Note: Fe Bongolan is currently in Istanbul, Turkey for the International Body Music Festival, which she wrote about for Planet Waves last year. She sent this postcard on Thursday. — Amanda
Rain is likely today. Lately, weather in Istanbul reminds me of crisp bright fall days in San Francisco. I’ve been here five days though I forget what day it is.
It may be, finally, a good day to visit the mosques and the Grand Bazaar. Schedule, jet lag and the already insane all night sessions the musicians have with each other lends itself to you losing, or resigning yourself to not having, an actual schedule with goals and plans. How can you? It’s Istanbul.
The words Maddeningly and Beautiful are often used together exactly in that order. But in Istanbul, I think Beautifully Maddening is more in order. To get anywhere in the city, you have to deal with navigating the many, many hills, the narrow streets, the foot traffic in the way if you’re in a taxi, or the taxis gently beeping so you move out of their way while on your foot path. Traffic jams are to be expected. A vehicle break down near the boulevard can cripple downtown traffic by an hour.
You need to plan for contingencies always.
Imagine then what it’s like to cater for an event when every last minute counts, and after the tremendous pressure of making sure each dish is cooked right and tastes right, you have to deal with transporting dishes a mile and a half downtown in a cab at rush hour. There are several definitions of insanity knitted into that equation.