While You Sleep
Beginning the hike, my favorite stairs.
Today was awesome, I hiked to a part of town I had been meaning to visit, the rich neighborhood. I've been driven through, or road busses, or walked along some of the main streets, but I hadn't yet hiked it's hills and explored its paths, or taken any photos. There was one juxtaposition shot I had been meaning to take for some time. It's not in the richer neighborhood, but at the base of one of the high rises around where I live, but north towards... Levent and Ortaköy, but still in Mecidiyeköy. (I'm really in Şişli I think, well, at the fringe between the two where mail delivery is unreliable) Here is the building from distance.
It was really a perfect summer day. And there was a nice cool breeze that made walking everywhere really great. But back to this building. This requires a bit of explanation, there are two photos, the first is my back to the high rise and I'm looking across the street. People live here, and there is a market.
And this is the face of it.
The fellows were just hanging out next to this monstrous building, what it's there for, what justifies its bigness and their smallness, maybe someone is asking these questions. You see a junk cart pulled up on the side walk in the picture of the houses, fresh finds on it.
Another bit of social consciousness before we get to the pretty pictures, bear with me. I wasn't the only people out an about this Sunday afternoon, most people work on Sunday, it's not a particularly special day, after all, Friday is the day especially reserved for prayer here. As I walked I noticed ahead a family, mother pushing a stroller and two children walking on their own with her, one with a burlap bag over her shoulder. They were generally ignored, police didn't glance at them twice, pedestrians just stepped around them. And they seemed to ignore everyone else for the most part too. They were working and all.
I quickened my pace to stay with them, curious what they were after, they crossed the street to the hotel and went right to the dumpsters. Something I've seen plenty of times before, our school dumpsters are like gold, rich with recyclable plastic water-bottles. Parent lifts child into dumpster, child begins tearing open bags and throwing out anything of value. But this was noticeably different in one way, behind this hotel they went to the dumpsters, but there were biohazard placards up on the walls. Security gave them a glance, but nothing else.
(I couldn't get close enough without being really conspicuous about taking pictures of people I'm supposed to be ignoring so I popped up there this morning to get a closer picture of the dumpsters. They probably don't contain what's kept behind the orange door, but children are doing the sorting here.)
And now the rich neighborhood, only the finest vistas for your viewing pleasure! I hiked the steep paths between the houses and found the walls to climb for the best views, all for you, dear viewer. I wouldn't mind to one day live here, it's a beautiful part of Istanbul.
And these are from my return trip.
The mosque is the one silhouetted by the morning sun in my title graphic. Ya know, in case it looks familiar. And now, something a bit special. This picture is super huge, larger than my normally annoyingly large images. Much larger, 'Where's Waldo' larger, in fact I had to host it on OurMedia.org. Take care when viewing this one, you're best bet it to download it and look at it in a separate viewing application. Here we go. It's a panorama shot of my neighborhood! I live off to the right at the bottom of the big hill. Majestic and marvelous, Fulya Avenue, seen from the roof of Champion Supermarket.
Today was awesome, I hiked to a part of town I had been meaning to visit, the rich neighborhood. I've been driven through, or road busses, or walked along some of the main streets, but I hadn't yet hiked it's hills and explored its paths, or taken any photos. There was one juxtaposition shot I had been meaning to take for some time. It's not in the richer neighborhood, but at the base of one of the high rises around where I live, but north towards... Levent and Ortaköy, but still in Mecidiyeköy. (I'm really in Şişli I think, well, at the fringe between the two where mail delivery is unreliable) Here is the building from distance.
It was really a perfect summer day. And there was a nice cool breeze that made walking everywhere really great. But back to this building. This requires a bit of explanation, there are two photos, the first is my back to the high rise and I'm looking across the street. People live here, and there is a market.
And this is the face of it.
The fellows were just hanging out next to this monstrous building, what it's there for, what justifies its bigness and their smallness, maybe someone is asking these questions. You see a junk cart pulled up on the side walk in the picture of the houses, fresh finds on it.
Another bit of social consciousness before we get to the pretty pictures, bear with me. I wasn't the only people out an about this Sunday afternoon, most people work on Sunday, it's not a particularly special day, after all, Friday is the day especially reserved for prayer here. As I walked I noticed ahead a family, mother pushing a stroller and two children walking on their own with her, one with a burlap bag over her shoulder. They were generally ignored, police didn't glance at them twice, pedestrians just stepped around them. And they seemed to ignore everyone else for the most part too. They were working and all.
I quickened my pace to stay with them, curious what they were after, they crossed the street to the hotel and went right to the dumpsters. Something I've seen plenty of times before, our school dumpsters are like gold, rich with recyclable plastic water-bottles. Parent lifts child into dumpster, child begins tearing open bags and throwing out anything of value. But this was noticeably different in one way, behind this hotel they went to the dumpsters, but there were biohazard placards up on the walls. Security gave them a glance, but nothing else.
(I couldn't get close enough without being really conspicuous about taking pictures of people I'm supposed to be ignoring so I popped up there this morning to get a closer picture of the dumpsters. They probably don't contain what's kept behind the orange door, but children are doing the sorting here.)
And now the rich neighborhood, only the finest vistas for your viewing pleasure! I hiked the steep paths between the houses and found the walls to climb for the best views, all for you, dear viewer. I wouldn't mind to one day live here, it's a beautiful part of Istanbul.
And these are from my return trip.
The mosque is the one silhouetted by the morning sun in my title graphic. Ya know, in case it looks familiar. And now, something a bit special. This picture is super huge, larger than my normally annoyingly large images. Much larger, 'Where's Waldo' larger, in fact I had to host it on OurMedia.org. Take care when viewing this one, you're best bet it to download it and look at it in a separate viewing application. Here we go. It's a panorama shot of my neighborhood! I live off to the right at the bottom of the big hill. Majestic and marvelous, Fulya Avenue, seen from the roof of Champion Supermarket.
posted by Alex Gray at 18:19
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