January -March 2009

Hi there January – March 09

Hhmmmm?.......January ist schon vorbei!....….Where did the time go?. We are already in the third week of February, I cant believe it!. I’ve heard a few murmurings & rumblings from various corners enquiring as to whether anymore ramblings are being written. Well at long last I return to fill you in on the progress of our lives in Istanbul & more……

G and I had a week’s holiday on Lanzarote at the end of January. “Hallelujah” I rejoiced….”the first school term is over”. We were both wrecked & quite honestly just getting on that plane to Germany was enough to help me start feeling half way normal again.

We spent two days with G’s parents in Aalen before travelling onto the Canaries. What impressed me immediately was that during a trip to Schwäbische Gmünd, a town of about 50,000 inhabitants how quiet the streets were. It may have been due to sub-zero temperatures and the financial recession but gosh the town centre was soooo... quiet. For whatever reason, there was one very happy Scottish woman enjoying the ghostly quiet atmosphere.


We spent a nice week on Lanzarote. We had visited Lanzarote this time last year (perhaps a few weeks later) and knew what to expect. We had already discussed which restaurants we would go to and what we wanted to see. The island has intriguing volcanic landscape and wonderful beaches.

We stayed in Pension Magec in Puerto del Carmen. We stayed there last year during a trip of the island and enjoyed the accommodation & friendly service. It has a shared roof terrace with views over the sea. The Pension is located in the old part of the town and very close to the harbour, beach & restaurants. What I especially like about Pension Magec is that there are always interesting guests to meet. This year was no exception and we spent an amusing afternoon with a guy called Marc from Switzerland. He invited us to join him on a trip to the Cueva de Los Verde~ famous volcanic caves.

A few days earlier a retired Norwegian mathematics professor whom we met on the roof terrace said “have you met the guy who sings with two voices at the same time?”……. Strangely enough, I said yes & how I could best describe it (which is probably badly) was like two didgeridoo’s being played at the same time!

Marc had hired a car for the day so that he could visit the Cueva de Los Verde caves. He wanted do his thing in the caves. When we arrived we joined the official tour of the caves (which was an hour long) & were told to be as silent as possible!. It was quite bizarre Marc furtively attempting to obertone (that is the official name for his thing) as we trekked through the caves. I became quite embarrassed and sped up leaving Marc and G trailing behind me. I noticed other people looking about them wondering where this strange noise was coming from?. Anyway as we neared the end of the tour Marc sighed forlornly…. the caves had been disappointing; they had absorbed his sound not echoed it as he had hoped. Thank goodness for small mercies & volcanic rock!.

After a weeks rest and play…..including plenty of Spanish tapas, alcohol, long lies, books and fresh air we felt ready (sort of) to come back to Istanbul.

We had two nights and a day in Freiburg on the homeward leg to Istanbul…..just enough time to stock up on Dr. Hauschka & Weleda products, as well as having a lovely lunch at one of my favourite deli’s D.O.C with some friends.

We arrived back in Istanbul on the 6th of February & the weather was lovely, “Lets go and sit somewhere?” we simultaneously said. There is a popular local eatery at the green mosque in Cihangir, the quarter next to us. This green mosque is a famous meeting point and also the centre of Cihangir, a fairly trendy & yuppy quarter. I was happy to be back in Istanbul. I had become quite fretful before returning & was so relieved that the sun was shining and there was a pleasant spring like feel in the air.

Sadly…however the sun disappeared and for the last few weeks the heavens opened & just poured on the Istanbula’s. This rain is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It rains non-stop and is torrential. It is so draining & also very dirty!. Istanbul is built on seven hills and the quarter we live is especially hilly with lots of steep narrow streets & little drainage. What happens is that the streets become like ravines, rainwater, grit & rubbish are pulled along by the force of the rain, and the addition of heavy traffic splashing through the puddles makes it pure dirty hell! (sounds bad doesn’t it?...it is!)

Another thing, during cold spells the air is foggy with thick smoke from coal being burned. No one has heard of smokeless fuel and the poorer the quarter the smokier and smellier it is.

For the last month G has been pampering me with weekly massages. I haven’t actually been getting the massages from him… aahh! But he has been financing them! (Even better!)I developed a pain in my right elbow & lower arm around Christmas (sitting with the computer on my lap, also another reason for lack of ramblings!).

Tatjana (who I found whilst googling on the internet) has given me a series of therapeutic massages working on specific pressure points in my neck, upper torso and arm. There were I must admit some pretty painful moments, although only lasting a few seconds. From weekly massages I have definitely noticed a greater openness in my shoulders and neck area, also an ability to relax my shoulders (which are usually tense when stressed) as well as importantly less pain in my arm. Certainly better than a course of cortisone or pain killers!.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know Tatjana. As you may of guessed from the name she is German, but she has lived in Turkey since the 80`s and speaks fluent Turkish and English. Whenever I go to her I meet someone new ….she is invariably with her previous patient or chatting to her next door neighbour. Tatjana lives in Sahküllü, a quarter next to the Tünel/Galata area. The Galata/ Tünel area is on the European side of Istanbul (we are on the European side too) & is very international, including a large German community. It’s also where the German School is situated. The area is part gentrified but also has slum quarters.

G and I viewed a flat in this area last July and I was pretty pissed off by the experience. The stairwell of the flat had large holes in the floors and you could see from one floor to the other…it looked like a war zone with electric cables hanging loosely from room to room. The flat was small, pokey and noisy.

Many of the buildings in some Istanbul quarters are unsafe and so improvised!. There is also so much dilapidation & neglect of buildings. Over the months we have been here I feel improvisation is really a word that sums up so many aspects of life in Istanbul especially the standards of construction. Take for example our €800 a month flat; we have witnessed improvisation at every turn. The windows have gaps around the seals, they haven’t been fitted properly, and the shower door doesn’t close right causing it to leak. Yes, the leaking saga still continues. Workmanship is so sloppy & because it is done at record speed, very low standards of construction are the result. On first glance our flat looks modern & beautifully renovated but on closer inspection….oh dear almost everything is wonky! I realised the other day that the toilet sits at an angle…. it is squint!... another botched job (excuse the pun!).

Getting back to the poorer quarters, it is common that families live in large family units basically so they have a better chance of survival in the city (and also the Turkish love being surrounded by extended family). It cannot be easy living with your parents, grandparents, also with aunts, uncles & other relations.. The point I am trying to make is that many landlords adhere to limited building & safety standards or none what so ever, so living conditions are extremely harsh for many people …….

Also it is crazy to see the condition of some stunning historical buildings in the city. They are boarded up, often abandoned and look very, very dangerous…I often swerve as I am afraid the building will crash to the ground. And God don’t get me started on the Gecekondu’s. Gecekondu’s are basically buildings built at night by migrants arriving from the south, also applies to a lot of newer buildings built without planning permission. Basically Gece means "the night" and kondu "settled or landed" …& recent figures say they now take up 40% of the `construction’ in Istanbul.

Since the economic crisis gas prices have shot up. Tatiana said she hasn’t been switching her heating on!. Her neighbours rely on stoves, burning wood for heating and cooking. The wood is delivered by country relatives. During the autumn piles of wood are lying in the streets around here, the wood is then stored in cellars throughout the winter months.

Along with wood, sacks of dried beans and bulgur are brought by family relatives visiting Istanbul. Many poor families eat bulgur and beans every day. Tatjana mentioned that a neighbour never goes to the supermarket as she cannot afford to shop for food. It really is quite mind boggling to learn one family (and probably countless more) cannot afford to shop for food ever. I struggle to cope with the huge divide between the haves and the have not’s in this city.

On so many levels the conditions that many people suffer; urban poverty and every day struggle is beyond comprehension.

Together with the other German colleagues on the teaching programme G & I live such privileged lives here in Istanbul, all earning well & living right in the centre of the city with everything at our finger tips.

And although these differences bewilder us, you still find yourself loving aspects of this place. But in the past few months I am feeling the contrasts much more intensely between rich versus poor, east & west, traditional & modern.

I am wondering what my friends visiting Istanbul for the first time will experience. Will they be struck by the sheer magnitude of people & noisy traffic? or the large groups of Turkish men hanging around together, the pestering you get as you walk past a restaurant or gift shop in Sultanahmet district (gosh!, that used to drive me insane!). Friends are sure to be impressed by the magnificent Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, Grand Bazaar, Topkapi Palace etc…..who isn’t? The historic sights are awe-inspiring.

Six months down the line I am still mesmerized with the Golden Horn and Bosphoros and its hectic ship activity; ferries, cargo ships and fishing boats criss-crossing each other between Europe and Asia. And of course the dramatic skyline of the mosques always makes my heart stir.

I am curious what will be the highlights and the low points of my friend’s first experiences of Istanbul. Of course I realise not much can be determined during a short trip, but all the same it will be interesting for me to observe their reactions. But I guess unless any of you decide to move here (which of course would be great but unlikely) I should continue with the ramblings and telling of the many incongruous sides to this city.

