@ultrazool I love riding a ferry. Will have to do this some day.

@sgillies it was a thrill! The ferry out was in a very 60s style vehicle moulded like an aeroplane but with balconies you could go out on, the ferry back was wooden benches, plastic sheeting to keep out some of the wind, someone serving tea in curved glasses. I scurried around like a little kid, facing every way. Not bad for a quid :)

Barry Rowlingson Mar 9

@ultrazool Have you seen the bridge that was on the cover of the Fortran 90 book I probably still have in the attic? Pretty sure it was one connecting Asia and Europe...

@geospacedman not close up, it might be the one in the distance here? https://mastodon.scot/@ultrazool/116194405024775938

zool (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 video Cut back through the campuses of the Technical University (and yes, i am wondering if they need any research engineers, i'd like to palm off a scientific revolution on someone), issued myself an Istanbulkart and caught the tram back to Fatih from Kabataş

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Barry Rowlingson Mar 9

@ultrazool Just found the book (on archive.org, I'm not getting the stepladder out for this) and its the northernmost one of the two built across the Bosphorus in the 80s (the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge).

@geospacedman no pics, but rode over your bridge on the airport bus :)

@ultrazool I am loving this travelogue.

@jarkman more to post and digest later today... travelling home tomorrow!

Tom Chadwin Mar 8

@ultrazool Ah, for me it was the turnip juice.

@tomchadwin welp

Tom Chadwin Mar 9

@ultrazool F*CK OFF PAVLOV

@tomchadwin rotflmao

Mrs Beanbag Mar 8

@ultrazool imagine being this afraid of women

@mrsbeanbag it's a flavour of that fear that has men bombing one another with the rest of us in the way, right? The hollow in the bombast, shrinking someone else rather than growing yourself

Hope it went all right out there; stayed on the home patch, i'm not here to get into polis-flavoured trouble :/

Unwrapped and plugged in, the lamp casts a flower of light on the wall. Very happy with it

discontinuity Mar 8

@ultrazool so cool!

@discontinuity why thank you :)