All the Turkey you can eat...

This is the Asian shore of Istanbul, a place called Uskudar. It was noticably poorer-looking than the new city or the old town but it was very busy with people going to sit on the waterfront to look across the river looking towards Europe.



We were there during the last three days of Ramadan, and everyone was out on the streets celebrating. In Uskudar some street vendors had floated some balloons on the river and were charging to let people (mainly young boys) shoot at the balloons with pellet guns. I don't know what the prizes were but to be honest, after firing a gun myself in Hawaii, i don't think winning a teddy bear as a prize is the motivating factor here...



At the mouth of the Bosphorous there was an endless line of ships waiting to navigate the river or collect their cargo. I have a thing about boats, and seeing so many huge tankers (not that this photo does them so much justice) made my simple heart glad. I am similarly amused by bubble wrap.



We went to see a performance of the Whirling Dervishes. It's more like a folk-dance display now in an exhibition hall at the station, but nonetheless the music was hypnotic and so was the dance. Originally the Dervishes spun and spun to put themselves in a state of religious ecstasy, one hand face up towards God, one facing down to earth so they could channel the love. They refer to themselves as the Lovers because of their devotion to God.



Spices in the Egyptian Spice Market. There was an awful amount of crap on sale too but the spices and Lokum (Turkish Delight) looked amazing. However the Turkish Delight does tend to mess up your stomach if you eat too much. Say if you maybe buy some to take home but gorge on it in your hotel room while you're reading of an evening and finish the lot in one sitting. Then it doesn't sit well at all. So I'm told.





And of course, Turkish Viagra. A walnut stuck inside a fig. I couldn't tell if it was a metaphor or not....