ESL Blogs

Dear EC friends,

Better late than never !!! I wrote this post more than 3 weeks ago and i forgot to post it. So here it is. I hope you will enjoy this little Turkish tour.

Today, everything is quite here, it's the third day of Bayram holiday and most people are with their family, relatives or friends. So i was thinking about something interesting i could do on my own and, all of a sudden, an idea came to my mind. Why wouldn't i go to the the open air « mini city » museum to make pictures of some of the most famous places of Turkey and to share them here with you. I thought it would be a fun way for me to spend my afternoon and, at the same time, a good way to show you more about this country i love so much. Sometimes, pictures talk more than words and, who know, maybe with this post, i will give you the urge to come to this side of the world for a few days. But watch out, this country is mesmerizing and, as me, you might become addicted to it.

Ready ? Let's go...

Our first stop will lead us to Istanbul the biggest city of the country ( more than 13 000 000 inhabitants) the city of my heart, the city that leaves no one indifferent, the only city in the world, built on two continents, Europe and Asia.

Every turn of the streets is an encounter with history, the history of our culture, one that starts with Hittites, the Greeks, the Gallic tribes, the Roman or Byzantine not forgetting the Ottomans.

Despite the turmoil of history, the city is still very cosmopolitan, at the muezzin's call, answer the bells of the churches or the pedestrians' indifference.

 In the streets, I came across a Gypsy in enticing cleavage, women in black tchador,

high school girls in schools' uniforms, grandpas wearing the kippa (little hats worn by Jews men ), Catholic sisters and Orthodox priests wearing their congregation's outfits, transvestite with high heels, bureaucrats in suits and ties or Kurdish peasants coming straight from the mountains.

In Istanbul, a chador does not shock, no more, no less than a miniskirt, in front of me a brand new shiny 500 mercedes 'rubs elbows' with a carriage full of garlic cloves pulled by a skiny donkey while a sophisticated woman, perched on her high heels, has tea with her well covered conservative colleague

Everything is possible here, Istanbul is an entire world in itself !

Guess what !!! After spending one hour walking around and taking photos in the museum-park the battery of my camera runned out ! Can you believe this ? I can't !!!

So i had to end my photos coverage .... until my next visit .

There are hundreds of other amazing things to photograph in Istanbul, but remember that I took those photos, you see here, in an open-air museum, so only a few of the "must see" of the city are represented .

I hope you enjoyed the journey :))

Vocabulary :

To mesmerize : verb (UK usually mesmerise)

[T often passive] to have someone's attention completely so that they cannot think of anything else

[T] old-fashioned for hypnotize

The turmoil : noun : a state of confusion, uncertainty or disorder

Enticing : adjective : Something which is enticing attracts you to it by offering you advantages or pleasure

Peasants : noun : a person who owns or rents a small piece of land and grows crops, keeps animals, etc. on it, especially one who has a low income, very little education and a low social position. This is usually used of someone who lived in the past or of someone in a poor country

From : http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ 

I found some informations on the following links. If you wish to know more.

http://www.minicitypark.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/İstanbul_Sirkeci_Terminal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_(Empress)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites