Saturday 1 March 2008

Istanbul...

Bit annoying - I had posted this already but Scribefire managed to lose it somehow.

Tried out the Van Kahvalti Evi cafe in Cihangir, on the road down from the German hospital (nearer the Italian hospital, but on the opposite side of, and further up on the road from that). Carpetblog had recommended it. It's run by people from Van, a former Armenian enclave in the distant mountains of the East, now full of refugees from Iran and such like. She praises it for its fresh food and Turkish breakfast.

And a wonderful breakfast it is, too - will post a photo when I get to have all the required bits and connections in one place. With egg, tomatoes, cucumber, lots of different kinds of white cheese, tsatsiki (cacik in Turkish), bread, honey complete with honey comb, some other kinds of brown spread (sesame???). Wonderful stuff. Apparently the cafe next to my hotel, the Kahvedan, does a good English/Scottish/American fry up. Would they do porridge? When I arrived in Istanbul, the first place was open, the second place wasn't. Decision was made.

After that I went off to the German bookshop to get some specific stuff. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Do they use the alphabet, I ask myself? Certainly the books use it to get their contents in the right order, so words can be formed. As for the bookshop...there are lots of old books (second-hand), new old books (they were new when they were delivered, a long time ago, and are now dirty)...and I don't think they have any new or current books. Anyway, the Robinson Crusoe English language bookshop just up the road in Istiklal Caddesi rescued me from total lack of books.

Between my concerts had a slim lunch at the cafe/bookshop opposite the German hospital where the nice waitresses recognised me after my last stay here in November. Impressive, no? At the time I had had my eye op a few hours earlier and quite looked the part, no doubt.

Meant to go to the pictures to see a film made by prisoners (Bayrampasa), but blaming jet lag (two hours) might just stay in. The film is well described, though.

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