Rahmi M. Koç Museum

The estuary that is the Golden Horn is often overlooked when touring Istanbul, though these days it has increasingly more to offer. If you choose to visit the Eyüp mosque complex and Pierre Lotti cafe at the top of the waterway by boat, on your way up the Golden Horn about halfway on the right (or more correctly on the eastern shore) you will pass a submarine at water level with a red London bus dominating the shoreline. This is Istanbul's only museum of transport, the Rahmi M. Koç Museum, stuffed full of Koç's personal collection housed in an old Ottoman navy anchor foundry and also occupying the site of an historic dockyard. With every possible type of transport mode covered there are also reconstructions of craftsmens' workshops and nostalgic apothecary and toy shops. Highlights for me include the steam engine (constructed in West Hartlepool) salvaged from a long-since scrapped ship, which on the press of a button slowly pumps into action again. It was interesting to see two examples of the Turkish Anadol model of car from the 1970s on display as well as a large array of phaetons and a first-world-war British Albion x-ray ambulance which ministered to injured troops on site. The Sultan's sumptuous 19th-century train carriage takes pride of place in the section on trains and trams, where there is even the workings of a funicular railway (visible in the foreground of the photo above). These few examples give an idea of the impressive array of exhibits. Extras include a tour of a second-world-war American submarine, a short tour of the Golden Horn on a steam tugboat and a ride on a diesel locomotive. The museum is good value at 10TL (about £4) and the extras are 5TL (£2) a time; you can easily send half a day there given the range of items to tour.
What it is: Rahmi M. Koç Museum, a great collection of small and large modes of transport, extras include a display showing how olives are pressed mechanically to make olive oil
Where it is: Hasköy Caddesi, no.5. I jumped on a dolmus from Sishane, the journey taking just 10 minutes or so. There are also buses from Eminonu (47) and Taksim (54HT). The boat which runs from Üsküdar to Eyüp stops at Hasköy. As always in Turkey it's best to check with the driver in case routes have changed, they're always happy to assist!

An Ongoing Affair

Today was a red letter day for me as I dropped into Citlembik's offices and picked up a copy of Professor Heath W. Lowry's just published An Ongoing Affair. It's a candidly written set of memoires of his time spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote mountain village in western Turkey in the mid 1960s. The friendships he made there changed his life. He had virtually not heard of Turkey before he embarked on the trip and now he is Ataturk Professor of Ottoman and Turkish Studies at Princeton University in the USA. 

I edited the book for Citlembik and it was a joy to do so; presented as a set of vignettes there are some really touching and also downright shocking events, Lowry pulls no punches. From the accidental poisoning of the beautiful Emine, who Lowry has to minister to as she lies prostrate with white froth foaming from her mouth, to the blood feud which ends shockingly in the murder of innocent children and the mistaken torching of a villager's house, this book is a gripping read from the start. There are some lighter moments too that Lowry conveys with wit and humour such as in the chapter 'Who's that playing with my butt' – you will need to read it to find out! 

His love for the villagers and respect for their culture and how he is accepted by one and all as yet another villager runs as a theme throughout. The village head Kamil, who becomes a lifelong friend, reminds him before his return to the USA: 'Hit [sic], don't forget, you are now one of us. There are things that you have seen and heard here in Bereketli that no one else need know about.'

For me it was a gripping read, here's an extract that we chose for the cover:

As we approached the house I saw a dim light through the windows and began to hear keening wails and piercing screams echoing into the darkness. Upon entering the door the din increased and I suddenly found myself in the midst of close to fifty women, who, without tempering their high-pitched wailing, parted and I moved forward into the middle of a small room. Before me on the floor was a beautiful young girl lying rigidly with white froth bubbling from her mouth. By this time my initial vocabulary of two hundred words had grown two-fold, but instinctively I knew that it wasn’t going to be adequate to deal with what I was facing.

What it is: Heath W. Lowry's An Ongoing Affair – Turkey & I (ISBN 978-9944-424-53-0)

Where it is: Pop into Citlembik's offices in the Tunel area of Beyoglu (Sehbender Sokak 18/4, Asmalimescit) where they offer a whopping 30% discount on their books. An Ongoing Affair has a cover price of 12ytl. (Citlembik's books are also available in all good bookstores in Turkey such as DNR.) For those in the UK I am distributing Citlembik's books, do send me an email.

