Market Day

It was a cold, damp market day in Levent, a district of Istanbul. I love the markets for their liveliness, and for all the goodies you can find. Just about anything is available, from gorgeous produce to leather bags to frilly panties. The air is perfumed with all sorts of wonderful smells— onions, fresh cheese, pomegranates, olives, roasting chestnuts. The vendors often have great senses of humour and powerful sets of lungs— singing and shouting out prices and offers. I've been looking forward to this all week since just about all my socks have mysteriously formed holes in them, and this is the best place to find fun and inexpensive clothing.

The temperature has dropped considerably— we're expecting snow tomorrow, so to warm my hands (and fill my stomach) I picked up a gözleme. Gözleme is one of my favourite Turkish street foods, it's a hand rolled pastry sealed with your choice of filling and cooked on a convex griddle. Today it was spinach and beyaz peynir, literally 'white cheese', a sort of feta. You can also get your gözleme filled with potatoes, eggs, meat, mushrooms or a combination of these ingredients.

In addition to a few pairs of colourful socks (I never wear white or plain socks), I found a black jersey shirtdress, a long white button-down shirt, some lovely canary yellow yarn, and I couldn't resist some pomegranates, mandarins and oranges. Since I can only knit rectangles, I'll be making myself a scarf in the next few weeks.