First impressions

I arrived late on a Thursday afternoon...a flight from Denver to Washington to Brussels to Zurich to Istanbul...well it was several flights I guess...and, by the way, Zurich was the most elegant airport, including the men's bathroom urinals, that I have used to date...and, after dinner at a tiny, neighborhood cafe, I crashed and slept. Early next morning, I came to Istiklal, a major street, deserted...I noted the lack of sidewalks and thought that it must be a dangerous place once traffic got moving. I took a picture to remind myself of where my side street was when I returned in the afternoon.




Ahhh...what did I know? Nada. Turns out by the afternoon, Istiklal is the major pedestrian open street mall in Beyogul, my Istanbul neighborhood, and the street had become jammed with people as it is every afternoon.




So not only could I not orient myself but I had no idea where my side street was. People just kept coming and coming. All kinds of people. I had the feeling that everyone in the world who was not in Times Square at that moment must be walking down Istiklal (which means "independence" in Turkish.

I finally found the side street by writing down my address on a pad and showing it to people in the approximate area. A very old city, the side street names change every few blocks and it needed a local's interpretation to get me home.

The sense of being a total novice was reinforced later that evening when I asked Mark, the guy in whose apartment I am staying, where were any liquor stores. I said I hadn't seen any. He said "There are a couple just up the street, one of the left and the other on the right." "Geez," I replied, "I really did not see them." "They are there," he said. He paused. And added, "The word for liquor is 'tekel.'" "Oh," I said, realizing the reason I did not see those two stores was I could not read the signs outside. Duh!


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Location:Istanbul