I live in Beykoz, a smallish seaside neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul. (My house is the second white one from the left.) I have been told that it is the one of the most conservative parts of Istanbul. Turks have also told me that it is their favorite part of the city. The town has a lot of fishing boats and the town is concentrated on the Bosphorus Strait. When I first moved here, I thought of the Bosphorus as a river. Obviously this was my New York City background coming through. I mean, you can see the other side of the thing, so how can it be the sea? One side of the Bosphorus is Asia and other side is Europe. However,one good look at the color of the Bosphorus and you just know it is the sea. It has that sea green color, and that seawater clarity. It also has its fair share of jellyfish and obviously has a lot of other fish as well, as evidenced by all the successful fishermen lined up on its shores.
So I live in an apartment in a yali. A yali is a traditional shorefront Ottoman-era wooden house. Not many yalis remain as most were either burned or knocked down to build apartments. As with many things Ottoman, they were considered old-fashioned and passé. (Recently I heard a Turkish friend refer disparagingly to a ring as "so Ottoman." Funny.) Our yali is in a row of yalis, none particularly grand but all quite attractive. We have the top two floors, meaning the upstairs bedrooms, accompanying bathrooms and laundry area are under the eaves. Here is a link to the history of yalis may be of interest to you historic preservationist types (you know who you are). I pass the white yali on the cover page every day on the ferry ride to school - it is quite stunning:
http://www.anatolia.com/anatolia/2000/11/yali/default.asp
So, how did I get so lucky as to live in a yali? Well, that was thanks to an incredibly helpful, intelligent and well-connected woman who I met through the US Foreign Service boards on Yahoo. She had lived here in Istanbul for 4 years and had worked as an English teacher. She has since moved to DC to start her new career in the State Department. I, for one, am glad she is going to be out there helping Americans around the world. Anyway, she had a number of private clients including Cihan, a successful businessman who is super busy. He mentioned to her that he wanted to have a native English speaker live in his home so that he could practice his English in those few moments when he was home. As I was looking for a place to live, well, it was a perfect fit. He owns a large logistics business called Adahan (means Island and Sovereign or Khan - nearly all Turkish proper names actually mean something). He has a really nice college-aged daughter named Burcuhan who also lives here, when she is not at her mother's house. She is a law student.
My "job" is really easy as Cihan is never home. I mean never. He averages about two hours awake a week, honestly. I speak to him for maybe one of these hours, in slow careful English. I think the guy works really hard. He keeps saying that things will be slowing down at his business but I wonder. So mostly I am in this beautiful place alone. Sometimes I feel like Maria von Trapp or that Anna Siam woman, except that I have no children to manage and there is no attraction between Cihan and myself. I just get to live in the nice place, mostly on my own.
When I first asked around, I was told that Beykoz was really far away and would be very inconvenient. Yes, it is within the Istanbul city limits, but... However, I have found it to be both far away and not at all. Ah the complicated dual nature of Istanbul and perhaps Turkey in general rears its head yet again. On week days I can get to school in what is most likely considered the "downtown area" (Taksim) in 45 minutes, door to door. I live right next to the ferry pier, so if I see the ferryboat approaching the pier from my window, I can hightail it and make it on the boat in time. I then push onto the boat with the rush of the Istanbul pushers (more on this later), take my seat in my airplane type chair and be there in 30 minutes. A quick ride up the hill in the Funikular (think pully with a three or four subway cars attached) and I am at school. Now, coming home can take over one and one-half hours, but that seems to be true for most parts of Istanbul. I know I will write a post about the ridiculous traffic situation of this huge, a city of over 15 million that had several SINGLE LANE central roads, but will wait until I am suitably irate.
Cihan's apartment is lovely, very comfortable and bright. There are a number of windows that open right onto the sea. His apartment definitely reminds me of an apartment of a single man. Very functional, big plasma TV with digital satellite, stereo sound (Dad, you would love it!), comfortable couches, but few decorations. The downstairs apartment is occupied by a family, and their place is much more decorated. I don't know how long Cihan has been divorced but I think it has been awhile. So, yes, the apartment is fairly modern and is heated by radiant heating. We have many modern appliances, like a dishwasher and a washing machine - no dryer though as they are just not common here. Most of the furnishings are sort of upscale IKEA, except for a couple of carved wooden chairs that are next to the seaside window. One of my favorite pasttimes is to sit in the chair nearest to the window, just daydreaming. Oh, and studying. Of course I am studying. :) There is something so peaceful about watching the pretty wooden boats ferry people over to the European side. Also, I love to watch the gulls and the black birds that seem to be ducks. I mean they act like ducks... diving under the water when harrassed by a gull...but do ducks live in salt water? I am not sure. I think I might just need to watch them a little more.
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