An Homage to The Sounds of Istanbul

Şerbet: Dried fruit, tea, herbs, and/or spices in any combination imaginable, concentrated into a syrup, and ideally served over shaved ice from the mountains. Find some great examples like violet, pomegranate mint, or tamarind on Saudi Aramco World. 

Şerbet takes on a certain magic when it's served to you by a traditional street vendor, but to really understand what I mean, you'll have to watch the following kidlit-friendly clip.


From the clanking glasses of the Şerbetci,
to the gulls crying,
to the backgammon dice rolling across the boards...
Every sound is something a girl (little or big) can enjoy.

My favorite: the purring kitty hills.
Istanbul is full of cats.


 

Istanbul's Olympic Bid

The International Olympic Committee is in the Turkish news right now:

Istanbul; 27 March 2013: The IOC Evaluation Commission concluded its inspection of Istanbul today with a final press conference to over 200 international and Turkish media and declared that they had an "excellent impression" of the Istanbul 2020 bid.

In a press conference at the Four Seasons Bosphorus Hotel, Chairman of the IOC Evaluation Commission, Sir Craig Reedie, said:

"The IOC 2020 Evaluation Commission has been very pleased to spend time here in the extraordinary city of Istanbul. We have an excellent impression of the Bid Committee, and we have witnessed the strong support that the bid enjoys from the government, which was highlighted by the presence of President Gül this week. It has been a great pleasure to meet with so many Olympians, Paralympians, athletes and the Bid Committee - we have seen the enthusiasm for the Olympic Games that exists here in Istanbul."

source: Istanbul 2020 press release

I may be biased, but just clicking around the Istanbul2020 website, I can tell you there's an amazing construction plan for top notch venues and services. All that plus amazing historic sites?
You might want to book your plane tickets now.

Here's the promotional video for Istanbul.

Istanbul Modern

I'm in the middle of a transition right now, so instead of my usual research, how about a clip about modern Istanbul? The short feature includes hip spots like Kanyon Mall, the Istanbul Modern museum, and gorgeous rootop views.

Enjoy!

The Sultanahmet Jail Hotel

The Ottoman calligraphy across the lintel reads:
"Capital City Murder Jail",
but I'd pay 370 Euros to stay for a night,
if I had any spare Euros to spend, that is...

A lot of other people think it's worth the money too, because this is not only the old Sultanahmet Jail, it is now a 65 room, five star hotel: the Four Seasons- Istanbul at Sultanahmet.

The elegant neoclassical style of the building belies the original purpose- on purpose. Perhaps the proximity to nearby Ottoman palaces and public buildings, and the caliber of the actual prisoners (writers and educated political dissidents) warranted a more gentle architecture.

While all that was fine in 1918-19 when the jail was built, by 1968 the prison was shuttered. It's historic, old city location was of no consequence to the growing needs of the new Istanbul. The jail was put to use for a brief stint during a coup d'etat in the 80s, but quickly abandoned again for more than a decade.

Then in 1996, the prison's wide windows and high-arched hallways welcomed a transformation. The building was repurposed, clad in marble and mosaics, and the courtyard was outfitted with a garden, terrace and gourmet restaurant. In 2012, the resulting boutique style hotel was rated #1 on the Top Small City Hotels list by Travel + Leisure. 

But take a closer look. A sort of gothic gloom lingers, intentionally, as a reminder of the building's history. Brass rings keep their firm hold on some of the old cell walls. An inmate's inscription still marks up a marble pillar - and wish I knew what it says! Somebody please take a picture and send it to me. Some of the inmates were poets, so maybe the wording is poignant.

Alas, no images of the inscription exist, at least not anywhere I've searched.
Instead, here's a poem by the Sultanahmet Jail's famous inmate and International Peace Prize winner, Nâzım Hikmet.
(Remember my post about Hiroshima Girl?)


Lion in an Iron Cage

Look at the lion in the iron cage,
look deep into his eyes:
like two naked steel daggers
they sparkle with anger.
But he never loses his dignity
although his anger
comes and goes
goes and comes.

You couldn't find a place for a collar
round his thick, furry mane.
Although the scars of a whip
still burn on his yellow back
his long legs
stretch and end
in the shape of two copper claws.
The hairs on his mane rise one by one
around his proud head.
His hatred
comes and goes
goes and comes ...

