Round of Jenga with Ozi.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013
İstiklal Cad is a lively street located in one of the most modern areas of Istanbul. This evening, it was a matter of whether it was crowded, or very crowded. Weekends are almost impossible to navigate with so many people wanting to take in the sights and sounds of one of the city’s most elegant walkways, filled with shops, cafés, bars and clubs from old to new.
I found myself in the company of a group of engineering students from the ERASMUS program of Istanbul University. Being an international group, we communicated across languages with some hand gestures. They navigated the crowded street in determined steps, as easy as fish in water that knew the streams of movement well. I had no clue where I was headed, except that it was according to them, a popular university student hang-out with cheap food, cheap beer and good music, all elements tailored for their purposes. I tried to keep up with the stream best I could.
“Do you play?”
“Play? Play what?” I shot back.
But there was no time for answer because I was immediately thereafter swept into a narrow blue wooden door that looked in desperate need of repair, up a winding staircase to land first at the third floor of this narrow shophouse, then back to the second floor where more students seemed to have nestled themselves.
Continue reading “Jenga off Taksim Square, Istanbul”
