Sunday, November 15, 2015

Sunday, November 15, 2015 - 1 comment

Istanbul: Row by Row

For a country in which a post office "line" is more of a "blob" and driving the wrong way down the road doesn't cause anyone (except perhaps the odd traffic cop having a slow day) to bat an eye, Turkey actually has a surprising amount of order.  You just have to know where to look for it.  

Take the weekly pazar, for example.  I love to get there first thing in the morning and watch the painstaking precision of the guys arranging their apples in perfect, shiny rows, or piling their figs in little purple pyramids.  I always hate to be the first one to marr their masterpieces by pulling a kilo or two from the artistic arrangement.  :)

On a recent trip to Istanbul, I had the chance to show some first-time visitors some of my favourite haunts.  My eye was drawn, as usual, to the patterns that emerge in the midst of an otherwise rather chaotic city.  From the Grand Bazaar to the textile district to the Spice Market, my lens got its fill of lines, rows and perfectly-piled stacks.  A camera could never be bored in that city...

(And, apparently, in honour of my love of nicely arranged lines, the formatting of this post has gone awry and refused to be anything but centred.  Long live symmetry, I guess!)



They may have been banned by the Hat Law of 1925, but fezzes are still in high demand
at the Grand Bazaar. At least among people wearing "I Heart Istanbul" t-shirts.  :)


We hit the Bazaar just after Republic Day.  Atatürk, Atatürk everywhere....

Boxes and boxes of "apple tea" and its relatives.  None of which
you will find in any real Turkish cupboard. 


I can never resist a stop at the Button Man!


Scarves a'plenty





Prayer beads

A weapon when wielded by an over-excited tourist,
selfie sticks still make for a pretty nice "row of colour."

Feed the birds, tuppins a bag...

Pickle juice!

Fresh bait

Fishing rods off the Galata Bridge




Freshly packaged Turkish coffee, piled high in a shop
window.  Those guys were skilled - they were running
about one bag every ten seconds!

Ottoman-style coffee sets

The interior of the Aya Sofya 






Okay, not exactly an organized row.  But since the corn made the cut,
 I didn't want the pretty chestnuts to be jealous!

Rolled up Turkish carpets


I am always in absolute awe at the talent of the women who weave these carpets!


1 comments:

Love those foodie pics, especially the stack of nut bars and the memories of just being there. Precious memories!!
GvD & DvD