The shadow of my brother on the wall of the dungeon
moves
up and down
up and down.  

Source: poemhunter.com

Istanbul in the Movies: This Fall

Istanbul

I love when Istanbul gets spotlighted in a film, and this fall, the city is the star in several movies. The streets have been busy, bustling with film crews and top actors. There are some specific locations that film directors seem to love - like the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar.

(That scene is getting old for me. Remember when Clive Owen did it in The International? )

I digress. Here are the trailers:

Taken 2, with Liam Neeson.

In the movie, his daughter runs across the rooftops of the grand bazaar. (Does she always have to be barely dressed?) Of course, I would have preferred if there were some good guys from the city too, but this film seems to get off the roofs and into the streets of today's Istanbul. I give lots of points for that.




Then there's the latest James Bond, Skyfall, where Daniel Craig falls off a bridge in Adana, and yet somehow ends up riding a motorbike on top of the grand bazaar. (Well, I love the bridge scene anyway.)




And lastly, Argo with Ben Affleck, which has scenes set in Iran that were actually filmed in Turkey. I'll actually have to watch this one to see if I recognize anything but the mosque in the trailer.

Here's hoping there are no scenes on the Grand Bazaar rooftops.

Istancool

Istanbul Arts and Culture Festival

Istanbul International Arts and Culture Festival is a fascinating and unique cultural experience bringing together some of the world’s most talented writers, designers, editors, actors, poets, filmmakers, dancers and musicians to the city of Istanbul. The festival is committed to creating a dynamic arts diplomacy programme in the world and forging greater cultural relations between Turkey and the international artistic community. (istanbul74.com)
Vogue magazine touted the festival as "Eastern Promise"
Style.com billed it as "The Fashion Set Touches Down in Istanbul"
Harper's Bazaar sent Derek Blasberg in for the details.

Istancool is an artist's whos-who mashup of gallery exhibitions, and educational experiences. This year they changed the name to Istanbul '74, but it's still, apparently, very cool. (Please, let me know if you find a plausible reason for the name change. It can't just be that 1974 was a good year. Can it?)

Celebrities and reknowned artists are on the must-see list, and the social events are extravagant. This year it was Boom Boom Room (from NYC), set up in the steel and glass inside of burned out 200 year old mansion, Esma Sultan Palace, on the Bosphorus - with a view of the suspension bridge. These guys know how to throw a party! The Standard dishes on the awesome here. 

I can't think of a more appropriate place to explain Istanbul's mix of old and new, can you?

Esma Sultan Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

FYI, my MC references Istancool because her roomate is a design student, and it's all in the details. ;)

Lodos & Poyraz

via hurriyetdailynews.com

Last week's Hurriyet Daily News headlines read:Storms Paralyze Life Across Turkey. Even CNN picked up the story with a video feed (below) highlighting the destruction.

So I was reminded of this post, which I wrote last June: Which Way The Wind Blows

I've heard of the Sirocco and even used the Mistral in one of my chapters. It got me to thinking about the winds of Istanbul. There are two major ones. Lodos (Notus) comes up from the south. In the winter, it cancels the ferry schedule it's so rough. Poyraz (Boreas) comes down from the northeast. Both are named after Greek wind gods.

Care for another one of my adventure stories?

This time, I'm a naive young woman on Büyükada. DH and I borrow a Zodiac (inflatable boat w/ an outboard motor) from a family friend and take it out fishing one day.

The owner says to us: Make sure you come back before the wind picks up in the afternoon.
DH: Absolutely!

So we head off on our merry way, enjoying our little outboard cruise around the island.

Me: checking out all the houses on the shore from a new perspective. Picnic lunch, etc. We anchor on the back side of the island in the forested park area. There's a pretty steep rock face on that side. (read: no safe place to hide) lalalalalala. No fish anywhere. It is the middle of the day. Well, we catch one rock fish. Ugly as sin.

Loose track of time and guess what....the wind changes. The sea just up and does the cha-cha underneath us, slapping me around in the boat like the fish I'm supposed to be catching.

