Imagine Istanbul

I remember in Istanbul seeing cats everywhere roaming freely the streets of the old city. There are so many of them, I am sure, without owners. This cat I found lounging like a lazy queen, seated on a bench covered with brightly covered blankets at a mosque by the Bosphorus. She had not a care in the world.

Around the market and the dock at Örtaköy, the cats wait for the fishermen to bring in their catch, waiting for the remnants of fresh fish thrown to them for their supper. They are not interested in the market, the cafés or the tourists. All they want is the fish and a comfortable place to rest languidly.

I came to Örtaköy with the little boy of Istanbul. We wandered around the market, he wanted sunglasses and he found a pair for he really wanted. He wore them for the rest of the day. The next day, however, he was not wearing them and when I asked him why, he told me they make “everything black”. We went into a jewelry store and he helped me choose a pretty silver ring with an amethyst stone. Then I asked him what he wanted and he chose very pretty butterfly earrings that dangled from the ears for his baby sister. His little sister lives with his mother and younger brother 24 hours by bus somewhere in the East of Turkey. But the man selling jewelry said a baby should not wear dangling earrings because they are dangerous. He showed the young Yilmaz, the little boy of Istanbul, pretty little stud earrings with a shining pink stone. Somewhere in Turkey a little girl is wearing the pretty earrings her brother gave to her.

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