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Istanbul 2021
Featured in: A Shambles Ramble: Istanbul
Expensive Detour
"I sat on the floor and stared at my phone wondering what to do next. And that, dear reader, is how I spent two very expensive days in Thessaloniki trying to work out what to do and where to go."
Rounding the Bend
"As my taxi reached the crest of a hill the whole city was revealed to me. Every other hill I could see was covered in houses. Minarets were sprinkled throughout the skyline."
First View of Hagia Sophia
"I love how this city is somehow spread over two continents."
A City with Layers
"I absolutely adore how some buildings look taller than they are because they sit partway up a slope, giving some parts of the city a staggered, layered look."
Dog for Scale
"It’s just incredible to be able to walk down to the edge of the estuary and be able to see so much of the city, including the other side of the Bosporus."
Between Two Continents
"I can have a sandwich whilst watching the clouds pass over Asia and arrive in Europe. I don’t know where else in the world you could be able to say something like that."
Fishermen
"There are so many mosques, so many towers, and so many people!"
Fisherman
Not the Best Angle, Admittedly
"I still need to get used to eating kebabs outside of the context of 4am after four hundred shots, which is why I took this one to the nearby Gülhane Park."
In the Evening
"I can see Hagia Sophia from where I’m sitting right now. It’s so omnipresent that even if I were to go inside my room, I wouldn’t be able to avoid hearing the call to prayer."
Galata Kulesi
Contradiction #1
"Where I felt central Athens was barely being held together (with a condemned, fire-gutted building literally opposite my balcony) Istanbul is massive, consistent, perhaps even thriving."
Friendly Face
"The clubs are pretty good too."
Closer Look
Walking Back
Step Outside the Hostel
"Here I sit outside my new hostel. It’s 1:20pm, 32°C, and as I write this now fires are breaking out all over Turkey."
Behind Hagia Sophia
"Sultan Ahmed is the name of the area, which includes Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. and whilst I would have loved to look inside both (though Blue Mosque is undergoing renovations), I was side-tracked quite violently by a sneaky hawker who approached me out of nowhere."
Looking Towards Blue Mosque
" “Hello!” he said.
“Hello!” I said back."
“Hello!” I said back."
The First of Many
Ancient Architecture
" “Now I will list off many vapid compliments in an attempt to personalise our relationship, so when I ask you to come to my shop it won’t be as obvious that I just want to sell you something,” he may as well have declared."
Blue Mosque (Under Renovation)
" “Turkish Delight? Hell yeah, let’s go!”
I only realised hours after that I’d essentially fallen for the same trap as Edmund did in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Coerced by Turkish Delight to follow a stranger down a threatening alleyway."
I only realised hours after that I’d essentially fallen for the same trap as Edmund did in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Coerced by Turkish Delight to follow a stranger down a threatening alleyway."
From the Plaza
"Mostly, I cannot believe I can have breakfast less than two hundred meters from Justinian’s church, a still functioning building from the 500s. And here I am in 2021 to see it in all its splendour."
Cover Up the Cracks
"The positioning of this hostel is incredible. Want food? There’s a kebab house thirty metres away. Laundry? You can see the laundry sign from here, and they’re damn good at their job."
Standoff
"Been out for the day, but I’m back now to finish things."
Contradiction #2
"Where I felt central Athens was barely being held together (with a condemned, fire-gutted building literally opposite my balcony) Istanbul is massive, consistent, perhaps even thriving."
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