Mono Monday : Arnavutkoy, Istanbul

'Streetscape' is Paladian's Mono Monday challenge for today. Perfect excuse for me to go to Arnavutkoy (literally Albanian Village - here) after school. This picturesque village is adjacent to campus where I live and combines traditional Istanbul with a kind of artisan epicentre that has a long history of cultural tolerance. In other words, Art galleries, all-hours corner stores and fish restaurants! The guys in the pic are mostly taxi drivers, engaging in debate while they wait for clients. Behind me, not that it can be seen, is the Bosphorus which was very sparkly blue today and had many very large and very expensive moored boats all bouncing up and down. What a broth of humanity this area is - the whole gamut - I love it.

Thank you Paladian for this topic - it made me get off campus and look around at where I live.


For the record: wow, suddenly so very much warmer today - has summer arrived? Continual sunshine @ at least 23ºC . Probably more. It was a fine day teaching and then working on my dissertation in the library before going into Arnavutkoy for my blip.