Thursday, July 5, 2007

Leaving Istanbul

oooooo... Prayer call. Just amazing. Sitting on Ohran's porch, listening to prayer call a few moments ago, the way different callers chime in all over the city from various distances... mesmerizing. We happened to be standing between the blue mosque and the aya sofya mosque at prayer call and the two callers tossed the call back and forth over the public square and I seriously got chills up and down my spine. The tune is plaintive and plainly ancient. Also, the contrast crackles when they lay similar melodies over trance beats in the nightclubs on thewaterfront.

We watched a crowd of Turkish students sway to the Buena Vista Social club, loving it, and even saw one couple salsa dancing on a rooftop behind the open-air venue.

We've gotten on the wrong boats a few times and thus inadvertently toured the Bosphorus, we've showed up just a few minutes too late to see the Topkapi, and we've walked all over - and I mean all over - our part of Istanbul. The highlight so far, however, has to be jumping up and down dancing to "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants at a local bar ... the dj threw it on twice and the Turkish kids LOVE it. Our host, Ohran, is a party animal and kept us out till 5 AM or so. After dancing he dragged us to this rock club where he knows the owner and this lovely guy poured us at least four, maybe more (I can't remember), shots of "sex on the beach" drinks, talked to me very earnestly about "rainbow people" gatherings in the mountains of turkey, played "Love Me Two Times" by The Doors at least three times on the soundsystem, and then destroyed me in Streetfighter at dawn. What a night ... the nightlife in Istanbul is tops... now we catch the bus the Kappadokya, an all-nighter.

1 comment:

seriously said...

i always wonered about how the locals would feel about that song. Now I don't have to wonder anymore.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for answering this burning question for me.

We miss you.