Pictures from Istanbul

Below you (or in my previous posts) you can feast your eyes on some of the wonders of Istanbul: from The Blue Mosque to a haunted house, and from a cute penthouse to me feasting on Turkish meze.

There are actually many more photo where these came from, and if you wanna see some of those, then just click on one of the photos and you'll be linked onto my photo page on Flickr.com.

Tomorrow I'll upload photos from my stay in Beirut!

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

Next to St. Sofia is The Blue Mosque. It is a beauty and still very much in use. Not all tourist were showing respect for the muslim faith. All women (also tourists) should cover their hair with a scarf while in the mosque, but only few did.

St. Sofia Dome

St. Sofia Dome
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

From the floor of the Church/Mosque I took this photo that gives you an ideas of the amount of decoration and of the size of the place.

St. Sofia - Collumn

St. Sofia 12
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

The paintwork here is muslim style, and the photo is an example of how I enjoyed playing with my camera in the museum, where light was actually scarce.

St. Sofia - Christian Imagery

St. Sofia 08
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

Here's an example of how the christian imagery that was covered when the church was turned into a mosque. Now these images are being rediscovered.

St. Sofia 02

St. Sofia 02
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

Until 550 years ago St. Sofia was a Greek orthodocs church, but was then turned into a Mosque. The big round symbols on the photo symbolise Allah and Mohammad - so I am told. Now a museum it reveals both christian and muslim symbols.

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

I never got around to visiting this amazing palace. I tried though but only to find out that the place is closed on Tuesdays, so remember that ;)

Cute Penthouse

Cute Penthouse
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

Using my 6x Optical Zoom I was cheeky enough to take this picture. We were up in The Galata Tower, and I just couldn't resist. How cool is this little abode!

The Haunted House

The Haunted House
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

This house is according to Yasmin haunted by ghosts. It is in a lovely spot, looks interesting and has a great view, but apparently no one dares to live there.

Örtakoy

Örtakoy
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

As we went for a boattrip on the Bosphorus Strait I took this picture of Örtakoy. It was an appealing area with narrow streets and a wide array of restaurants and cafés.

Meze & Me

Meze & Me
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

During our trip to Örtakoy we stopped here for lunch. Turkish meze is delicious. I had meatbals, humous and ...more. Yummy!

Smoking Yasmin

Smoking Yasmin
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

This is Yasmin who was an amazing host, while I visited her in Istanbul. She's got her priorities mixed up! She prefers fags over Nagile (aka hubbly bubbly), which I smoked a couple of times there.

4 days later in Istanbul

Time flies. Istanbul is a very nice place. People are friendly, the weather beats what I am used to from Denmark and the food is exciting and delicious. We have been around to different places doing touristy things, but trips have also been made off the beaten track. I haven't felt the presence of other tourists a lot except from when whe have visited the very most touristy places. I think I will though tomorrow, where I am going to visit the Topkapi Palace, Saint Sofia and the Sultanamet, which I believe make up 'Top 3' of the most visited sites of Istanbul.

It is a facinating city in the sense that it is centered around the Bosphorus strait, which means that you get some great views over the city from above, with the sea in the background and from the sea and across the highly dense city-scapes. I'm no great photographer, but when I get a chance I'll upload a few pictures from my time here.

Yesterday I wish I'd been a better photographer, so I had been able to capture the ambience of the little backstreet where we had dinner. The ambience was unique, the food excellent and the street was buzzing with guests, salesmen, musicians and waiters hunting for more customers for their restaurent. It really has to be experienced, so I you can see this as a recommendation. Post a comment, if you'd like some advise/details on where to go!

Istanbul (Part 1)

This place is huge. The documentation I found on the web said that there are 10 million people living here in Istanbul. My cab driver, however, said that there are around 18 million people living in Istanbul. Along with 13 million cars that can make quite a mess, so imagine that traffic is crazy!

My travel here was effortless. The flights (Copenhagen-Vienna-Istanbul) were all on time, my bagage got through smoothly and the taxi-ride to the place where my friend Yasmin works was not to bad either. I made an effort to chat with the driver, and eventhough his english was limited we got around talking a little bit about stuff like football (Galata Saray), the city, it's people and his family.

The city appears relatively western to me, and has a clear similarity to other larger cities I've visited around The Mediteranean. I haven't explored the centre yet, but plan on exploring some of the essential sites soon. Yasmin is working on some days, so I'll go off on my own and explore the popular cites in Istanbul (Yasmin seems to be fed up with showing people round to all the city's 'Tourist Honey Pots' / Tourist sites).

Right now Yasmin is teaching, and I am posting this from the teachers' office. She'll be done at 22 and then we'll go for a late meal. 'Fish', she mentioned, so I am looking forward to that - and by the way, I've already had my first 'Shiz Kebab'. It was nice, but actually smaller that we get back in Denmark, but it might come bigger elsewhere.

I'll keep you up to date the best I can by posting my experiences here on the blog. Hopefully I'll also be able to upload some photos!

"I'm leaving on a jetplane..."

It is now 04:49 and I am leaving in 30 minutes. First stop is Istanbul and then Beirut. I am so looking forward to it. It is going to be a long haul though and I will not get to Yasmin's flat until late tonight.

If I can, I will keep you updated with pictures from my travel, but that will require that I find a suitable internet café to do so - fingers crossed!

What to post?

What to post?
Originally uploaded by Kim M.

Today I'll simply post this. They are so funny, I just love camels (Except the ones you smoke).

Updating content constantly is crucial to give you an incentive to return to my blog on a regular basis. Since this blog is still so young, and since I have two other blogs, I sometimes find it difficult come up with relevant content for all three blogs every day of the week.

Eventually, I believe that a solution will present itself. Each blog will bit by bit find its own voice and I will know exactly what kind of stuff to post on each of them. If I loose anyone until I reach that point, I hope to find you again some time in the future.

A brighter day to add to my story

Today offered both good news and bad news. Opportunities presented themselves and others ceased to exist, alas. All in all it has been a very good day though.

My travel plans to Istanbul and Beirut have been slightly altered, but I will make it there, eventually. I am so looking forward to seing Yasmin in Turkey and Chafic in Lebanon.

A day in the name of storytelling (& networking)

I have spent the entire day looking into a recent book about storytelling. You could say it is a competitor to one of my friendly marketing colleagues' book, so I thought I'd give his book a push forward by reviewing it and by referring to him in a review of the other book. I have also written a little guide to some storytelling litterature, which you can find in my AMOK IDEA blog, if that kinda stuff interests you.

Next objective of the day would be to edit the meta-tags of my blog, but I am not quite sure how to do that, so I might not make it tonight. I am knackered.

None the wiser

Today, I am none the wiser than yesterday - though I had hoped to be.

I know patience is a virtue, but at the moment it is a virtue of great scarcity.

What I guess I am really longing for is exercise. Physical? Definately, though I'm not particularly interested nor motivated. Mental exercise then? Yes, please! I need new challenges to keep those wee grey braincells in shape. They need to rumba regularly for me to be happy, and currently they are not even up to speed with the tempo of tai-chi.

Consequense: The stream of "amok ideas" is running dry...