We’re now back from our week in Istanbul. The vacation originated by a friend who lives in Istanbul asking if we were interested in running in the annual Marathon and culminated in us taking a week around the race to explore the town. The week started cold, rainy, and windy but ended up sunny and beautiful.
Throughout the week we were impressed with Istanbul. It is city rich in tradition but at the same time modern in outlook. I believe that cities have a personality or ethos that reflect the views and values of its people Istanbul’s personality is compassionate, friendly, and open minded. A few examples include:
- When it rains people in cars slow down or go out of their way to avoid puddles so pedestrians don’t get wet.
- There is a tremendous number of homeless cats and dogs but they are all taken care of … well fed, healthy, and people in the crowd seem to be happy to play with them and appreciate them.
- The cabbies aren’t great at speaking English but are friendly and try to help. Unlike some Asian locations, you aren’t treated as some sort of weird outsider … there is never any sense of hostility toward “a westerner”.
- Muslim mosques are everywhere and religion is important to people here but so is partying and lifestyle. It’s a balanced view that seems much healthier than what you might imagine by just watching the television or reading press releases out of Ankur.
Here are a few pictures from our trip. For a complete set of pictures choose the link at the bottom to my SmugMug site.
The complete set of photographs – in full resolution – are available here:
