Mortal Coil

A couple of weekends back we traipsed over to Istanbul for a bit of a long weekend, unexpectedly prolonged by the impending BA strike – so, happily, we ended up with 4 nights there instead of 3. It gave us a vital extra half-day to explore, and to cover off all of my checklist: no, not the sights. Those were great, but I am talking restaurants. Istanbul is a bit of a culinary grand tour, more than just “meat on a stick” as pointed out by Anthony Bourdain. Of course, on the way to those restaurants, kebapcis, pide salonus, and lahmacun joints there were many sights to behold. 

As usual my trip consisted of a fine mix of photography and hedonism. I can’t share too much of the hedonism with you (aside from saying that the Istanbullus are not shy of a party – tens of thousands of people in the streets of Beyoglu) – but I will of couse share some photos. So without further ado, here are some quite randomly-chosen favourite photos from the ones I kept. You can find these and the other 80-odd photos at my Flickr set: Istanbul – May 2010.