Me: fear for my life. That rocky shore is getting awfully close. No houses in sight on this side of the island. It takes three times as long to get back. Almost run out of gas. Worst. Fishing. Trip. Ever.

That was not even Poyraz. Not even close.

Now in Mersin there are winds of a different sort. There you want the north/south dynamic. Winds from the south bring air through the house during the day. Winds from the mountains in the north bring cooler air down at night. If you're buying an apartment, direction is one of the the first things you check. If the house faces east/west? Too bad. How sad. Lowball offer.

On a hot summer evening, we joke about the heat: "Don't worry, in a little while the wind will come down from the mountains." We even have a special word for the sea when its waiting for a wind, reflecting the moon like a mirror - Yakamoz.

Which way does the wind blow for your hero?

Istanbul Winds Battle Over the City

The Wind Gods

Cercis Siliquastrum aka Erguvan, or in other words...Redbud Tree

Cercis Siliquastrum in Istanbul

Many blogger friends of mine are taking a break this month while friends go through the A-Z blog challenge, so I decided this month would be a good time to repost some April-inspired posts of my own. I may throw in some new ones though, to keep you on your toes. :)

The other day, Anonymous stopped by and left a comment on my post about Boğaziçi University. (For newcomers, BU is the setting for my novel.) Anonymous pined for the lovely campus of his/her alma mater and reminded me of how beautiful the erguvan trees are in the spring. Of course, I'm a sucker for flowering anything, and Istanbul in bloom is just breathtaking. How could I not mention it in my writing someplace? (It was in chapter two of  my original draft for Burnt Amber, btw.)

So what is an erguvan tree? Cercis siliquastrum, aka the redbud tree. The Bosphorus strait is dotted with redbuds for a few weeks in late April/early May. Some areas, Bebek included, have pockets of the trees like the one in the picture. It's no wonder that Roxelana's favorite color was erguvan mauve. There was nothing the Ottomans didn't have in that color.

Here in the Carolinas, we have its cousin, native cercis canadensis, blanketing our hillsides. Dainty blooms, ornamental seed pods and pretty heart shaped leaves make an attractive tree, so redbuds are popular in gardens of the southeast and all the way up into southern New England. When my grandmother passed away I planted a dwarf weeping variety called "Covey" at my old house in New Haven. I also have several of the burgundy leaved "Forest Pansy" variety in my new backyard. Currently, I'm coveting a new variety borne of "Forest Pansy" and "Covey", "Ruby Falls", which both weeps AND has beautiful burgundy foliage. I just need to find that sweet spot for it.

Fun note:

Green twigs have been used in southern Appalachia to season venison for years, so the tree is also known as spicewood up in the mountains. Native Americans ate the buds raw or boiled and roasted the seeds. I haven't tried any of these recipes, but some buds might look pretty on top of a salad...

Yarimburgaz Cave

Yarimburgaz Cave - TAY Project

As I was writing Burnt Amber, I had a cave in mind for a key location. Plenty of mythology pointed to the place. When I started writing the Istanbul section of the story, I was hard-pressed for a cave with the local lore I needed. Good thing I watch  Muhteşem Yüzyıl - or I should say, good thing the producers got in legal trouble for using an interesting cave in one of their episodes. Now I have the perfect setting for a scene I've been thinking up...

Details of the Yarimburgaz cave:

• Located in the Küçükçekmece area, near Istanbul 
• Formed by and underground river, the double mouthed cave is known for it's prehistoric significance. The earliest evidence of human settlement in Turkey was found there. 
• Site of a Byzantine church or monastery, similar to many caves in Turkey. 
• Much archaeological evidence had been destroyed before the official dig. This was due to amateur interest in the old caves, and the worst offender - a mushroom farming operation.
• Iron bars on the cave are supposed to inhibit people from entering. 

Muhteşem Yüzyıl producers are accused of using the cave as a setting, and digging a "hot spring" inside.
My question is this: Who unlocked the gates? And how did no one notice a film crew setting up there? The cave has been used in previous films and TV shows, so maybe no one thought anything of it?

Yenikapı 12

hurriyetdailynews.com

As a writer, it's good practice to experience the things I write about, whenever possible. Research only takes a mind so far.

I never sailed in a wooden ship, but there is one scene in Burnt Amber where Sybil takes a very neo-byzantine ship up a river.

