more recently

I switched the time of my computer from (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) time zone to (GMT+02:00) Athens, Bucharest, Istanbul. I realized that by doing so when I look at the time on my computer I don’t think about Usa and what state of day it is there and think of the people in their state of the day. Now when I look it just tells me what time it is, which helps.

Future of this blog. After careful considerations I decided to keep this blog up. The content will include everything that is in my life, photos, thoughts, text,. I love my small tight street and my neighborhood and have to keep a note of this.

The crazy lady Jale isn’t anywhere around anymore, apparently the cops took her away. Someone who was visiting said that there are similar people in their neighborhood and they all have stories and some of them weren’t even crazy up until some point in their life. Jale is one of them I think. Neighbor across the street, right across my apartment, comes around often and said Jale had a son and a daughter, both married. Anyhow. someone in the neighborhood told my neighbor that cops took Jale away. She was around for at least 1 month, sleeping outside in front of the adjacent building at night. The city somehow takes care of you no matter what.

possible future subjects and contents for this blog

• the rooftop movie parties I’m having and the movies and documentaries that we watched
• my future plans for my roof
• my future plans for my life
• amateur sociology ie.
  • me describing my thoughts on Turkish teenagers,
  • the generation gap between us, the 30 something teenagers and our parents,
  • the 4 major beliefs that grasp Turkish youth, the cultural beliefs, Ataturkism, the religious beliefs, the macho Mediterranean beliefs…
  • my thoughts on the absolute lack of morality in Turkish culture
  • the battle between the society and the self in Turkish culture
  • the religious people that live on my street,
  • the crazy lady that sleeps on my street and her relation to the rest of the public
  • the dog named Tony on my street,
  • the sexy italian milf on my street and my dirty fantasies (sarcasm),
• sexy photos… such as this one (sarcasm):
• my experiences of direct contact with the Mimisburg locals, such as  foosball in the lokal -kiraathane:
• comparison of life in nyc east williamsburg bushwick and life in mimisburg
• future plans of my friends
• more historical facts about Galata, Beyoglu, Pera, Haci Mimi, some of them as boring as the previous ones, supported with photos
• where to go and what to eat in Beyoglu (I can hear you say -boooo-)
• hints on my real identity (no matter how mundane it is) for example:

Foosball at the coffee house

We have been going Foosball playing with Tom for the last two evenings in the local coffee house of TomTom neighbourhood. Apparently he had a foosball i his office and mastered the game so he gained much respect from the guys over here too, some of whom are better than him nevertheless. I suck at the game.

I think this local coffee house is probably the best place to play foosball in the city. Master players, cheap games, cheap tea.

Coffee houses (Kahvehane) are common hangouts of Turkish men. Gather around, watch tv play card games, chat and talk and all. Mellow places.

It’s a tight neighbourhood Mimisburg.

The distance between my building and the building across the street is about 15 feet.. 5 meters or something.

So Tom sees the neighbours across the street on the balcony and starts chatting them up, but apparently the neighbour doesn’t speak english that well.

When I get home from work they are still there so we start talking. Tattoo artist. Listens to electronica. Tells me that I was listening to Matt John the other day and that he likes his stuff… I love Matt John. I told him that he was listening to Matthew Dear and that’s cool stuff too. So I guess it’s nice to have neighbours so up close.

A few weeks ago when I was on the balcony some guy across, who lives in the building next to the building of this tattoo artist cross–neighbour (karsi komsu) , and 1 level down, asked me to turn my balcony light off at nights because it shines through their window where their bed is and makes it harder for them to sleep at night.

Tom, an old friend is visiting.

Tom is from Detroit’s east side. He’d travelling the world and working mobile.

He made it to istanbul after travelling Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Greek Islands. He likes it so far. Among the main things he noticed about the city:

• stray dogs and cats


• dirty streets


• good and cheap food except in restaurants


• girls to marry (not sure if he is kidding or not)


• no weed

history of and around Galata

• Byzantium > Roman establishments > Genovese > Ottomans > Wooden houses > Fires > Stone Houses >


• Galata’s earliest name was Sykai (fig field)


• Galata seems to be independent from Constantinople even after the conquest of istanbul. It appears that it was treated as an independent colony and that during the conquest in 1453 it acted neutral and yet allowed the passing of ottoman armies.


• It was the party capital of istanbul since very old times and also the spot for -trustfund babies. It mostly housed non-muslims, as muslim life is generally sleep early “mundane, monotone and boring”. No offense.


