santra istanbul

Santra Istanbul about 25 minutes from the center ( taksim sg) by bus up the golden horn to the very tip.

The museum opened one year ago it is called the TATE modern of Istanbul, it was a former power station and it is a wonderful exhibition space.

I went the last day of Yuksel Arslan’s exhibition he is considered the most important artist of Turkey. Five floors of work and quite interesting…

This little painting I of course love, I have been missing mine in the backyard and having been thinking about an essay by Tom Friedman “birds don’t fly here”.

Note the title of the painting…

I have the past week explored quite a lot of the contemporary art scene there are a hand full of galleries showing interesting work. And more I am certain to be found.

gunaydin

I began Turkish classes today.

I am talking them in the Sultanahmet area, where both Aya Sofia and the Sultanahmet mosque (blue mosque) are.

This is the major tourist area and I avoided going over there till this morning.

The photos speak for themselves there is little one can say of the majestic scale and massiveness of these extraordinary structures.

Gule gule

A typical morning

waiting for the bus.

For the average office worker it begins not with latte but yes, fresh squeezed juice, orange or pomegranate and that for 1 lira!

Okay not such a typical morning for this car right in front of my building!

friends new and old

Nur, my office mate and her family

And Yeshim a former student from RIT.

These bright faces have made me very much at home

With their endless generosity, warm laughter

greek chruch

The next day I took my students from the university on a walk, and I took them through Fener. None of the 16 students had ever been to this area just north of the university.

I took them as well to the Greek Church; I told them it was the only place in Istanbul I knew to be silent. They loved the church, the scent of the candles, and the darkness.

Quiet fun to take an Istanbuler to some place they do not know.

fener

It was a rainy afternoon when I took a walk through Fener, a district just to the north of the university running up the golden horn.

Four-years ago I stayed in a small guesthouse across the street from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, a small church surrounded by mosque and a quite conservative Muslim neighborhood. The church is in fact the worldwide headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church. Note the wire and high walls

Fener is a very old part of the city once a wealthy Greek settlement

It has in the past decades fallen to decay, though lovely architecture.

I learned after my walk and seeing the changes since my visit four years earlier. That the renovations happening have now slowed; the government has stopped the sale of any of these structures to foreigners.

silver lining

Then of course the bright side to the trip to the noter, a new material,

a fluffy web like thick plastic

And it even comes in purple