In January we wondered about moving flat, as we were creeping closer to the end of the six months lease of agreement in our present flat. We did have a look at a few properties & saw some nice ones but they were mostly too expensive or not in the right quarter. We eventually decided we didn’t feel we could bear having the hassle of changing everything again and all that goes with moving, so in the meantime we have decided to stay where we are. We love the location and in the summer we have a great roof terrace and nice neighbours.

Since we got back from Lanzarote I have been buying a few things such as rugs, pictures & lamps to make our flat more homely. We also made a room change and I now have a studio. The bed is now in the sitting room and the bedroom is my working room. At last I am actually getting some creative work done.

The new look sitting room doesn’t look bad either. The bed looks as though it always should have been there. I purchased a gorgeous hand embroidered bedspread at the Grand Bazaar. The bedspread originates from Azerbaijan & looks stunning! We had a dinner party about two weeks ago and were curious to see friend’s reactions to the new layout. Feedback was encouraging but we couldn’t entice anyone to lounge on the bed after the meal, much to G’s disappointment. Maybe our new friends are just not the lounging types!

We are getting insect screens installed, which hopefully might reduce mosquito invasion this year. If not we will really have to contemplate moving flat (or country!). Annoyingly warmer weather has meant these pesky bugs have made a re-appearance….I have been bitten twice …urgh!

There has been an excellent International Film Festival we saw Slumdog Millionaire, Berlin Calling and a few others. It was great to hibernate in cosy cinemas during the cold monsoon period.

I wanted to tell you a bit about Turkish patriotism. You see the Turkish flag everywhere and the Turkish people are extremely patriotic. At times it seems unbelievable. We often meet writers, artists, academics, teachers and they say “I am so proud of my country, my fatherland …blah..blah”. You think they must be joking but they are totally serious. Most of these people are secular but seem incapable of getting angry about the injustices of this country. Maybe I shouldn’t comment or go there…. but I can’t help it, I have to write about my impressions & it includes this subject…. ….

In restaurants and many shops you see Ataturk's pictures hanging on the walls. Ataturk the founder of modern Turkey and first president is still revered here. Ataturk’s aim was to modernize Turkish life in order to give his nation a new sense of dignity, equality, and happiness. He made major revolutionary changes, European hats replaced the fez, women stopped wearing the veil, all citizens took surnames, and the Islamic calendar gave way to the Western calendar, he abolished the Muslim law (Sharia), dissolved the religious schools and wearing of headscarves in educational institutions. He put an end to the antiquated Ottoman dynasty and created the Republic of Turkey in 1923, establishing a new government truly representative of the nation's will. I think few nations have ever experienced anything comparable to the social changes he made.

G informed me that every new school term there is an Ataturk parade at school. It is taken very seriously by the school director; it includes singing of patriotic songs and readings. G says it is very archaic. Some of the things are quite humorous like the children are told to keep themselves clean…”stay clean unlike other nations”.

What is quite a worrying development in Istanbul at the moment is that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are leading in the upcoming mayoral elections in Istanbul. Support to ruling AKP candidate and current mayor, Kadir Topbas, stands at 48.8% …yikes The AKP Party is an Islamist party and we are all concerned about their raising popularity throughout Turkey. The AKP are putting pressure on women to wear veils in the Universities.
I read that The AKP have been locked in a battle with Turkey's secular elite, backed by the powerful military, over recent changes on the headscarf issue. The AKP argue that the headscarf ban excludes large numbers of girls from higher education; they say about 66% of women wear the scarf. However accuracy of this number is questionable. At G’s school there is no exclusion; girls simply remove their headscarves before entering the school.

Recently we saw a very dramatic piece of theatre called Sivas. It was based on the events of the Sivas massacre in July 2, 1993 in Sivas, Turkey. The massacre resulted in the deaths of 37 Alevi intellectuals. The victims, who had gathered for a cultural festival, were killed when a mob of radical Islamists set fire to the hotel where the group had assembled. Reportedly angered by the presence ofAziz Nesin, a writer who had translated and published extracts from Salman Rushdie's Thes Satanic Verses the enraged fundamentalists surrounded the hotel, shouting "Death to the infidel!" and threatening the intellectuals with lynching.

The event was seen as a major assault on free speech and human rights in Turkey, one which seriously deepened the rift between religious and secular segments of society. The Alevi are a religious, sub-ethnic and cultural community numbering tens of millions of people in Turkey.
The play was about the human stories of the intellectual’s, the writers, artists & musicians who had attended the festival. There was film footage of the incident projected on the wall, showing the ever growing mob of 10,000 radical Islamists surrounding the hotel. The really shocking thing was that the assembled police did little to intervene and were very late to help, resulting in the hotel being fire-bombed & attacked by the mob.

