Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Everyday Things

Here are some pictures taken around Istanbul, to give you the flavor of daily life here.

This first picture shows a classic outfit style worn by conservative women here-- black underclothing (fully length pants or skirt) with shoes, long overcoat, and headscarf:

Here's one of what must be hundreds of these little food shops found around Istanbul.
They sell simple sandwiches, drinks, and chips (and ice cream in the summer!).

A classic grandma type here in Istanbul
(in front of a Starbucks, which are also fairly plentiful here):
She's less conservative (see the pants? and the hair showing?).

Fishermen are plentiful here:

I may have mentioned this before, but cats are everywhere here. And I mean everywhere. To people who are new to the city, it takes some getting used to... but I can tell you-- I'd much rather have cats than rats. And though I've seen plenty of the former, I've never even seen one of the latter. :) So give me cats anyday!

And this last picture is of the gypsy class here... they often carry around these big trash bags (you really can't get the scale of it from this picture- it's very large when full) and dig through the smaller dumpsters in each neighborhood/alley to find recyclables. We sort our recyclables separately so they won't have to dig for ours. So virtually nothing goes to waste in this city that can in any way be reused or recycled!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I nearly laugh when I see how "Americanized" things around the world have become...even in places not too freindly towards our culture. I was looking closer at the photo of the Deniz Bufe (Dennis Buffet?) and saw the pictured sandwich named Hamburger also Cizburger as well as the blue sign offering Winston Super Slims.

Kultur Klashed,
Pat Gray

As He Leads is Joy said...

We were surprised at how many cats we saw in Istanbul. I do agree that cats are better than rats.

Jess Connell said...

Pat,
Good guess! :) Deniz means sea (Istanbul is right on the Sea of Marmara)... so it means sea buffet... but it could also be a name because Deniz is a common name for both men and women (the woman doctor that delivered Silas is named Deniz). Anyway. Yes on the bufe, no on the Deniz.