All that is Worth Remembering
Merchants moved to the area currently known as the Grand Bazaar after the Conquest of Constantinople. In other words, the Grand Bazaar has been active for 650 years. It is not the oldest Bazaar in the world (Tehran Grand Bazaar, for example, dates back to the 7th century), but it is fully covered and hosts …
Continue reading “Istanbul 5 – the Grand Bazaar, the Islands, and the People”
Visiting the old homes of fallen dynasties always makes for a deep contemplation – the right and wrong of what they did in the hindsight of history stays with me for a long time. In that sense, the Ottomans were in a very interesting position. As an international power controlling a substantial amount of land …
Neil Gaiman writes in “American Gods” that humans do not know about the world’s magical places, only gods do. Humans keep building places of worship without understanding that this place of worship, this specific piece of land, is closer to their god. That was my first thought when I saw Ayasofya. The first church in …
The structure of American cities is completely different, but if there was one thing I’d wish after this trip, it would be having kiosks selling “simit” for breakfast. It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, and it gives you a boost of energy. Though “burek” is fried, I could say the same thing about it. These two cheap …
Kadikoy is magical. It is for the poor, the rich, the sad, and the happy. For everyone, there is something at Kadikoy. The simple state of being there gives you a sense of being in a large modern urban area. Taking the ships to go from the Asian part of Istanbul to Old European Istanbul …
In Da Vinci’s beautiful biography by Walter Isaacson, there is a small portion that is dedicated to St. Jerome in the Wilderness. Maestro started the depiction of St. Jerome’s distress in the Syrian desert in 1480. He drew the man with the rock in his hand, conveyed the feeling in his face to the viewers, …
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, a few friends and I read “A Hundred Years of Solitude” the famous work in magical realism by the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In part of the book, he writes about a train operated by the banana company that takes the youth of Macondo out …
I never claimed to be a great writer, but I have always written. In the hindsight, my writings over the years were always a form of expression. Blogs came to life when I was in my early 20s and I started one like all my peers. Like any 20-something year old, the subject usually revolved …