After the trip to the islands I finally stop to constantly feel bemused by being in a big city, some paths have become familiar, and I am back to being used to hear Turkish all the time. But most importantly I moved to a cozy hostel on the other side of the Golden Horn, right below Galata Tower. It was recommended to me by a friend of a friend who lives here and cannot host me himself as his cousin is visiting. Rapunzel definitely is a great place to stay, too, nearly like a tower itself with only two rooms to each floor and a roof top terrace with a view of the Golden Horn and the most convenient location in Istanbul with both Sultanahmet and Taksim within (my) walking distance.
Galata seen from the Galata Bridge
Breakfast at Rapunzel (yes, Mom, I'm posting food pictures ;))
Beyond the plate...
...and behind the table
Galata Tower at night
But the most important part of it that really makes me connect to Istanbul are the people I meet here, though most of them are also just passing through, of course. As I seem to need longer hours of resting than in the beginning of the trip I enjoy to just spend unplanned hours of extended breakfast on the roof top terrace or at any time of night or day in the small common room next to the reception chatting with a German engineer, an American neuropsychiatrist, a European art historian and most importantly the Serbian receptionists who also enable me to reconnect to the Balkans and add some more pieces to the mosaic of my understanding of that part of Europe - and Europe in general - as well as both personal and professional perspectives on being a refugee, migration and shaping history by teaching history. As a German with an emphasis of migrant issues in health care and education, how cool is it to meet a Serbian studying the Turkish minority in Germany at an Istanbul university and being able to exchange and connect perspectives on this complex matter!?
The friend's friend and his cousin also offer to take me to a party and after some searching and some phone calls we end up in a most mixed international party where I meet Nesime. We are instantly in a good conversation and two days later she takes me along the Bosporus (we both like walking long distances and talking about life, the universe, and everything) and later invites me for dinner to her home to meet her delightful family.
While I still feel I really only saw a glimpse of Istanbul I know I have people to come back to in this huge city.
Bridge of bridges at dusk...
...and close up in the dark (it's never dark in Istanbul)