I did lots of research on the ship style, and left a lot up to the imagination of the reader. There weren't any Byzantine replicas at my disposal, but recently, I heard about Yenikapi 12.

A bit of history for you:

Istanbul is busting at the seams, population-wise. Ferries, buses, and trams crisscross the city to get pedestrians around, and two suspension bridges barely cope with the car traffic. The metro system needs an upgrade. New tunnels are being dug, left and right.

Tangent: If you travel by rail to Istanbul, you must get out, cross the strait by car or boat, and go to another train station on the other side. (Sirkeci, or HaydarPasa, depending on which way you're going.) The Marmaray tunnel project crosses underneath the Bosphoros Strait, connecting rail traffic from both sides of the city for the first time ever.

While workers were digging the metro station at Yenikapi, they ran into an unexpected archaeological boon: the world's largest shipwreck find.

Scholars are going to replicate one of the numerous wrecks found there, the Yenikapi 12. The plan is to learn about ship construction and materials of the Middle Ages. Hopefully, the ship will be seaworthy. Project leaders plan to test the Yenikapi 12 in the strait sometime in 2013, after which the ship will be put on display as a museum piece.

*Jumps up and down*
I want a ride! I want a ride!

Or at least I want to go see the ship, where ever it finds a home. I want to touch it, smell it, take it all in...get some new descriptors for my writing.

Who's coming with?


Replica of Byzantine ship to sail next year in Turkey

http://www.thepolisblog.org/2009/09/hyper-extensions-marmaray-project.html

Fountain of Inspiration

wikipedia

Throughout Turkey, there are beautiful Ottoman era fountains, called çeşme. Marble or mosaic tile fountains are named after prominent figures who funded the projects, because Sultan/Pasha such and such expected goodwill of the people in return. The bigger or fancier the fountain, the more prayers a benefactor received. In theory anyway.

For city dwellers, clean water was a blessing in itself in those times. Water came from underground spings or aqueducts that might have been miles and miles from the fountain.

With the advent of indoor plumbing, many fountains fell into disrepair. Some were demolished. You know how it goes. Discovering some of the small fountains tucked into older neighborhoods of Istanbul now might require a treasure map.

My favorite fountain is nothing like the grand one in the picture above, and it is no where near Istanbul. It's a little hole in the wall on a steep path, a straight pipe mortared into a crack in the mounain, no inscription or dedication. A little plaque above reminds: No washing up allowed!

The water is ice cold, even in summer. Travellers stop to drink or refill their bottles, if they're lucky enough to know it's there. I never went up there in the winter, but many years later, that little mountain spring was inspiration for the beginning of my new WIP, Mist of Kavala.

So my reminder for the new year to all my bloggy friends: Remember the small moments.

More reading:

The Ottoman fountains of Istanbul

Istanbul fountain restoration continues Hurriyet Daily News

Haystacks & Hydrangeas à la Assassin's Creed

True to Ezio's previous adventures, there are plenty of haystacks to hide in throughout Assassin's Creed - Revelations. True to Istanbul, there are also plenty of hydrangeas, or what the locals call hortensia (hydrangea macrophylla). Although I wouldn't want to be jumping into them like Ezio does, hortensia bushes in all shades of blue and lilac are found in parks and palaces across the city - in real life and in AC-R. Little details like this are the reason I enjoyed exploring the game.  
Here's my take on AC-R:

Topkapi Palace is detailed fairly well, as is the Grand Bazaar, and other landmarks like Hagia Sofia, the Galata Tower, and the Maiden's Tower. The rest of the city feels like any other AC game, except for the minarets. Tile roofs and towers, courtyards and caverns. The programmers threw in some carpets for effect, but it feels like Ezio could be anywhere, especially since the Bosphorus looks like a small river or maybe a Venetian waterway. (The Bosphorus is much wider in real life and you wouldn't want to swim across, my dear Ezio.)

But if you like Ezio's previous worlds, then the familiarity is a plus. (Even I can't really complain.) I was disappointed with the way programmers handled the Yerebatan Sarnici. They must have had plenty of leftover code and thought they could get away with chopping it up into sections. I can almost forgive them. There are plenty of cisterns under the city which might fit into their labyrinthine plan, and some of them must connect to Yerebatan Sarnici. What I don't accept is the way programmers handled the caves of Cappadocia.

