Musings from the Mediterranean: Istanbul: Day 4

A significant number of the street sellers here ask where you’re from. They’re usually reasonably accurate with their guesses (except with Emilio, whom they always identify as Turkish). Just another way of engaging a prospective buyer, I suppose.

Sabanci Museum

The museum is housed in what used to be a private villa. The garden, architecture, and view of the villa are stupendous.
Once again, everything is ulta-premium about this experience. Visitors are greeted by a massive introduction video which subtly organizes the 8,000-year history of Istanbul into distinct eras and ages
The port geography of Istanbul has made it a natural hub of civilizations for thousands of years.
The video is echoed by the exhibit, which takes visitors through time, from the Neolithic to the modern.
BCE dates reported as negative numbers. This convention makes a lot of sense.
The exhibit featured a virtual projection dome which displayed a loop of different domes around the country. The dome is illuminated by six separate projectors, all of which are controlled independently, and combined to make a seamless hemispherical image.

Lifesize polyurethane horses and figures of Constantine at the museum were large and imposing. The variation of scale in the art shown was great.

I particularly enjoyed looking at tools from the daily life of Istanbul’s inhabitants. Things like a pair of scissors or a spoon offered glimpses into such daily activities as eating or sewing.
Learning about the citizen life is sometimes desirable against all of the art and stories made for and about the wealthy.

OrgA Restaurant (Lunch)

I had a vegetarian (falafel?) kebap for lunch today. Once again, the flavors were bold and colorful. Along with a bit of bread, I had a nice lunch of it.
We shared a very sweet dessert of what seemed like bread drenched in honey, topped with ice cream.
It rained after lunch, for about half an hour to an hour. I didn’t have a jacket or anything, but it was kind of nice to see the clouds changing and the drops falling. Our guide tells us that this summer in particular has been rather wet, perhaps as a result of climate change.

Modern Istanbul

We traveled over to the Asian side of Istanbul via bus for a tour of the city’s urban and rural areas, and the interfaces between them. Our guide was a former UW sociology student who did his dissertation on the urbanization of Istanbul.
Many illegal shantytown settlements are constructed in the span of a day or two, before regulatory forces can be established.
There are constant illegal immigration issues, and many affected persons are simply waiting for legislative shifts toward acceptance or amnesty.

Pushes for the construction of the second bridge across the Bosphorous came with a hope for reduced traffic. All that happened was more people came and traffic expanded to clog both bridges.

Current movements for a third bridge are now being met with skepticism. A third bridge may encourage the continued explosion of Istanbul’s population. The questions of sustainability and growth which face Istanbul are the same as those facing any burgeoning community.
Makes you wonder how sustainable a second 520 bridge in Seattle is going to be.

Government officials in Istanbul have significant power to buy out landowners of their properties, for reuse in development projects.

Many low-income persons and families (legal and illegal) are displaced on a regular basis.
Environmental groups in Istanbul are generally rather small, and of little political significance.

Ortakoy and Ciniralti Restaurant (Dinner)

One last meal to finish the program off. We had an excellent water view from the outdoor second-level deck of the restaurant.
Appetizers

I won’t bore you with the details, but once again, the meal was quite nice. The stuffed pepper was my highlight for the night.

Musings from the Mediterranean