Istanbul – Week One

First Day and first view of Istanbul – from Galata tower

Us up on Galata Tower

Little nap after we go to our flat.

Balcony View 1

Balcony View 2

Balcony View 3

First Turkish beer…. not bad.

My set up. Painting the view from our balcony – First painting!

Kenny’s setup. I’m painting to the left.

Near Taksim Square – not quite as good as gyros

In awe …you can see Aya Sofya in my sunglasses, Blue Mosque in backgrd.

Blue Mosque – took our shoes off and I had to wear a head scarf.

Blue Mosque – I can’t describe how I felt walking into this mosque. It was powerful.

Self-port with Dreads – reason I hadn’t taken them out yet :-)

Double portrait… Kenny painting me, painting myself!

First home cooked meal!

Istanbul at night

Setting moon from our balcony

We’re coming up on the middle of our second week in Istanbul.  I had better get writing before the weeks blur and I forget what we did when!

London was wonderful but at the end of the week I think we were both ready to start the next leg of our adventure and having seen so much amazing art there, Kenny and I were ready to have brush in hand!

We arrived here Friday, 18 September.  We’re not residing in Sultanahmet or any of the neighborhoods that tourist usually stay.  Instead we chose to live in Cihangir neighborhood, which is across the Golden Horn from most of the main attractions.  This is the European area and the place that many ex-pats live.  It’s definitely more swanky, but not in an overly cleaned up way, more like how Venice CA is swanky – fashionable but with an edge.

Our first night was spent at a hotel.  Saturday afternoon we moved into our flat – both a bit anxious to see it.  We were counting on a view worthy of painting.  We were not disappointed!  From our balcony we look out the right over the Golden Horn at Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, and many, many other mosques.   Directly before us we see the Bosphorous and to the left the Asian side of Turkey.  We hear prayers broadcast 5 times a day.  The air is different here, warm and wet like Hawai’i but full of particles (dare I say pollution?) that make the most incredible sunsets….red, purple, yellow, grey, blue…..all at the same time.

We took Sunday off to unpack and rest.  London demanded such a hectic pace we were happy to just sit, look and be.  Monday we found our grocery store, our corner produce stand (I LOVE IT -open till midnight) and began painting, .  We’ve been painting every day since!

Gule gule!  Love, Ju

(good-bye)

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