I was going to write you about my trip to Rotterdam, Netherlands but since I didn't make it there this month I decided to make a change and write you something about the city I live in: ISTANBUL. I assume for all the tourists who come to visit this exotic city it must be exciting to see the Istanbulian in their day-to-day grind. However, for all us residents this son of a bitch of a city is a pain in the ass. Solitude is the biggest luxury in this city as there are currently 14 mio. people living on top of each other and hey that is the official nose count. I am pretty sure that the census takers do not go to every house in every district of this juggernaut city. And then you have the traffic! Sometimes I'm downright begging my wife that she hits me something hard, while I'm stuggling to get from point A to point B with our car in 2 hours, so I could be released from this hell. By the way, in most cases the distance between them points would be like 10 or 20 kilometers so any sane person would get mad here. This also explains the huge number of psychopaths in this city. Blessfully it is not that easy to obtain guns here as it is in the States, so the number of people killing each other through gun-violence in traffic is low. Interestingly though that most psychopaths here prefer to practice a certain profession. As if there is mutual understanding between psychopaths in this city almost all of them get to become taxi or bus drivers! So Turkey has a huge number of roadkill-victims. I'm telling ya: They are all mad, mad, mad!
And there is the government and their ridiculously high taxes. You even have to pay taxes for breathing dammit! Ok, I'm exageratting a bit but this is how the Istanbulian feel. But then again, this dumb shit of people get to vote every 4 years and who do they vote for? For the same fucking mayor! Anyways,
naturally as a resident doing your daily routine of job-home and home-job you only get a chance to enjoy this mega-village weekends. But guess what? there are 14 million lunatics who think the same way.
So what is left to talk about? I am not going to tell you about the typical sightseeing-shit like the Topkapi Palace with its spoonmakers diamond and the harem-debauchery or the mighty hagia sophia and its counterpart the blue mosque. I would like to tell you about the more interesting aspects of Istanbul, when it was indeed a metropole where different nationalities encounter and had cultural interchanges. Those encounters reflected itself in many forms. I, for my part, am interested in the encounter that comes through architecture. When you cross the Haliç-bridge with all its fishermen you arrive at Karaköy and to your right-hand side you will see the beautiful 'Karaköy-Palace' that was designed by the levantine architect Guilio Mongeri. As part of the levantine minority he was born in the Ottoman Empire in 1873 but died in Italy in 1953. He left his architectural heritance in different cities in Turkey but I am very fond of this building.
Of course there are buildings more beautiful than this one but I like the facade and how you can see the influences of different cultures in his design. That period was indeed culturally very rich. You had Levantine, Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, Jewish people living side by side. But as all good things come to end this era ended in the 50s when Turkey's nationalists movement made a hunt for all non-turkish and the good people had to flee so Istanbul can take in the east-anatolian invasion. Before there were operas and theaters but now we have kebap and döner shops. Makes you feel sad when you walk the Istiklal street and see the remains of the cultural heritance of an Ottoman empire that gave home to so many minorities.
Another favourite building of mine is in Eminönü and it's easy to oversee it since it is hidden in side-alleys but it is worth to look for it. This art-nouveau building was designed by german architect August Jachmund, who also contributed to various masterpieces such as the Sirkeci train station, which stylistically seen is a mess but still quite a sight. However the Deutsche Orient Bank speaks for itself. When you see the building among other oriental constructions you get the feeling that it is completely out of place since it has an appearance that rather belongs to Paris or Vienna or some city in Italy. August Jachmund was commissioned by Sultan Abdulhamid II to build the main train station that would welcome European travellers to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. With this task at hand he had to do something to impress the Sultan and designed this piece that is oriental to such an extent that it is already perverted. I do not know whether the Sultan liked it but it still stands to this day.
Anyways, later when he received the order to create something for the German Bank he let the creative european juices flow and designed this art-nouveau beauty. Sadly this building is no longer in use and stands empty.
(Deutsche Orient Bank)
Enjoy the pictures and maybe next time I come up with something more interesting from Istanbul.
And there is the government and their ridiculously high taxes. You even have to pay taxes for breathing dammit! Ok, I'm exageratting a bit but this is how the Istanbulian feel. But then again, this dumb shit of people get to vote every 4 years and who do they vote for? For the same fucking mayor! Anyways,
naturally as a resident doing your daily routine of job-home and home-job you only get a chance to enjoy this mega-village weekends. But guess what? there are 14 million lunatics who think the same way.
So what is left to talk about? I am not going to tell you about the typical sightseeing-shit like the Topkapi Palace with its spoonmakers diamond and the harem-debauchery or the mighty hagia sophia and its counterpart the blue mosque. I would like to tell you about the more interesting aspects of Istanbul, when it was indeed a metropole where different nationalities encounter and had cultural interchanges. Those encounters reflected itself in many forms. I, for my part, am interested in the encounter that comes through architecture. When you cross the Haliç-bridge with all its fishermen you arrive at Karaköy and to your right-hand side you will see the beautiful 'Karaköy-Palace' that was designed by the levantine architect Guilio Mongeri. As part of the levantine minority he was born in the Ottoman Empire in 1873 but died in Italy in 1953. He left his architectural heritance in different cities in Turkey but I am very fond of this building.
Another favourite building of mine is in Eminönü and it's easy to oversee it since it is hidden in side-alleys but it is worth to look for it. This art-nouveau building was designed by german architect August Jachmund, who also contributed to various masterpieces such as the Sirkeci train station, which stylistically seen is a mess but still quite a sight. However the Deutsche Orient Bank speaks for itself. When you see the building among other oriental constructions you get the feeling that it is completely out of place since it has an appearance that rather belongs to Paris or Vienna or some city in Italy. August Jachmund was commissioned by Sultan Abdulhamid II to build the main train station that would welcome European travellers to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. With this task at hand he had to do something to impress the Sultan and designed this piece that is oriental to such an extent that it is already perverted. I do not know whether the Sultan liked it but it still stands to this day.
Anyways, later when he received the order to create something for the German Bank he let the creative european juices flow and designed this art-nouveau beauty. Sadly this building is no longer in use and stands empty.
(Deutsche Orient Bank)
Enjoy the pictures and maybe next time I come up with something more interesting from Istanbul.