A chance encounter in a Beyoglu backstreet

Gypsy musicians regale a wedding party on a Beyoglu backstreet. 

Last night when returning from photographing at the Grand Bazaar (Kapalicarsi) I came across these guys... One is playing the davul (bass drum) and the other the reedy and wailing zurna as is the tradition in Anatolia. These instruments are also combined like this by the mehter, the Ottoman military band, which you're equally likely to come across though in the city's public squares mostly.

What it is: Outdoor wedding celebration where the guests are regaled by two musicians and have the chance for a little dance before the bride emerges from the house and is whisked away for the actual ceremony. 

Where it is: Anywhere and everywhere! I found my musicians just round the corner from where I live, an area of Beyoglu between Tunel and Tophane. You're most likely to stumble across such a do in the summer and in the more down at heel parts of the city.

School outing

Turkish schoolchildren have an outing to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Sultanahmet. This museum has an incredible array of very old (15th century onwards) and astonishingly large carpets, not just Turkish but Persian too. Once the palace of Rustem Pasha, Suleiman the Magnificent's Grand Vizier, it has nice views onto the Hippodrome and Blue Mosque too.

Ramadan festivities by the Blue Mosque

We're halfway through the month of Ramadan here in Istanbul and today, being a Sunday, I saw a daytime parade pass my apartment of the guy who stirs the neighbourhood at around two every morning banging his davul (large drum), to a hypnotic and unmistakeably Middle Eastern beat, along with his young cohorts who sing in between the pauses of the drumbeats. It all sounds very spooky at that time of the still black night. A bit in the manner of Little House on the Prairie, but in reverse, lights in the neighbourhood spring on one by one as people turn themselves out of bed for their pre-dawn breakfast, or yatsi. Today our local davulcu (drummer) has also shown himself during the daylight hours to collect the tips that the appreciative early-risers lower from their windows by means of a basket or bucket on a long rope. Already their daytime fasting is well under way and they will have to wait until sunset, around 7.30pm at the moment, for their next and last meal of the day, known as iftar. 

What it is: After iftar all hell breaks loose, metaphorically speaking of course, and it's time to have fun after the strictures of the day. Especially at the weekend many Turks like to walk off their multi-course evening meal by going on a gezme (promenade). One venue to head for during the holy month of Ramadan (or Ramazan as it's known here in Turkey) is the Hippodrome right by the Blue Mosque. A bit of a non-event during the day, the green space is completely transformed after dark, as if a magic wand has been cast over it with the wish to give all who stray there as much food, drink and entertainment as their hearts desire. A friend of mine says it resembles the set of a Franco Zeffirrelli opera; crowds and crowds of people enjoying the spectacle of the men on stilts, clowns, booths where you can have your photo taken as an Ottoman Sultan and even the rabbits whom, once you've handed over your 1YTL (one new Turkish lira), will pick out a folded paper containing a prophetic message. Street food is prepared with an artistic flourish that the Turks excel best at. Ottoman-style candy in rainbow colours is twisted and twirled in its hot syrupy form onto a stick by a man with an unfeasibly large moustache and a wicked grin, while gözleme (Turkish pancakes) with either a spinach or cheese filling are warmed over a charcoal-grilled hotplate at one of the many stalls that line both sides of the Hippodrome. 

The Blue Mosque itself is lit up with specially chosen words from the holy Qu'ran and the courtyard around the ablutions fountain hosts stalls of mostly religious or historical books. Outside the immediate vicinity of the mosque there are further stalls that sell all sorts, such as the islamic imagery seen in the photo above.

One cautionary note to foreign visitors who happen to be in Turkey during Ramazan; as a mark of respect to those observing the fasting don't flaunt food in the streets during the day and when eating out do remember that the waiters serving you have probably not themselves eaten since the early hours of that morning!

Where it is: The Hippodrome is the long narrow strip of 'parkland' to the side of the Blue Mosque with the Fountain of Kaiser Wilhelm at its start as you enter it with the tram line behind you. The nearest tram stop is Sultanahmet and it is within walking distance of Eminönü and the Grand Bazaar.