Problem #1: There are no navigable rivers in Cappadocia, yet Ezio hops on a ship in Istanbul and lands right at the hidden entrance to a rock city.

Problem #2: The city is inside a huge cave. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the cities of Cappadocia are carved into cliff faces, or dug seven stories down like ground squirrel warrens. Supersized, giant caves? Felt like a device the programmers used so they could suspend a challenge from the ceiling. *ahem*

So besides hydrangeas and aptly placed white tulips, what did I love about AC-R?

wikia.com

Turkish is interlaced in conversation. Push someone as you run past and you might get a dose of interesting insults. Some of the women standing around have stories to tell about their lives too, if you listen. I think they used some native speakers because the accent was pretty pure.

Otherwise, the city folk are pretty standard. Instead of Venetian courtesans, we swap out a few dresses et voilà: Romani gypsies. Veiled women and turbaned men roam the streets in between groups of Ottoman Janissaries, who look pretty darned awesome in their detailed uniforms. I've got a thing for Janissaries though, so maybe it's just me. Uniforms aside, there isn't much difference between them and the Byzantines supporting theTemplars of the AC-R conflict. All guards act the same as any soldiers in previous AC games.

Bottom line: don't expect anything outrageously different from AC-R. Expect to spend some more time with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, relive a few scenes with Altaïr, and help Desmond out with the Animus.

You know what to you need to do. 

Psst...Go play the game! Desmond is up next. ;)

Chocolate Covered Chestnuts

Lezzetin Izinde

Tis the season to roast some chestnuts on an open fire. Have you ever done it though? I had to go clear across the world to try some. It might have something to do with the fact that American chestnut trees were devastated by chestnut blight, or maybe chestnuts are just a European thing. The ones I usually find at the grocery store are from Italy.

Perhaps you've tried marron glacé? I adore them, whenever I can find some. It's probably a good thing they're hard to come by, though. The calorie count for chestnuts soaked in sugar syrup is insane. Some shops make them in Turkey, but as you can tell from the name, it's the French who really get credit for the idea - sorry Italy.

As far as Istanbul is concerned, there are other interesting ways to prepare a chestnut or kestane. Example: Chocolate coated chestnuts. From what I understand, the chestnuts are:

1) roasted to remove the shells
2) boiled in milk, vanilla and sugar
3) coated in (dark?) chocolate, and
4) dusted with pistachios

According to Hurriyet newspaper's 100 Tastes of Istanbul - Istanbul'un 100 Lezzeti, #49 is the chocolate covered chestnut from Bahar Pastanesi in Teşvikiye.

Best4 Pastry Shops in Istanbul
Bursa retaining sweet chestnut taste, tradition

Ezan

image via wikipedia.com

The other day I was reading about Executive Producer Grant Scharbo. He just finished filming an episode of MISSING for ABC in Istanbul and he had a couple of interesting points. In fact, I'm going to pull a few lines for you:

“[Istanbul] is a city you can’t fake anywhere else. You can’t shoot somewhere else and say it is Istanbul,”

“We were scouting on a rooftop near Süleymaniye very early in the morning. The call to prayer started and I had never heard that before in my life. For someone who has never heard it, it is a unique sound and beautiful.”

(For the full article: Hollywood production sets in Istanbul’s historic venues)

His remark got me to thinking.

I have a scene with the morning call to prayer in my book. Eerie and beautiful. I don't think there is any substitute. However, there are five times a day that the muezzin broadcasts his call to from those slender minarets. Each has a distinct feeling associated with it. Imagine hearing the call in the middle of the day, with traffic screeching, music blaring, trams braking, etc. The afternoon ezan adds to a vibrant, chaotic feel of a big city like Istanbul, but eerie is not the word I'd use for it.

Sort of cute story:

As newlyweds, dh and I lived in the Göçmen neighborhood, one short block away from the Yesil Cami Mosque in Mersin. On the fifth floor (no elevator). When we moved in that summer, it was so hot that we slept with all the windows open (no AC) and were eaten alive by the mosquitoes (no screens). The first night, I listened to the fan whir and hardly slept. In the early pre-dawn hours, a breeze finally came down from the mountains and we fell asleep.

