Istanbul: Seeing and Hearing the Life

  Istanbul: Seeing and Hearing the Life 

Having now settled down to the routine lifestyle here in Istanbul, I have become more accustomed to the surrounding areas and daily routines. Every day the observation of things you just will not see during a short stay visit to this vast city grows. There is good and there is bad just like any other place in the world today, but there is something about this city and I just cannot nail it.

Some days I wake up to the early morning call to prayer, sometimes I just turn back over and fall back to sleep, yet other days I just wake up with nervousness or anticipation of what the day will bring. Don’t misread or think that’s a negative thought I mean I am curious with excitement of what I will see and experience.

[SinglePic not found]Living where I do makes the start of the day pleasantly visually to the eye, from the lounge window facing east I see the now familiar Bosphorus with the large ships heading to and throw from Istanbul against the sun rise in the distance, to the north I see the minarets  dominating the skyline. I hear the local animals a mixture of dogs and yes believe it or not sheep and the neighbouring area has a few early morning calls of the cockerels .In the trees the below the woodpecker hammers into the tree the small blue tits and black tits scatter on the balcony looking for food. This driving  Fistik  our cat crazy who now seems to spend the mornings bird watching with one eye shut and another open has she tries to sleep. All of these visions and sounds of the morning gives it a location of being out in the countryside feel, but not forgetting this is a city.

Daily life in the mornings is has hectic has normal people buzzing around, commuters filling up the Dolmus buses, children walking to school. Commuting has I have often mentioned is not your normal everyday organized journey here, there is no telling what sort of journey you will have you just have to shut your eyes and hope it is a smooth one. As you head into the city’s main economic districts the skylines become dominated by skyscrapers but somehow still holding onto that uniqueness of Istanbul.

This is what makes Istanbul there are many visions, it is not all skyscrapers and minarets has one would expect from a large thriving economic booming city. You can find nature and animal life in the parks of Emirgan , along the Bosphorus you see the Dolphins, and here in Tarabya the outskirts have much forestry which I only hope that it remains in the future. Looking across the Bosphorus from Sariyer the hills on the Asian side are filled with untouched forestry. Has you travel along the Bosphorus the view of the Ottoman architecture is shining in its beauty the Bosphorus bridges lit up like a Christmas tree. I could go on and write about the Sultanahmet area but it has been written so many times before.

[SinglePic not found]Something else I have noticed is the culture dress variations, there is the modern metropolitan fashion youth of Taksim, the designer financial hustlers of Bebek on a Friday night, yet they all still blend in with  the look of  this modern culture . Visit the shopping malls of Istinye and Metro City or venture to Ortakoy  on a Sunday afternoon and you cannot help admiring how various dress cultures blend in amongst each other. Unlike back in UK in some parts like Maidstone  the dress culture mixture would stand out with much curiosity amongst locals there, however here it is a part of everyday life , a unique blend without differences being  an issue.

So to sum it up I live here in Istanbul where the wildlife,the sea life is there everyday in its natural way not locked in some zoo or aquarium albeit there is a unique Aquarium and it is the largest in Europe called Turkuazoo which has just officially opened. The mixture of cultures , the frantic commuting ,the economic boom streaming along in a recession and hanging on to its identity without letting go.If I could only say this about the area I came from in the UK I would with a loudspeaker but I can’t and that is a fact not an opinion. Yet the UK has a wildlife of beauty but it is unlikely you would find it in the cities with such a variety those reasons may be down to climate has opposed to identity.Just remember there is more to Istanbul than meets the eye ,you don’t have to stray far to find it.

Related posts

• Istanbul:The Gallery (10)
• Istanbul: Kilyos a different Istanbul (34)
• Istanbul: A Diverse Capital (13)
• Istanbul: When the Flags come out (0)
• Istanbul: Walking no man’s land with no name (16)