Anarchy graffiti + groovy guitar dude + the bohemian district in Istanbul = awesome photoWhile traveling, I have a tendency to get caught up in everything... the architecture, the design, the food, the difference in weather, terrain and foliage, and especially all of the little things. I take pictures of flowers, museums and art, furniture in store windows, restaurants I eat at, stores I shop at and almost every place I visit. Anything I find interesting, odd or beautiful, snap snap, I take a photo... or two, or even three and four! So I'm pretty excited and anxious to share so many of them with you, but let me tell you, organizing the overflow of photos on both my computers is a mind-numbing pain! It's frustrating to try and group them, I'm doing it [loosely] by common theme or event/location where it applies.
Part two of the Amsterdam Flower Market is coming soon, you can check out Part I of the Amsterdam Flower Market here. Today I am mixing it up with some images from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey in 2008. I went for business, plus a couple of extra days for pleasure. My aunt and I worked for a fabric company together at the time and were absolutely thrilled when we had to go to Istanbul with a few colleagues for an enormous fabric convention called Evteks. It was an awesome trip! Not only because Istanbul is AWESOME (come on, the city is on two continents!), but it's so rich with culture and beauty. My aunt and I have traveled throughout Europe extensively and we love to experience the food, the sights and the culture as much as possible! You really do learn a lot more about where you are visiting when you open yourself to seeing and experiencing as much of it [and its people] as possible. We were amazed at how the other people on our trip cared so little about experiencing the sights and culture of the city; or scared of trying the local food, such as the delicious meze, a tapas/appetizer type dish of the Eastern Mediterranean and Arab world featuring a variety of dips. Meze is everywhere around Istanbul, along with other juicy Turkish delights, pun intended, hehe. So yes, soaking up the food, culture, sights and talking to the locals is a must! Throughout time I will share with you a little from each of those categories through my memories and photography.
This post is a collection of my photography from Istanbul and the common trait is graffiti! In one way or another graffiti is present in each of the photos in this post. You might also like a post I did a while back which also features interesting graffiti called Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Becomes Star of the Graffiti World! Enjoy!
Part two of the Amsterdam Flower Market is coming soon, you can check out Part I of the Amsterdam Flower Market here. Today I am mixing it up with some images from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey in 2008. I went for business, plus a couple of extra days for pleasure. My aunt and I worked for a fabric company together at the time and were absolutely thrilled when we had to go to Istanbul with a few colleagues for an enormous fabric convention called Evteks. It was an awesome trip! Not only because Istanbul is AWESOME (come on, the city is on two continents!), but it's so rich with culture and beauty. My aunt and I have traveled throughout Europe extensively and we love to experience the food, the sights and the culture as much as possible! You really do learn a lot more about where you are visiting when you open yourself to seeing and experiencing as much of it [and its people] as possible. We were amazed at how the other people on our trip cared so little about experiencing the sights and culture of the city; or scared of trying the local food, such as the delicious meze, a tapas/appetizer type dish of the Eastern Mediterranean and Arab world featuring a variety of dips. Meze is everywhere around Istanbul, along with other juicy Turkish delights, pun intended, hehe. So yes, soaking up the food, culture, sights and talking to the locals is a must! Throughout time I will share with you a little from each of those categories through my memories and photography.
This post is a collection of my photography from Istanbul and the common trait is graffiti! In one way or another graffiti is present in each of the photos in this post. You might also like a post I did a while back which also features interesting graffiti called Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Becomes Star of the Graffiti World! Enjoy!
This is some famous singer/wrapper/musical artist in Turkey, or perhaps beyond in other parts of the Middle East, I'm not sure. I caught a glimpse of her on the tv in our hotel room one day and vaguely remember. I spotted this graffiti down a narrow street during one of our long walking adventures, lol....
I love this picture, especially that the graffiti looks sort of like a heart... :)
Wise moment? LOL... I don't quite remember, but I know we were on our way to get a Turkish Bath/massage!!!! I'll post on that some day, what an experience... you gotta get naked in front of a whole bunch of other ladies!! That's it, I was probably worrying about that....hehe....
Who cares about the graffiti, lovely gates....... they scream for love....
Lots of stencil graffiti here and there, this one is some weird alien type monster head or who knows what, it's blurry but there is better and more thought provoking one coming up....
A narrow street close to where we had our Turkish Bath, with a lot of interesting graffiti....
So interesting I had to awkwardly photograph myself in front of it, hehe....
Rubble.... love it....
As for the thought provoking stencil graffiti I spoke of a moment ago, this one says "colored" and has a screaming child with hair flowing behind them?? Hmm... is the fact that it's in black have anything to do with the vague term "colored," so as to insinuate race? Is someone out there seeing something I'm not and want to give their input?.....
And there I am again posing in front of a door that has layers of wild and colorful graffiti... I liked the interest it added to front of the building :)
(All photography in this blog post are my personal photos, please ask me permission first if you would like to use any of them on your site. Thank you!)
We were stationed in Ankara when I was 5/6 and visited Istanbul among other places. Loved the bread, I think it was called ecmec (spelled the way I think it sounds), they were large, round fat loaves. Everytime I'm near a city bus and smell the diesal exhaust, I have flashbacks of walking through downtown! Great memories...awesome food! I look forward to the rest of your pictures!
ReplyDeleteOn another note, if you want to swap succulent leaves/babies, let me know...I enjoy sharing! If you do, I'll send you my email address and get yours so we can swap addresses.
Have a great day!
Wow, that sounds like you had an amazing experience, especially at such a young age! I realyl did enjoy Istanbul, the people were friendly, there was beautiful architecture and sight seeing, the Grand Bazaar was AMAZING (I have post on that coming up!) and the food was certainly memorable. I can't wait to go back some day!
ReplyDeleteI would love to swap succulents, in fact I already proposed it to Julie and we are in the process of preparing some for each other. Shoot me an email at InspireBohemia@gmail.com and I will respond with my address. I love this idea!
Hope you have a great day as well!
~Catherine
That is a place I have never been. Thank you for sharing your adventure. You have some great pictures there. I love the one of you standing in front of the door with all the graffiti.
ReplyDeleteDid someone say succulent swap. Cool!
Wow...that is a lot of graffiti...were you in a particularly more seedy area, or is it seen everywhere there? It is so interesting to look at, I think. You sure look pretty in front of that store front with all of the colors around you!!! I loved eating the foods of the places I've visited...that is what makes it a great experience, I think, eh??
ReplyDelete