Around Town

Sunset at the "Iskele" (Ferryboat port) -- behind the building, you can see what we call "The Big Apple" (it's actually a giant apple-green hot air balloon that people ride in order to look out over the Bosphorus Strait, which separates Istanbul into the European and Asian sides).
One of our favorite parts of the mall nearest to our house is that they almost always have live musicians who play classic and fun music... it's relaxing, and the kids love watching them play.

The boys liked this creative swordfish display (it has a red pepper on it's nose) at the fish market last week. Note the "evil eye" hanging just above all the fish, up at the top.

Here's a picture of a mosque we passed on a walk home last week (sorry it's a fuzzy picture, it's the best I could do). The lights of this one in particular are so brilliant against the night sky. Some young men walking past us laughed at us for taking a picture, but this definitely isn't something you see in America everyday.

I've been wanting to get a good picture of this for a while, and this one really isn't what I was hoping for, but I snapped it when I had a chance. It at least gives you an idea of how they do billboard advertising here. One billboard isn't enough-- they usually have anywhere from 4-10 of the same exact sign all in a row, and then the next advertisement will start after that (also having multiple signs in a row).

At first it seemed unnecessary to me, but I've realized that it may actually be a good tactic. How many times have you (in America) passed a billboard and not gotten a chance to read what it was about? By the time you notice it, you've almost passed it. But here, you notice it, and you still get several more chances to jot down the phone number, or the location of the event, or the info about the sale or whatever. It's an interesting and probably effective marketing technique.