Day 8 Şişli (finding Doris' birth place)

Days 6 and 7, were devoted to relaxing by the pool, some practicing and publicity work for the Turkey project.
On Tuesday, day 8, Ellen and Husam took a break from last minute preparations for the festival concerts, to take Doris (and me) to Şişli to find the small birthing hospital where Doris and Husam were both born. Husam easily located the old hospital, which is actually more of a house (a business site)and no longer operated as a medical facility. Doris and Husam pose here on the steps of the hospital where their mothers probably entered and departed. The modern high high-rise building (see link), which towers in the hospital background, certainly did not exist in he 1950s, nor did the knowledge that two children born here would meet one day and become good friends years later. Follow the link for more photos of Şişli.
http://gallery.me.com/clydeshaw#100050




After our visit to the hospital, Husam took us a bustling neighborhood, where Doris lived with her parents until they moved to Seattle in 1959. We don’t know the exact location of their apartment today, but Doris believes she could recognize it from old family photos. Their apartment is pretty close to the location seen in the photo, because of the proximity of the mosque close to the row of apartment and office buildings. Doris's mother remembers the Şişli mosque being very near by.

Husam left our company, to run other errands, while Ellen guided us to the Istanbul Grand Bazaar (Kapalıçarşı ("Covered Bazaar")).
With more than 58 streets, over 1,200 shops, it has between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. This is one of the largest and possibly the oldest “shopping mall” in the world (constructed between 1455 and 1461) and we knew that we could not miss this golden opportunity to explore some more. Navigating the crowded isles along the many corridors of the Bazaar proved to be a very athletic experience – not the kind of experience gained by modern-day “mall-walkers”!

There were no many temptations, from stall to stall, each more exciting than the next, but I was on a mission to find a Turkish coffee pot for Tony Miller. Before leaving Winchester, he (Ting-Yu was on a recruiting trip to Taiwan) joined Doris and me for dinner and we chatted about possible experiences in Turkey. As we finished our coffees, it suddenly occurred to us that Turkish coffee would have been served, if we were sharing this moment in Turkey. So, Tony, with a wide grin, said, “bring me a coffee pot”.


If Tony sees this photo, he will see the place where we found his pot and the coffee vender across the way – the oldest in the Bazaar and possibly the oldest in Istanbul. Yo, Tony!,we are looking forward to you serving Turkish coffee in your home, and of course, your grin!!!







Missions accomplished, we boarded a ferry and headed to Çengelköy, where we would begin the long packing process before leaving for Ankara on Wednesday, after Akemi’s arrival.





However, the packing would have to wait for us to share a final meal of grilled seabass, sitting on the Bosporus, with our hosts Ellen and Husam.





...Husam, please pass the salt!