Tag: Çengelköy

Friday morning.

The ferry pier of Çengelköy doesn’t get as much traffic as the public transport hub ports of Kadıköy, Eminönü or Karaköy. The morning I took the ferry to Emirgan there were only about fifteen other passangers besides me that hopped on board at Çengelköy. The route zig-zags from one side of the Bosphorus to the other stopping at the smaller piers unlike the bigger vapurs that plough between the main hubs. I think there are people on the boat that just come to enjoy the breeze and views.

This is a simple recording of the general ambiance on deck while we are still connected to the pier. After 1’00 you’ll hear the sea water splashing and echoing beneath a small catamaran tied to the pier (in the second picture), something I tried to get to the foreground by stretching over the railing. Listen to the recording here:

at home, Thursday afternoon

I was washing dishes today when I heard something unusual from outside the window. Kittens! Squealing kittens, tiny tiny meaows. Some neighbours were present, wondering what should be done with them. The mother cat was following the situation very closed from a few meters. (I hope they didn’t give the kitties any harsh verdicts. I am a cat person, you see. I’d prefer them to be left alone.)

This was no miracle as the cats in our yard have been fighting and mating fiercly for weeks day and night waking up the whole neighbourhood. There is something peculiarly funny about the sounds of some cats having a fight in our yard. Maybe it’s the sudden change in the dynamics. The nonintentional comedy. Some of them just have to most hilarious voices, accents or what ever you could call them.

I didn’t have the chance to take a close-up picture of the kitties so here’s a picture roughly pointing to their direction. With a tulip (it’s the Tulip Festival time, more on that later).

S & B, Çengelköy,
Thursday, midday

Since I was a little girl I had realized that going to the hairdressers was something essential to the women living in Istanbul. In Finland we were used to cutting our hair by ourselves (I cut my friends’ hair, they cut mine ect), not to talk about the manicures and pedicures (what luxury!). So at the beginning of every summer my mother took me to the kuaför in Selimiye and  I could choose the style I wanted. For me it was more of a chance to experiment something that couldn’t be done at home so the results were various. Very entertaining.

A few days ago I went to cut my hair, and recognised the familiar sounds and scents. The keynote sound of hairdressers, the fön, huffed most of the time accompanied by the radio and small chatter of ladies having their nails done:

The sound of scissors clipping my hair was something that maked me feel just a bit pampered. And while modeling my hair, Metin bey flattered me, admiring the looks of my face (as a good kuaför should, of course). The leasurely afternoon was well spent. Listen to the clip:

Friday, midday at Çengelköy

It’s a market day (pazar) at Çengelköy, a sunny Spring day. The stalls on the street, covered lightly, have put their produce beautifully on show. Spinach, carrots, cheese, cabbage, artichokes, bananas, lettuce, garlic, mushrooms, aubergines, tomatoes… and çağla, delicious and sour small green raw apricots [edit: not apricots! silly me… raw almonds]. The colours themselves are bright and fresh enough to eat! People are walking up and down the street. Two young girls have stopped to watch into the two card board boxes, with chicks cheeping inside.

Hear the chicks. You’ll also hear the salesman shouting ‘Taze günlük, taze günlük yumurtalar çiftlikten!’ (Fresh daily, fresh daily eggs from the farm!)