Loudspeaker at the same height as my window: BLARES THE CALL TO PRAYER!!!! PRAYER IS BETTER THAN SLEEP!!!!

I practically fell out of the bed. My husband jumped almost to the ceiling, swearing that it was judgement day.

Yeah. It's OK to laugh about it. We still do. Funny thing though, no matter how loud that darn megaphone was, eventually we stopped waking up from it.

The moral of my story is that the ezan has different effects, depending upon a character's emotional state.

Something I didn't know:

There are different versions of ezan, and I'm not referring to pronunciation variations. (Turks say ekber as opposed to the Arabic akbar. Bugs me a bit, actually.)

1) The Shi'a have a verse recognizing Ali as a Viceregent. (Better send you to the link where I got that info, because I know somebody is going to squawk about it.)

2) With his ban of the Ottoman Arabic alphabet, Ataturk implemented a Turkish version of the ezan for eighteen years. Clerics rejected it, but had no recourse until Adnan Menderes declared Arabic the liturgical language in 1950 and repealed the ban for an Arabic ezan.

Tanrı uludur
Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm
Tanrı'dan başka yoktur tapacak.
Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm;
Tanrı'nın elçisidir Muhammed.
Haydin namaza, haydin felaha,
Namaz uykudan hayırlıdır.

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhan




Now, on a completely different topic: The winner of THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern is Laura Pauling.

 Thanks for playing!

Mandabatmaz

image via evimistanbul.com

I read lots of stuff about Turkey. Lots. Of. Stuff. Sometimes I come across things I don't understand. Maybe someone out there does. I usually ask my husband.

Mandabatmaz? WTF is a manda and why doesn't it sink? Clearly there's an idiom in this word.

His response: Shrug. IDK.

Google translate: Buoyant Buffalo.

Picture: Buffalo in a coffee cup? Still not making any sense. Feel free to chime in now, if you have any ideas...

aysun-tinypiccomrakcw0y.blogspot.com

Whatever the word means, the Mandabatmaz coffee shop is the epitome of a "hole in the wall". So if you're in Istanbul, find Beyoglu, Istiklal Caddesi and look for an alleyway with unusual amounts of foot traffic, and follow the incredible coffee aroma.

Custom roasted coffee beans, a copper cezve, combined with a careful twist of the wrist and you have what is known to be the best Turkish coffee in the city. The shop is featured in all sorts of guides and it's a must-do. Coffee readings not included.


The first scene of Burnt Amber is in a place kind of like Mandabatmaz, but I took plenty of creative liberties with the decor. My coffee shop was purely my imagination. It's nice to see the vision isn't so far from reality.

Related Articles:

$100 Weekend in Istanbul Frugal Traveler, The New York Times
Mandabatmaz: Grounds for Celebration IstanbulEats.com

Büyükada Orphanage

image via hayalleme.com

This past summer, I was swarmed by shiny new ideas, distracting me like fireflies. I suppose that's a good thing. I've got a couple of really decent ones that I'm planning to sit down and write a synopsis for in the not too distant future. Here's one location that's hovering around in my head, because setting is always my initial inspiration: Büyükada Orphanage, perched on the second highest point of the island.

Known to locals as the Red Palace, the orphanage was originally built by a French company as the Prinkipo Palas hotel. The luxury property was well equipped with a theater, dining hall, library, chapel, and (the Achilles heel) a game room for a planned casino on par with Monte Carlo. The hotel never opened because gambling is forbidden under Islamic law.

How on earth did someone think they could build a casino in the clearly Islamic Ottoman empire? There was a golden age of European investment in Turkey around the fin de siècle, amazing hotels included, but there seems to have been a change in local leadership by the time the hotel was being completed. Everybody's plans ran amok.

From what I can translate:

The Greek Orthodox community gathered funds, facilitated with a large grant and initiative by a banker's widow, purchased and then gifted the building to the Phanar Greek Orthodox Patriarchate for use as an orphanage. By 1964, the dwindling Greek orthodox population had no need for a 206 room structure. (Claimed to be the largest wooden structure in Europe - I read 85,000 sq. ft/26,000 sq. m) The site has been closed ever since.

