An Inverted Medusa and a Fishing Boat

Just a very quick one today as I have to organize some ferries for tomorrow.

Today saw what were likely to be the very last museum/attraction bits I will be visiting. Started with the basilica cistern to see the upside down medusa at the far end, the sultan's palace, then took a tram trip over the Golden Horn to Taksim, then walked down through Galata to the Karakoy fish markets.

I shot on the little LX100 today.

The famous inverted medusa at the far end of the Basilica Cistern. I actually queued half an hour before opening to see this, so was in the first handful to get through. I had about ten minutes before quite literally over a hundred Chinese tourists turned up, each one blasting away with the flashes on their point and shoots.

Me enjoying the view from the Sultan's Harem. That's Galata and Kadakoy you can see in the distance. Also note the sun gleaming on my bald scone in the absence of my sadly misplaced hat.

The reality of the Sultan's Palace. I just tried to focus on what was in front of me while reminding myself I was also part of the crowd.

Thank the gods for St Irene. I stumbled across this by chance. St Irene's huddles in the shadow of the Hagia Sophia, and has only just been reopened to the public after many years closed up. It's a very early church and looks like it has only been given a sweep before the opened the doors. I had the place to myself. 

St Irene's... deserted except for the dozing guard.

Up in Taksim. So far, this is the closest I have seen to an uptown in Istanbul. Much younger crowd, no ruins, lots of bars and shops. It is a very three dimensional landscape, so much so that there is a dedicated funicular tram that hauls people up from Kabatas down by the ferries. 

I'm came to appreciate the textures of the other parts of Istanbul. Sultanahmet, where I am staying, is the "old town" which has unfortunately been ripped apart by modern developers and is currently quite a mess. Other parts of this vast city have a much more cohesive fabric, and there are very strong districts, here.

This guy seemed to be pushing a card collecting electronic waste. He was hollering something, which I suppose was "bring out your dead gadgets" or words to that effect, because every now and then a person would run out and dump a computer or printer in his hand cart. I followed him all the way down to the waterfront, which turned out to be a warren of mechanical and electrical repair workshops, so I suspect there is a fair bit of recycling going on here.

I finished the afternoon at another one of those fabulous open air tea houses. You just pull up a chair and someone brings you tea. They keep bringing you tea and occasionally various nibblies until you get up and leave. I haven't really figured out how the price everything, but so far its always ended up being less than 10TL, which is less than AU$5.

Just some tables on some vacant land and two blokes running a tea cart. A pop-up shop; the sort of thing that's really trendy in architecture circles, and they are making students study in our planning and architecture schools. For the small business people of Istanbul, this sort of innovation and flexibility is simply a way of life. I've learned more about how to use space in an urban environment in three days in this city than I did in three years studying architecture. That's no exaggeration.