Impressive Istiklal, Istanbul

Istanbul is a vibrant, busy, buzzing city. This can be seen most of all on İstiklâl Caddesi (Independence Avenue), its three kilometre long main shopping street.

With more than 3 million people visit the street on a weekend day, it's never quiet. Even on weekdays, late into the evening, people were walking the street, visiting the shops and taking in the sights.

And what sights - İstiklâl Caddesi is full of amazing, wonderful sights, sounds and smells that make Istanbul a great city, such as:

• A man walking along with monkey on a leash.
• Ladies wearing full burqas, wearing headscarves slowly sauntering while other woman in bikini tops sashayed by.
• A man dressed as an Ottoman soldier, with nobody paying any notice
• Men walking down the street, holding hands, embracing, laughing, touching, all completely platonic.
• Men selling roasted chestnuts, with nutty smoke arising from each cart.
• Men selling mussels, with lemons strewn among the shells
• A tram clanging its way up and down the street; one time with a band blasting out funky rock music from an open air carriage.
• Busking men playing traditional Turkish instruments, the music from which mixed with the modern beats coming from he nightclubs on the upper floors of the buildings.

Burce's map of Turkey

At the weekend, I went to Turkish Fest which was held near London Bridge.

It was a jolly celebration of all things Turkish, including stalls selling watermelon, kebabs, tourism, as well as a stage with interesting musical acts. As I was there, everyone stood to sing the Turkish national anthem.

I stepped up to the London Turkish Film Festival, where I met Burce. I asked her to draw a map of Turkey.

Burce, who comes from Ankara, claimed not to be an expert at geography - but I think her map is really quite good.

Green Lanes: Turkish shops & cosmopolitanism

Continuing my series of London bars, cafés, shops and restaurants named after foreign places, I took a trip to Green Lanes. Given the sizeable Greek, Turkish and Cypriot communities living nearby, I expected to come away with many venues named after places in those countries.

I wasn't disappointed, with major cities counted for - Bodrum restaurant, Diyarbakir restaurant and Istanbul barbers and a closed cafe bar with the name Kibris (the Turkish name for Cyprus), but four of the many many venues bearing Turkish and Greek names.









Eastern European names also featured, with a Danube bakery and a derelict shop named after Moldova.






I was more surprised to find venues and shops named after more Western European cities - a Paris beauty salon (a place to become tres belle) and Milano restaurant.

Futbol! Football with London's Turkish fans

Tonight, I went to the Fenerbahce Social Club to watch Turkey play Germany. Situated on Stoke Newington High Street, it is surrounded by Turkish barbers, Turkish restaurants, Turkish travel agencies, Turkish cafés and Turkish football social clubs.

Oddly, however there weren't so many Turkish fans to be seen...

A large MEMBERS ONLY sign sits atop the social club's doorway, but happily nobody batted an eyelid as I walked in.

Lots of blokes sat around looking at two TV in two areas - one facing the door, one facing away. Nobody was dressed in Turkish colours (only me and a 4 year old boy wore red), and there were no flags. Call me camp, but I do like a bit of pomp and paraphenalia.

The fans watched the match in relative quietness, save for excitement with the Turkish goals - a bit like the Turkish team really... a bit boring except for some exciting bits.

Football ennui has kicked in (10 matches in 3 weeks), so I didn't pay much attention to the game. Instead, I saw:

• a man ordering raki, which looks quite like milk
• a trolley being wheeled around to firstly collect empty bottles, and to sell new ones. The bar was only a few feet away, so this was very generous service.
• the place all but emptying on half-time for a fag break
• a veritable cloud of smoke settling outside at half-time

So, that's one in the final. Next up: Spain -v- Russia, and I'm supporting with the Russians (although I secretly want Spain to win).

Nogometni! Football with London's Croatian fans

Last night, I had hoped to support Turkey, my team in the Lowculture messageboard Euro 2008 sweepstake.

I headed to Archway on the guidance of Time Out. But, yet again, their advice was wrong as the restaurant had no TV. The bloke in the Turkish shop down the road was not much help ("try the bar up the road"), and the place where the Euro2008InLondon blog guys were was fully booked. Drama!

So. I switched allegiance, decided to be Croatian, and hot-footed it to Chelsea's Cadogan Arms, where Croatians gathered during the last World Cup.

And there they were. Not lots, but a vocal and passionate few, singing Croatian football songs and chanting "Hrvatska!". I'd arrived in the last few minutes of the first half, but hadn't missed anything. The match was rather dull, save for a few exciting moments - to be honest, I was happily distracted by several hot Croatians.

The Croatians went ballistic with their almost-there last-minute goal - glasses flying, crazy jumping, blokes only hugging blokes. They were all visibly deflated by the penalty shoot-out end, however.

Male behaviour was noteworthy:

• One middle-aged Italian bloke asked an attractive young woman where she was from. She was Bosnian. He proceeded to individually tell all his friends that she was Bosnian.
• One non-Croatian bloke greeted his friend with "Fuck You!!!!!!" and a hug, and later shouted "Norman Foster!" into the crowd.
• Another guy was grabbing the back and side of every guy that passed him. Lots of homosocial from the Croatians.

The result was disappointing, Croatia being the better team overall. But it means I can now support Turkey after all. So, any suggestions as to where I'll find Turks in London are welcome.

Next up: Spain -v- Italy, and I'm supporting the Spanish.

Eurovision 2008

Welcome to Eurovision Week! 

Bloggers and news site are agog with the idea that the 2008 top 3 may well be the same as the 2007 top 3: namely, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia. 

So, let's look at last year, and see what we can learn for this year...

• The name Maria - or variants of - is a success symbol with Marija Serivofic winning, and Greece's Yassou Maria in the Top 10.

So, for 2008, step forward this year's only Maria from Norway!

• Turkey came in 4th with a song all about having candy.

Step up Greece's Kalomira who's come as a Quality Street.

• Both Russia and Serbia swathed their stages in red last year - will red be the colour to watch this year?
• Bulgaria came fifth with some dated dance music - good news for this year's lovely Icelandic entry.

• And lastly, 2007 was the year of baco-foil clad drag queen Verka Serduchka. Who will take on that mantle this year? Step forward one Charlotte Perrelli!

Enjoy Eurovision!