The Turkish government reinstated the deed to the Patriarchate last November. Hopefully, this means someone will pick up a paint brush and save this amazing piece of architecture. Wouldn't it be nice if it were a grand hotel once more?

Image: Realleo via Panoramio.com

This is what the view should resemble, though this was taken down the hill a bit.

Image: Mert 16 via Panoramio.com

Google maps has a brilliant bird's eye perspective on this, with all sorts of zoomable pics. Anyone know how to embed that kind of stuff?

Büyükada Orphanage in Istanbul to be Transferred to Greek Patriarchate - Hurriyet Daily News

Battle Techniques

Battle scenes are not something that come to me naturally, so I read. I watch. I learn.

Last week, a new trailer was released for Assassin's Creed Revelations. It reminded me to include something besides sword swinging in my writing: movement.

I do have movement, of course, but it's not as fluid as I'd like it to be. My biggest challenge is probably keeping everyone focused on the character I'm describing at each specific moment. Not confusing who did what, if you will. I find that includes at lot of naming names, which I don't love.

Does anyone have any tips for this problem?

Anyhoo, here is the awesome trailer. Lots of stuff going on in this one. Plenty of Ottoman? Istanbul. Or perhaps the last days of Constantinople? I'm not entirely sure.

What I do see is a perfect midway point between the tales of Al Tair and Ezio Auditore, the Bosporos Strait, circa 1453.

One of these days I'll have to make a post about Al Tair. Did you know Al Tair is also the brighest star in the Aquila constellation. Aquila being the eagle.

MiniaTurk

via wowTurkey.com

That's not Gulliver and this is not the land of the Lilliputians. Just thought I'd clear that up right now.

Ever try to fit a landmark in the crop marks of your camera lens? I can never capture the sense of place in a picture. Sometimes the words even escape me. (Imagine that!) Miniaturk is a pretty good way to get that difficult shot. It's Turkey in miniature - scale models of sights around the country, all in one convenient location. Bet Minaturk is pretty amazing during the Tulip Festival... and it's a great place to bring the kids, who just might be bored stiff from all the museums.

Here's a 360 tour.


 

Büyükada, Istanbul Clip

I've got house guests this week, so here's a clip of Istanbul while I'm entertaining.

Which Way The Wind Blows

via hurriyetdailynews.com

I've heard of the Sirocco and even used the Mistral in one of my chapters. It got me to thinking about the winds of Istanbul. There are two major ones. Lodos (Notus) comes up from the south. In the winter, it cancels the ferry schedule it's so rough. Poyraz (Boreas) comes down from the northeast. Both are named after Greek wind gods.

Care for another one of my adventure stories?

This time, I'm a naive young woman on Büyükada. DH and I borrow a Zodiac from a family friend and take it out fishing one day.

The owner says to us: Make sure you come back before the wind picks up in the afternoon.
DH: Absolutely!

So we head off on our merry way, enjoying our little outboard cruise around the island.

Me: checking out all the houses on the shore from a new perspective. Picnic lunch, etc. We anchor on the back side of the island in the forested park area. There's a pretty steep rock face on that side. (read: no safe place to hide) lalalalalala. No fish anywhere. It is the middle of the day. Well, we catch one rock fish. Ugly as sin.

Loose track of time and guess what....the wind changes. The sea just up and does the cha-cha underneath us, slapping me around in the boat like the fish I'm supposed to be catching.

Me: fear for my life. That rocky shore is getting awfully close. No houses in sight on this side of the island. It takes three times as long to get back. Almost run out of gas. Worst. Fishing. Trip. Ever.

That was not even Poyraz. Not even close.

Now in Mersin there are winds of a different sort. There you want the north/south dynamic. Winds from the south bring air through the house during the day. Winds from the mountains in the north bring cooler air down at night. If you're buying an apartment, direction is one of the the first things you check. If the house faces east/west? Too bad. How sad. Lowball offer.

On a hot summer evening, we joke about the heat: "Don't worry, in a little while the wind will come down from the mountains." We even have a special word for the sea when its waiting for a wind, reflecting the moon like a mirror - Yakamoz.

Which way does the wind blow for your hero?

Istanbul Winds Battle Over the City

The Wind Gods