STREET VENDORS OF ISTANBUL

MAN SELLING FOOD FOR PIGEONS

New Mosque, Yeni Camii, Eminonu

SPICE MARKET

AKA THE EGYPTIAN MARKET, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Spice Market is much smaller than the Grand Bazaar.

It's convenient because it's next to the New Mosque.

And it's close to the Eminonu ferry docks and a T1 Tram stop.

It certainly is touristy.

But it's a must visit, if only for an hour.

100 YEAR-OLD VENDOR

EMINONU, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

7 days a week, this lady sells little paper plates of bird seed.

She makes a few Turkish Lira per sale.

Turkish Lira trades at roughly 3 per 1 U.S. Dollar.

Rent in Istanbul has doubled, almost tripled in the past decade.

This lady's stall is in a great location.

Just up the hill from the Eminonu ferry docks.

Very close to the Galata Bridge.

Just outside the New Mosque.

Right on the way to the Egyptian (Spice) Market.

Some neighborhood folks told me she's about 100 years old.

The things she's seen in Istanbul in the past century.

And just how does she make rent?

In a city that is at once rapidly westernizing.

Yet challenged by political leaders who want to introduce religion into the secular republic created by Ataturk.

THE LIGHT OF ISTANBUL

MAGICAL

How else do you describe your first day in Istanbul?

You are exhausted from a 12 hour flight in coach...and a 7 hour time difference.

But you walk...from Beyazit to Sultanahmet Square.

You continue past Sirkeci Station -- where the Orient Express used to stop.

You make it to Eminonu and think of Orhan Pamuk's books with chapters that involve the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the ferry docks where they meet.

You press on, denying sleep...for a balik ekmek from a gleaming Ottoman-adorned boat.

You board a ferry (you can cross from Europe to Asia for less than 2 bucks U.S. dollars).

You look back at the new Galata Bridge.

The restaurants on the lower lever are tourist traps, but colorful.

The fisherman that line the top level.

Are they there for a fresh balik, or just enjoying one of the world's most magical views in their own hometown?

You hold still, the water is churning like crazy under the hurried ferry to Karikoy.

You gaze up at the New Mosque. Only in Istanbul could something that broke ground more than 400 years ago be considered the "new" thing.

The sun is Halloween orange.

You have slept only 3 of the last 30 hours.

But you are the luckiest person on earth.

SUNNY SEPTEMBER DAY ON THE SHORE OF THE GOLDEN HORN

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

On the waterfront, not far from the ancient streets of Fener and Balat, these two friends enjoyed the late afternoon sun next to the waves of the Golden Horn in Istanbul.