• First known taverns in istanbul were in Galata around 17^th century


• Many fires swept old wooden houses, the biggest being in 1870 then came the Art Nouveau


• Dogan Residence on Serdar-i Ekrem (dogan apartmani, Nahit Bey Apartmanlari, Cité Yazici, Botton Han) is one of the biggest residences along with Halil-Hamit (Barnathan ) on Galip Dede


• Modern istanbul started in Pera by the Galata Rum’s (Greeks)


• Art Nouveau is the governing style for most buildings, it is rare in elsewhere in istanbul

http://www.obarsiv.com/english/galata_tales.html

http://www.obarsiv.com/guncel_nur_akin.html

http://www.obarsiv.com/guncel_murat_belge.html

http://www.obarsiv.com/guncel_ugur_tanyeli.html

first night out

I moved in and decided that it was a good idea to go out and party the first night before settling down in my new place. I texted all friends at once and ended up at a place called Kiki, which is closer to Cihangir than it is to my side of the hill. crowd, dj, sound, backyard, my wig. All there.

One thing I figured out about Turkish girls is that it is hard to pick one up, or socialize with one, in a club. The reason might be social issues, that girls usually go there with male friends who are usually protective, that Turkish bar crowd is usually a bit more of a salad bowl than a melting pot, or that I am not very experienced with picking girls up from bars anyways. I have to ask this to friends. That said, interestingly, I did leave Kiki with 2 ladies, in a state too drunk for a 30 year old responsible male… We went and had soup at that well known cafe where Cihangir people socialize.

The proper way to end a night out in istanbul, or New York is to have junk street food. In New York that is usually doner from bereket or sushi or whatever you can grab. Istanbul kicks new york’s ass in the matter, such that you have a much wider variety of street junk choices. Soups, wraps , rice stuffed mussles and all. I’m not sure about the cafe’s name, or the girls names. I did hit on one of them drunk-awfully which didnt work thank god (again, not that it ever did) . She said we had to be flirting a bit more prior for that to work.

So lesson learned: Flirt before the soup.

We also had this ayran and it made me laugh like a teen, because the things written it just doesn’t make sense:

“Live music, Bolu Kitchen, Plenty of oxygen, Natural bypass, Sunnet Lake (which means Circumcision Lake depending on how you want to perceive it) Vacation by the Lake. [Investigate]. Reservation:”

I have to analyze a bit more on Turkish women and their place in this society.

I walked home from Cihangir which wasn’t surprisingly not so far.

Saturday morning I woke up in heat. And pain. A/C is still not that widespread in Turkey so neither my home, nor my work has it. Mass transportation usually has some sort of A/C but it’s never enough.

Saturday I was in the worst pain in the existence of my body. I had a burger and had to give it back to the sidewalk. Under broad daylight. Never happened before, that was one major hangover. Though I do remember seeing some guy at the bar previous night; receiving the glass of water he ordered and that I thought that was a really good idea…

Sunday morning I couldn’t take it anymore and took the car and drove off back to my parents house who live by the belgrad forest and it’s usually 5 degrees colder there. Though the whole reason I moved to Mimisburg was that I couldn’t handle living there anymore. It’s nice to cool relationships with forgetfullness. You learn this at 30 but forget it later on I think.

Mimisburg Map

View Mimisburg - Haci Mimi - Beyoglu in a larger map

3 alphabets

Another day. Another view.

Taking the tram to work again.

I was out last night briefly. Ill tell more about it later.

Enchanted concrete rubbish

first visit from a friend

Moody came over to visit today. He found my neighbourhood sort of rough. He lives in an affluent neighbourhood about 2 blocks away.

Morning view on the way to work.

All nice apart from the sun in your face effect. Taken from the "tramvay" .

History of and around Mimisburg (Haci Kulhani Mimi) - Casanova in istanbul

A history note: Giovanni Giacomo de Seingalt known as Casanova, had passed a certain time in İstanbul around 1750’s. He was the guest of Earl of Bonneval, Comte de Bonneval,  known to us as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa, whose house was at Kumbaracı Yokuşu in Beyoğlu. The street takes the name from its famous resident. There are interesting observations of this stay in the Memoirs of Casanova.

"...The wind continued in our favor, and we reached the Dardanelles in eight or ten days; the Turkish barges met us there to carry us to Constantinople.

The sight offered by that city at the distance of a league is truly wonderful; and I believe that a more magnificent panorama cannot be found in any part of the world. It was that splendid view which was the cause of the fall of the Roman, and of the rise of the Greek empire.

Constantine the Great, arriving at Byzantium by sea, was so much struck with the wonderful beauty of its position, that he exclaimed, "Here is the proper seat of the empire of the whole world!" and in order to secure the fulfillment of his prediction, he left Rome for Byzantium. If he had known the prophecy of Horace, or rather if he had believed in it, he would not have been guilty of such folly. The poet had said that the, downfall of the Roman empire would begin only when one of the successors of Augustus bethought him removing the capital of the empire to where it had originated…"

http://www.archive.org/stream/memoirsofcasanov02953gut/old/jcmcr11.txt

First post.

First post from the hood.