There were lengthy court proceedings after the incident where some mob leaders (thirty or so) were sentenced to life imprisonment, but no prosecutions for the police / military, which leads you to believe they supported the mob!.

After the play G & I plus our friends went to have a drink. Post play I was feeling fiery ……but I tried to calm myself with a cup of tea. We were all shell shocked by the play and when I asked Cihat a Turkish friend how he can live in such a country (Oh dear!…I really do have my moments?!) he answered “I love my country!”.

So yes politics keep us on our toes and we wonder how things will develop over the next few months with the elections.

I think this rambling is proving to be a bit on the dark side so I will try to get a bit lighter. (Chill Annabel…chill!!!!)

Food continues to delight us. Our friend M cooked a great Vietnamese meal at our place recently which was fun to eat and watch him prepare. G, C, & I helped. We crushed peanuts & chopped vegetables. I have never diced carrots so small in my life. It took about half an hour to chop four carrots!. M coped very well & with our help prepared a delicious feast. The meal consisted of filling rice pancakes with bean sprouts, coriander, a series of different meat & vegetable fillings served with a really hot chili sweet & sour sauce.

At this time of year Salep is for sale on the streets. You see Salep sellers pushing great copper Samovar’s filled with the hot beverage. We also like to drink it when we are on the ferry boats. It is a warm pudding like drink (tastes of vanilla) made from salep flour, a ground powder made from a wild orchid. It is delicious & very soothing. However many places make fake Salep using artificial flavorings (which is good for the orchids). It is served with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top & is considered an aphrodisiac, which I suspect only applies to the orchid derived one.

We have also had many dinner invitations from Turkish friends. These invites have definitely been placed in our top Istanbul highlights. For one thing the food is always delicious. It seems to be a Turkish custom to overfeed your guests; the sheer amount of different dishes on offer is staggering. We have also been entertained with singing and playing of musical instruments. The Turkish are extremely hospitable & see it as their duty to entertain and attend to your every whim!

I have fallen in love with the Saz, this is the most popular stringed instrument in Turkey. It originates from Central Asia. And I suppose it is a bit like a guitar & has similarities to the Greek bouzouki, it is an extremely elegant instrument to look at and very versatile. It has a carved wooden resonator, shaped like a wide teardrop with a long elegant neck. Players of the Saz use the resonator like a small drum so in addition to the strings there is drumming. I just love listening to our new friends singing Turkish folk songs & playing the Saz. The music often has Arabic influences and can be quite stirring, as well as lively and also very melancholic at times.
We listen to a lot of live music events here. G and I both love that aspect of living where we do. There is a great jazz club & also Babylon which is a trend setting live music venue playing jazz to rock, indie & electronic. Then there are more underground music clubs (which I don’t really go to) but Gerhard loves to explore. There is Arafa where you can dance the night away to Turkish traditional folk and more popular Turkish dance music.

This week we went to Büyükada (4th March). This is the largest island of the Princess Islands. It has a Greek past. Nowadays there are about fifty Greek permanent residents, although this swells to about 300 in the summer months.

We went to look at a historic Greek wooden house (which I found on the internet). G and I have the idea to rent it for a week this summer, when G’s parents come to visit. G had Wednesday off school, so we decided to go there & take a look. It was an amazing day, the first sunny & warm day we have had for weeks. Büyükada is the largest of the Princess islands and is famous for its beautiful houses; they range from palatial mansions with a colonial feel, villa’s and picturesque yalis (Ottoman waterside residence).

When you arrive on Büyükada (an hour and a half ferry journey costing €1,50) you have the feeling you have been transported back in time; the only transport on the island are bicycles, horse drawn carriages or riding a donkey!. There are no cars!. The quiet streets are lovely and you can walk in the middle of them without fear of being flattened (unlike Istanbul)…although you should watch out for the carriages. They occasionally thunder by at break lightening speed. Bored drivers having some fun!
Our possible summer historic Greek wooden house was interesting. I loved it…It is a narrow building with three floors, very interesting architecture with the most amazing pieces of furniture which the owner inherited when he purchased the property. The owner, Stein-Gunner (a Norwegian) renovated the building. It is close to the sea and all necessary amenities.
Anyway Stein-Gunner was abroad; his neighbours Deniz and Kenan kindly showed us the house. The couple were very informative and after showing us around, suggested a walk to a famous Greek monastery on a hill in the island. They said it would take about 40 minutes and there was a pretty good restaurant at the top, they would accompany us and leave us at the restaurant.
Off we set.....it was a pretty walk through the neighbourhood of intriguing & beautifully designed wooden houses. Some of the mansions were just incredible and Kenan explained that they belonged to Greek ship-owners, writers, diplomats, politicians etc. Deniz also mentioned some of the smaller houses were owned by artists & the island was a haven for painters. We saw a lot of property for sale. Gradually the road started to get quite steep & we were sweltering in our winter jackets, stripping off layers as we climbed. I commented that perhaps a donkey might have been worth renting. Deniz said there was worse to come and she wasn’t joking, the last twenty minutes the road was so steep, it was knee damaging (especially on the way down). I thought I wouldn’t make it, my head was going to explode; it was bright red. But finally we arrived and WOW!......I made it!. The view at the top was just amazing!. We had a quite a laugh as we recovered, each one of us perspiring and feeling dizzy from the exertion, but wow it was worth it. The walk had actually taken about 1hr and 20 minutes.
Deniz and Kenan work as translators in publishing; they moved to Büyükada three years ago from Istanbul and enjoy the quietness for their work. I was quite envious of their new abode. The restaurant at the top of the hill was lovely, but simple. We had the most delicious kofta, börek and salad with cold beer. We earned it!. We sat outside at little wooden tables looking over the view out towards Marmara sea. It was idyllic!.

