Not Constantinople

Silly, I know, but it is difficult for me to come to Istanbul without humming that catchy refrain from They Might Be Giants. 

If you've played the board game Risk or "know much about history" you know how important, strategically, this part of the world is. The Bosphorous feeds the Black Sea, and all the countries that sea supplies, to the Sea of Marara, through the Dardonelles, and into the Agean then Mediterranean. So, controlling the Bospherous controls warm water seaport access to Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukrain, and Russia. It is also, historically, where Europe ends and Asia begins- Istanbul is the connecting point, and, in essence, that connecting point is one bridge. Istanbul has 14 million people, so, almost twice the size of NYC...with one main bridge, and really (besides boating) just three access points across the Bospherous. So, traffic is insane. 

It's also very odd... I've been to a few cities (NY, San Fransico, Honolulu, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, London, Paris, etc) and they all have such a cross section of people and cultures. Instanbul, however, is very much, from my perspective, a single culture. Many Turkish people and some tourists, but there doesn't seem to be such a cross section of humanity- no "we're all a global society" feel- like you have in those other cities I mentioned. 

Geographiclly, it reminds me San Francisco, with the relationship of mountains to water. 

I'm visiting Ray Cullom, who is the Execitive Director of the new Zorlu Center for the Performing Arts which is a massive project in a city that has very little performing arts. The center is over 500,000sq feet, has a 2500 seat concert theatre, a 750 seat smaller theatre, another performance space, and a state of the art recording studio. It's all a part of a development project that houses a shopping center, high priced condos, cinema, and a five star hotel. 

After Ray showed me his space, we went by Taksim Square, where the most recent protests happened...

Corrals for the arrested:

The city has an intense feel, that I'm sure has to do with the recent riots, border with Syria, and it's place in history. I also think, seeing what happened in Iran yesterday, that the city was on alert. We saw police armed with machine guns, packs of riot police, and riot vehicles...so that was fun....

The Gelata neighborhood is very European in feel, has an extensive shopping and nightlife section, and an historic tower built in the 1300's where legend claims that a manned glider flew over the Bospherous, over 6km, in the 1600's. 

And event filled day...that ended with back-to-back episodes of Breaking Bad (Ray's in season three...so, I'm still in the dark).