Jaunting Along

Our trip along the entire north coast of the inland Sea of Marmara is marked by snapshot views. An old bridge, grey stone undulating like a long snake across the wide river mouth at an estuary, with roman arches tipped by the Muslim point, yellow flowers flourishing in the swampy terrain. Red poppies against a hill against a pale blue sky. A huge shrub sporting a mass of purple flowers in the midst of rocky ground. But first, we had to circumvent the outskirts of Istanbul.  Upon every hill, initially, there are bumper-to-bumper flats and then, without warning, we round a curve and there is - nothing. Then just as we are beginning to settle down into the relief of finally evading the drag-net of Istanbul, we are amongst bumper-to-bumper flatland again. All the flats and apartment blocks are four-square and four sided and they do appear to relish their jutting balconies. As we finally, finally left the massive urban expansion that is Istanbul increasingly behind us,...

The Balcony at the Hotel Nomade, Istanbul Our Hotel Nomade  in Istanbul, recommended to us by one of the Turkish men with whom Fem works, has clearly marketed itself over the years as a place for single women and other travellers on their own, making it a generally friendly and convivial place to inhabit. 

Istanbul is such, that each age, with its own pre-eminent art form, parades before you, displaying now the mosaic and fresco work of the Roman era in the Aya Sofya, now the filigree stone-work and stained glass and architectural elegance of the Blue Mosque, and here the military echoes of numerous mercenary armies can be heard faintly above the crowds at the Topkapi Palace.