Designer Couches and Crowded Buses

I'm listening to a shrieking cat on the street and a man yelling sales pitches (at this time of night?!) as I write this from my room.

The saga of the debit card continues. My package is in limbo somewhere in Istanbul, floating around on the FedEx (or Express Kargo?) truck to wrong addresses then back to the FedEx facility at nighttime. Dad was able to wire me some money today to tide me over until I can unite with my parcel; just-in-time too because in the morning I have to put a deposit down on our trip to Mardin.

Today was a great day, but it felt like an extremely looong day. It began with lots of Mardin research, so I could come up with a proposal for our project. It's hard to get an idea of the scale of these sites from the autoCAD drawings, but with the understanding I have now, I've come up with two proposals. The more fun idea is a cultural arts center that would have a stage for traditional music and dances to be performed, galleries for art to be displayed, and shops for artisans to sell their crafts, along with a restaurant, bar, lounge, and visitor's information center. It seems this could fit into the bazaar space well. The other idea I've had is sparked from a couple articles I read on Mardin's tourism. Over the past few years there has been a huge increase in the number of tourists visiting Mardin, but many people have to stay in a neighboring town because Mardin doesn't have enough hotels to accommodate this boom. A hotel would be a very practical project and would work well with two of the three sites. I like the idea of a cultural arts center more because I could learn about the town's culture and society as I design the project. So that is how I spent my morning, researching and brainstorming all things Mardin.

After the rest of the group started awakening, Nick and Adam kindly agreed to go with me to pick up my wire transfer of money. On the way back we grabbed sandwiches (the same I had yesterday) from the restaurant across the street, before heading to school to meet all of our classmates and professors.

Our group of about thirty crammed onto an already crowded un-air-conditioned bus to go to Koleksiyon, the upscale furniture/interiors shop that is funding the majority of our trip to Mardin. The bus ride wasn't any fun. It was over half-an-hour of standing with people packed in on all sides and sun beating in through the window; quite a trip. Our discomfort was not in vain. Koleksiyon was amazing.

When we arrived, we went through the elegant displays to the third floor cafe to be greeted by Faruk Malhan, founder of Koleksiyon. He took us through the displays, explaining the stories behind some of his favorite pieces. Koleksiyon sells its own designs, as well those of trendy designers they have discovered. One of the pieces that has sold like crazy is a slightly modified traditional Turkish tea glass and saucer. The glass has an indention in the bottom and the saucer has a little bump, so that the glass does not move all over the saucer when the set is being moved.

A new piece that is expected to be a big seller is a set of glasses for drinking rakı, a Turkish alcohol made from aniseed that is clear until mixed with water, at which point it turns white. Rakı is meant to be drunk along with water; the two are either mixed or drunken separately. With rakı, being clear, it is common to confuse which glass has which liquid. Koleksiyon's set of two glasses are slightly different sizes and curved to fit perfectly next to each other.

After our tour, we returned to the cafe for tea and cookies. I had just enough time to snap some pictures of a few pieces and do a few sketches before we were headed back to the bus.

the cafe ^




the view of the entrance to Koleksiyon ^
the view across the street from Koleksiyon ^

down the road a little ways, the view of the Bosphorus ^

A few of us went with some of the Turkish students to an outdoor restaurant along the Bosphorus. I had menemen, a dish of egg, cheese, tomatoes, and peppers; a good choice. We learned some more about the city and the language and taught the Turkish students some about where we're from. At the end of our meal the waiter demanded an extra lira from everyone, saying the prices on the menu were old...sure. The Turkish students went ahead and paid, so we did too.

Another long, but this time air-conditioned bus ride, and we were back to Taksim. The day has worn me out, so I'm going to spend the night in while the others do their nightly bar-trip. Tomorrow the Turkish students will take us to get our akbils, which are buttons that give us discounted bus/metro/ferry fare.