Friday night in Istanbul

Every city has an iconic avenue, a vital artery through which the lifeblood of the city flows. Paris has its Champs Elysees, Barcelona its Las Ramblas, and Singapore its Orchard Road. What Istanbul has, is Istiklal Caddesi. 

That's precisely where Marlon and I found ourselves on our first evening in Istanbul. We were far too tired to do much more than take an evening stroll, after getting up at 3am to leave Cappadocia and traveling the entire morning. On our way there, dozens of Turkish flags hung up for the Victory Day national holiday waved us on. 

You know things are about to get interesting when you see public art like this, at the south end of Istiklal Caddesi just minutes from our apartment. 

We hit the first bend in the road with a slight downward slope. Looking down at Istiklal Caddesi from that gentle hill, two things immediately came to mind. "Madness!" was the first. What followed next, I had no words for at the time. But now I know what it was: it felt like home. And this shows you why.

Much has been said about how Istanbul is where East meets West, Europe meets Asia. Seeing this for the first time is where it really hit me, with a jolt. Yes, it looks like a European boulevard. Even the idea of an evening stroll is so European. And if you have any doubt that you are still in Europe, you only have to peer into the narrow, sloping side streets that branch off from Istiklal Caddesi.

But the energy, the rush and the madness is all Asia. And instead of wilting at the sight of this crowd, I felt alive. It was the spark of energy I needed after a long day of traveling... and a long time away from home.

I think it mostly has to do with the people. With a population of 13 million, Istanbul definitely feels much more like Manila (pop. 19 million) than Amsterdam (pop. 800,000), and that is especially obvious on Istiklal Caddesi. It seems that half of Istanbul was walking there that Friday night. Another thing about the people... well, they look like me! I can't count the number of times someone talked to me or Marlon in Turkish during our stay.

Istanbul feels like a city of contradictions. A loophole where 1 + 1 does not always add up to 2. A metropolis bubbling with a kind of craziness I realized that I miss. A place where you can go wild... 

... or go to church. Or both, because this store and the church are right across from each other!

Another thing that reminded me of home? Street food.

Just like Manila, kestane, or roasted chestnuts, appear in the streets when it's cold. I just had to have some!

Street food vendors are everywhere on Istiklal Caddesi. Some of them, like this guy, were popping open mussels on the sidewalks. At first I thought they were touts promoting seafood restaurants, so I walked away from the first few that I saw.

But then the acid-bright yellow of plump, glistening lemons caught my eye. And you know how I love anything lemony.



These yellow "flags" are how I discovered midye, mussels stuffed with rice and spices.

At €1 a pop, it was easy to just keep stuffing midye after midye into my mouth. The vendors know this, so they will just keep popping mussels open and handing them to you until you tell them you've had enough. But with my mouth filled with the taste of spices, sea, rice and lemon, it was far too preoccupied to bother with the word "stop!"