looking up

Prague is so overwhelmingly beautiful that I often found myself not paying attention to where my feet were going— I was too busy looking up.

praha

I am in love.
Prague is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited, and I had so much fun seeing my friend Jen again. So I present you now with a tiny taste of what's to come. There will be writing, loads of photos and as promised, the sketches.

detour

The Moleskine Detour Exhibition was a great success— at one point I heard someone gleefully exclaiming that there were 500 people at the event, and the night was nowhere near over. The work was really fun with some books that stood out as exceptional. It was such a treat to leaf through the pages of someone else's Moly— we were given white cotton gloves to wear to protect the pieces. I really loved the super-industrial gallery space, as I mentioned in an earlier post, santralistanbul used to be the first power plant of the Ottoman Empire. I wished I had taken photos, but once Moleksine starts posting event photos on their site, I'll share some with you. The floor was metal grating with red lights underneath that shone upwards, and the books were on these illuminated podiums... very cool. I met some fabulous people and really enjoyed myself. If you are in Istanbul between now and the 21st of June, I highly recommend dropping by to see this unique show.


Today I am off to Prague, a city I have longed to see since I was a little girl. I love that Istanbul is right in the middle of what seems to be everything— it's only a two and a half hour flight to Prague, and the tickets are cheap. On the subject of Istanbul's ideal location, I'll digress for a second here— I found out the other day that India is only about 5 hours away! India seemed so distant to me, so inaccessible, and now it seems like a possibility.

I'm especially excited about the trip because I'll be visiting my friend J, who I haven't seen in almost two years. She has promised there will be beers, which of course must all be fabulous being that the Czech Republic is famous for its beer. Beer is rarely my beverage of choice unless it's good beer. So I'm off to get things sorted before I leave, I'll return next week with loads of photos and sketches. Görüşürüz— see you later!

Images pulled from Moleskine.com.

moleskine detour exhibition

Image from Moleskine Detour.

I'll be the only Moly-Xer at the Moleskine Detour Exhibition Opening tomorrow night— an art-filled show show of 50 artists' Moleskines and 30 Mollies from Istanbul Bilgi University, Domus Academy Milano-Roma and myDetour Berlin, held of course, in my fair city of Istanbul.

Detour is a travelling show of creativity contained within the covers of a Moleskine. I've been told that Istanbul City Moleskines were given to students at Bilgi University to fill with drawings, collages, designs and writings of their personal Istanbul. I can't wait to see all the artwork and I'm thrilled to be going to the opening. I'll be there with one of the talented participants, Aslı Aydın, writer of the übercool blog Trendiary, and Ilgin Yorulmaz, editor of the fabulous (and very useful!) Pukka Living, an online guide to unique and hip Istanbul.

The exhibition is being held at santralistanbul from May 22 through June 21,
open from 10 am to 8pm.

a windy day at the market

At times the wind was outrageous today, scarves went flying and tarps were barely being held down by their thick knotted ropes. The Yeşilköy market was jampacked— I was bumped, pushed and squeezed into tiny spaces between people and tables. This is to be expected, and I am quite used to it, but there were moments when I wanted to jab the other women with my pointy elbows and bulldoze my way toward the summer dresses.

I stopped for an ayran and a spinach and cheese gözleme at the delicious "café" that I found the last time I was at the market, and the minute I pulled out my sketchbook and pen, the waiter came over with a big smile and an "I remember you!" I hadn't been since February, so I was really impressed. And it felt good. People were in great spirits today, with many of the vendors joking around and goofing off— especially when my camera was spotted.

blah blah blah.

Today was supposed to be exciting, as I believe every day is going to be when I wake up, but I ended up getting stuck in horrendous traffic instead of making it to the Levent market. The traffic was so terrible, as Istanbul traffic can get, that I lost all desire for going out and went home. No matter, the bigger and better Yeşilköy market is tomorrow morning, and today is a fine day for doing some drawing and painting.

loss

Our pets are our family and it's devastating to let them go. This morning, we made the heartbreaking decision to put our wonderful dog Zorro to sleep, who was losing a battle with osteosarcoma. We could not have asked for a more loving, intelligent or protective friend. His obsession with tennis balls was unmatched. His enthusiasm for carrots unparalleled. He was loved deeply and we already miss him.

commute