Saturday 3 May 2008

a day of colors

The truth is that when you are on your way to a walking tour with Orhan Esen to the historic center of Istanbul you really don’t know where this is going to lead you…This basically happens for two reasons; first of all, Istanbul is an ideal representation of the layers of history, and according to Orhan, what you will discover – Ottoman, Byzantine, Roman, Greek – only depends to how deep you will dig. Secondly, Orhan is a human encyclopedia of the urban history of the city and has the answer to every question that will pop out of your head at any time!

This small introduction presents how this morning of the 3th of May found the BUDDies, on their way to the metro to meet Orhan. The first stop was the Topkapi station at Fatma Sultan which at a first glance looked like a park next to the Byzantine Walls. As Orhan informed us, we were standing on top of a huge underground junction that was nicely “covered” by that park. As we started walking parallel to the Walls, we noticed a concentration of people and movement behind the Wall and, as all the BUDDies being curious by nature, we approached to investigate…Climbing up the stairs, we discovered an informal market, unfortunately in the process of breaking-up by the municipality’s authorities. The market proved to be a lot bigger than we thought at the first place with maybe hundreds of people selling anything that someone can imagine, from used clothes and shoes to paintings and kettles. Although we were all kind of reluctant at the beginning, we didn’t know how the people felt about our presence there and us taking photos like a typical group of tourists, we were quickly relieved by the people really enjoying it, talking to us – unfortunately in Turkish that none of us understands -, even taking pictures of us!! And all the above under the imposing presence of the Wall that constituted the ideal background. But you should have been there, I cannot really describe it…

We continued our walk through the area of Neslisah, there where lies another story of people living every day with the fear of being evicted out of their houses for the sake of a great urban regeneration project. We actually heard from a young girl that they wanted them to move out in order for the municipality to make a new tram line and a zoo (!?!)

Our next stop was the area of Sulukule, there where things were so different from our first visit! It was a sunny Saturday morning, people were sitting outside their houses, drinking tea and chatting, or selling vegetables in their small shops, even in the street, the children played in the streets, there was a really friendly environment. Again we were happy to see that they all welcomed us, the children wanted to meet us and talk to us, write their names in our notebooks, say some english words, try to be friends with us. And out of the blue, with no apparent reason, Diego became the king of football and all the kids of the area wanted him to sign on their ball or even their hand! It felt really nice to be so warmly welcomed by the people of Sulukule and I can assure you that this is a relationship that is only starting now…

After a break for lunch, the character of our walk changed a bit as we visited the Chora church or what now is called the museum of Kariye. No words can describe the amazing beauty of the frescos and the mosaics of the church! I cannot speak as an art historian – maybe Steph could help us a bit with the technical knowledge at this point – so I will only declare my amazement in the view of these mosaics and my regards to Cassidy that insisted that we should enter the church…

It was getting late; we had walked for many hours so we entered the Ayvansaray neighbourhood in a rather quiet and flat mood. No one could imagine what was about to happen…In the beginning there were 3 children approaching, some women waving as we were walking through the neighbourhood. Then the 3 children became 7, then 12, and before we even realized we were surrounded by more than 20 children of the area, everyone trying to draw our attention, talking to us, posing for us to take pictures of them, playing games with us, forming a small, colorful “parade” in the center of a colorful neighbourhood full of, apparently “colorful people”.
As I close my eyes and think of today’s long walk, the scenes that mostly come to mind are those with people “engaging” the Wall in the most incredible and inventive ways, making it an indispensable part of their life, and, at the same time, the astonishing colors and shadows of the frescos and mosaics of the Kariye museum. The one thing that still comes to my ears is the endless laughing of the children in Sulukule and Ayvansaray…