Istanbul: Six months on

Istanbul: Six months on

Moving to Istanbul six months ago from England was not something I had thought about until late in the summer of 2008 .Prior to making the move many friends and colleagues seemed somewhat surprised and I guess they never had seen or imagined Istanbul has a place to emigrate. Perhaps the common move abroad from the United Kingdom is countries like Australia,Spain,France but I never came across Istanbul  in conversation when the topic was about emigrating in the past. I don’t put it down to ignorance, more down to the places we choose to holiday has a nation overall. I am not saying that UK citizens are all predictable in their choice of holiday destinations and far from it they are. The choices may well be dictated by your earnings or mutual interests in a group of friends and family. Also popular holiday destinations change like the fashion industry last year’s favourite is not the place to go for whatever reasons whether it is the cost, the politics, and so on.

[SinglePic not found]Having found the familiarities of places and people has at last made my life pleasant and my fears of the differences and beliefs are not so worrying anymore. To be honest I spent the whole of October in no man’s land   , did I belong here, should I be here, and I guess a thousand other negative thoughts ran through my head day and night for the best part of October. I did not know which way to turn, it was an awful feeling and a period that I am glad I experienced it then and not later. I can only speak for myself personally, I cannot speak for others that have moved here from other or similar destinations and I guess circumstances are different for everyone. I was lucky to have married Figen who has lived here all her life, listening to her experiences make my 4 week crisis sound like I am a drama queen (humorously “I am not”).But never the less I had to deal with it and thankfully I am moving forward .

The obvious and biggest issue for me was friends and general community loss, I missed going in to my local street and villages back in England seeing friends in passing, having a pint or two in the village on my days off. A beauty of the English Pub is you are bound to bump into someone you know and it is a great place to bump into old friends or just rant about anything. Living in a city like Istanbul city changes that perspective enormously, however it is there if you look and not in a way that’s so much different from my hometown back in England. The Cay and open cafe houses for me replaced the pubs, it wasn’t about the beer drinking it was about socializing in a community and I found the Cay houses a place to relax .I frequent one which is located on the Bosphorus in Tarabya, I see familiar faces, the people that work there acknowledge me in many ways, always using their English to make life that bit easier, we exchange meanings of the simple things like an ashtray.

The language barrier is a major problem because suddenly the simple requests in life that I took for granted became obstacles. An example visiting the local Bakal (corner shop) the old guy serving asked me what I thought was “how many cigarettes do I smoke a day?” I replied Yirmi (20) he then looked shocked and had a horrified expression, I couldn’t understand why, then a man behind me in a welcomed broken English accent said “Yok how many packets a day?” so you see simple things like buying cigarettes can be an uncomfortable experience if you are not learning the language. Thinking forward I needed to learn the basics quick because I don’t expect them to know my language has I am in their country. I am not that arrogant or ignorant and I simply don’t want to be having complications when I just want to buy something or need something. But I am glad to say most Turkish people I have met acknowledge my basic Turkish and in the city districts most shopkeepers take the moment for a bit of humour and banter.

[SinglePic not found]Still I am fighting the way of thinking about currency , six months on I cannot shake of the UK pound in my head ,this only happens when it comes to shopping in the malls of Istinye, the Metro City or the Kanyon Mall . There I see items I would have been looking at back in the UK and immediately I am calculating the lira price with what I remembered in the UK and certainly electrical gadgets are at times some 50% more expensive here sadly. Things like DVD’s CD’s again are enormously much more expensive and I can see why piracy is so open here, yet quality in the piracy has a lot to be desired .Bottom line is you get what you pay for, and if it is of poor quality you can’t really go complaining about it due to the fact you paid probably less than a third of the price of the original genuine product.

Daily life down by the Bosphorus is my greatest love of this place, in the summer months the heat soars to the mid 30’s yet down on the Bosphorus the humidity is far healthier than you find in the popular city districts. My body took some time to adjust especially overnight when humid temperatures of 30c were frequent at home and the AC is blasting away all night. The autumn period was a different story not cold but the rain was somewhat like a monsoon in bursts at times my wife tells me it is not a familiar pattern that occurs each year and now sitting here at the end of November it is a mild 17c outside in the sun still my body seems confused .It is strange for me to see small blue tits and black tits everyday on the balcony a bird that only appeared in the warmer months back in the UK. Every day I put out nuts and the left over bread crumbs for the birds, the neighbours put out there left overs from meals for the cats in the street, and every time I put the rubbish out for collection the street cats come running towards me and I see this all over Istanbul .I don’t find it uncomfortable, I often see my neighbours washing the road area adjacent to their houses and I had never seen that in England in my lifetime. All my relatives here when we visit or they come here the tradition of leaving your shoes at the doorstep is adhered to and they all provide slippers for their guests and visitors.

[SinglePic not found]In my six months of living here one of the most memorable periods was the Ramadan month, hearing that drummer every morning before dawn, sitting on the balcony late at night counting the minarets lit up across the other side of the Bosphorus from home, listening to the call to prayer echo around the hillside I live on. Also not forgetting I got married in the same month, some questioned the timing of it but we planned it accordingly to cater for all and it was an event I will never forget high up on the hills of Rumelihisar?. Having my friend Nick here gave me a chance to put my commuting skills to test here in Istanbul, because my wife was still working up to the day before our wedding so it was up to me to get us about safely. Showing him the delights of the Sultanahmet area, getting caught up in the mayhem of taking the tram ride from the Sultanahmet district to Kabatas during the rush hour. Seeing him stare in awe of the Bosphorus whilst having breakfast in Yenikoy and I knew deep down he wasn’t looking forward to returning to quickly to the UK lifestyle of all work and no play. However sometimes we don’t see our daily routine lifestyle has a distraction until you take the leap for a new life somewhere else and for me that leap was Istanbul.

I am so glad I took the opportunity; I have no regrets apart from missing my friends but have learnt to engage here without fear of offending anyone and value the way the small things in differences are to be respected and acknowledge. I did my and continued homework on Istanbul and would recommend anyone visiting or moving here to do the same, don’t come here complaining about trivial things that’s the way it is like it or not. Turkish hospitality is has good has anywhere in the world and for me has a foreigner here I relish the comfort of the friendliness shown day in day out. Sure there are things that shock you and perhaps seem frightening but that could be said for anywhere in the world, and if you focus too much on that side of things I guess you will never go anywhere.

Istanbul is a unique city and the best way to find out about it is to come here and sample the history blended alongside the modern world of skyscrapers and technology, the mayhem and the vast ways of commuting, go get married on a boat sailing along the Bosphorus, watch the moon rise above the Bosphorus bridges, see the sun come up against the Asian hills of the Bosphorus, go get lost in the Grand Bazaar, take a trip to Princes Islands and watch the Dolphins swim by and the list goes on. Lastly take a trip to the Be?ikta? ?nönü Stadium on a match day and experience the passion of 30,000 supporters chanting support in an unbelievable melodic manner you just may see football and Istanbul in a totally different light.

This is my last blog for a while ,taking some time to work on other projects and make a living .I wish to thank the readers for their comments and support .My special thanks to Tijen,Anne,Neja,Umur,Ozgen,Reyhan and all the family and a special thanks to my  wife Figen for making this opportunity happen and on-going .

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