We are not sure we will rent the house. We both loved it but we have reservations as to whether G’s parents will love it! I think when they imagine Turkey....its Antalya, beach hotel and all inclusive that come into their heads, not a historic timber Greek house in Büyükada.

The great thing is that if we stayed there we could show them Istanbul as well as have the relaxing aspects of living on an island. As you can see I am sold on the idea!

I’m still doing my photography and am a member of the International Women of Istanbul Photography Club. Actually one of my pictures was selected & published in this month’s program of the International Women of Istanbul, so I was chuffed about that. The theme was Boats on the Bosphoros and I certainly have a lot of pictures of that theme, particularly with sunsets in the background. I joined a group trek in the Grand Bazaar a few weeks ago. It was really difficult to get good shoots as things happen so fast in the bazaar…. most pictures were a bit of a blur but I had a good outing and a great lunch.

Linda Caldwell the main organizer of the photo club and owner of Crazy Lady, the only shop in the Grand Bazaar owned by an American gave me a tour of fabric outlets in Istanbul last week. She has her own business, employs a team of workers to help her create a range of Turkish inspired fabric gifts. The products are lovely and very original.
At a photo meeting I asked Linda if she could advise me where to look for fabrics etc and she offered to give me a tour. She is so refreshingly open that way, sharing her knowledge of this area. I discovered some beautiful items in some weird and wonderful places. Lovely fabrics such as Hamam towels, hand embroidered tablecloths & curtains, antique inspired Ottoman textiles, scarves, bedspreads etc.

Between the dream of buying a wooden colonial house on Büyükada, selling Turkish inspired textiles and opening a gallery/shop in Istanbul (this was suggested to me by my neighbour Susanne when a small premises became available across the street where we live) I am kept plenty busy with ideas.

I don’t know if I mentioned that G and I stopped learning Turkish just before Christmas. Last week we started getting private lessons from our friend Yasmak, as we are planning to do a two week intensive course in Antalya in the summer. We felt we needed brushing up on what we have learned so far. Sounds good doesn’t it?........Turkish lessons and the beach!

Our friend Yasmak had a horrible experience last weekend. She was bitten by a dog in her neighbourhood and had to get nine injections during the week. Her hip had four puncture incisor wounds and the bruising that developed was awful. She also had a puncture in her arms and scratches on her arms and neck. She hadn’t seen the dog, as it was in a hut but as she passed the dog lunged at her knocking her to the ground. She is about 5'2. She fell into some bushes and she thinks the bushes prevented her from sustaining more serious injuries.

It is weird because this month in the Time Out (English version) one of the regular writers Alexander Ivanoff was bitten by a dog... she writes about her experiences of the special hospital in Istanbul where you go to get rabies and tetanus jabs. Apparently this hospital is open 24/7 and there is a steady stream of people coming in for shots, so it suggests that dog bites are fairly common here.

Yamask’s mum came to Istanbul (from Izmir). She is a retired nurse & she talked about how important it is to monitor the dog and see that it doesn’t die. She told us in Izmir when people get dog bites, there is a team of vets that control the dogs.

Anyway it was a bit of drama & has made me think twice about carrying dog biscuits in my jacket pocket. I often feed the stray dogs, because I have a few favourite in the neighbourhood and also feel rather sorry for some of them.

I’m off to Scotland next week. I am looking forward to staying in the cottage. More than ever I long for it and the quietness! I hope I don’t get spooked by the dark. I will also see my nieces. I may try writing some ramblings from there but I remember finding that impossible when I was over in Scotland in October last year.

Bye for now….