Kadıköy Tarihi Salı Pazarı Photo Trek

Kadıköy Tarihi Salı Pazarı  

It is said that we must visit the market in order to really know a culture.  I think it is true and wherever I go I try to see the markets where the locals buy their food, fruits, vegetables, etc.  İn Istanbul, there is a market in every neighborhood but we are going to focus on a very special one: the Salı Pazarı (Tuesday market in Turkish) at Kadiköy in the Asian side of İstanbul.   This trek will takes us 3 hours aprox. (during the morning preferable).

 Rainbows in the sky

Salı Pazarı is functionaly open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:00 to 18:00 hrs.   The rest of the days, İt looks like a huge empty parking lot.  But when it gets to Tuesdays, the place is full of little shops and people going on and off.  The streets sorrownding the market become a real traffic jam nightmare so a lot of pacience is requiered to get in with your own car.

From soap to ceramic, from clothes to food, you can find just about anything you can use in a everyday's life.  The great thing about this trek is that you can get really good and colorful pictures of simple things. You will discover new fruits and vegetables that you have never seen before and you will get to see the authenticity of Turkish people. 

Soap

The olive soap tipical in hammams (Turkish baths) you can find soap made of fruits, flowers, herbs, nuts, etc.  You can also find Peştemal (Turkish towels) made of cotton.  

 Soaps, colors and scents

   

Ceramic

Turkish women love ceramic and you can notice that just by looking at the crowded shops where there are women trying to pick the best ones.  

Shining plates

You can find lovely pieces of tea glass with their little plates. I just pick those mugs since I love coffee and colors.

 Dotty mugs

Fruits and Vegetables

The food come from all over Turkey and I would say even outside the country. You know when is a season to a fruit when you come to this place. The vendors encourage you to try to taste them so you will like them and buy them. You deffinetly have to come with an empty stomache. : )

Salı Pazarı is the place where I usually buy fruits and vegetables since they so good and fresh. You can even find organic ones a real good prices.

Radish want a bite?

My two favorit potato vendors

Boiled and Fried

Partners 

I have no idea how to cook this. Some advice?

Love Fruits!

   Burn Watermelons 

This is an interesting fruit called Momordica charantia often called bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash in English but it has many different names according to the country.  It grows in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.  This was the first time in my life I see this fruit and I love the shape of it but wasn't encourage to try and taste it.  

My sweet and lovely corn! Turkish people eat a lot of corn, they boil it or grill it and eat it. You can see that in the streets were you can always find a corn vendor. I come from a culture where we are all 'Hijos del Maiz' (sons of corn) so I just love corn.   

 

 Veggi cutters

Pickles

You can find not only peppers but a lot of vegetables in vinegar such as carrots, green beans, green tomatoes, onions, artichokes, you name it. 

Olives

As a Mediterranean country, in Turkey is easy to find different types of olives the hard thing though is to find them filled with anchovies or peppers. 

Nuts

 

I usually buy a lot of macademia nuts and pistachios, so I always come to this place were I find good quality at an average price. This vendor would always give me a date after I buy pistachios. : )

Accesories 

  Lucky elephants

Clothes
At Sali Pazari you can buy clothes from international  trademarks that are manufacture in Turkey. So it is common to find Massimo Duty, GAP, Tomas Hilfinger, Benetton, Polo Raulph Lauren among the shops.

Colors of Benetton

It is fun to see how cloths are presented for a culture were must of their women wear dark colors and a lot of them wear scarf.

  Happy underwear part 1

Happy underwear part 2 

Bags and Shoes

To find a pair of shoes you just have to look up.  Yes look up!  Because all of them are hanging from the awnings. It is fun to see them challenge gravity.

Real good Leather is one of the things you can find in Istanbul. You can find leather shops all over the city.  At this market you can find very few bags of leather but  the majority are leather imitation.  

Food corner

There are a couple of corner shops where you can eat boreks, simits and durums along with çay, ayran, nescafe or softdrinks.  It is refreshing to seat for a while and enjoy a bit of flavor from the market. There is so much to see that you can even get a bit tired.

I hope you enjoyed the trek and views of Sali Pazari. There is certainly so much to see, you can lean a lot about Turkey just by walking and observing.  Again i feel that I still have so much I left out  specially people but it is not always easy. Some of them are willing to let you take their photo but some other would not.  Be respectful and ask is always a good choice. 

Hasta la próxima! 

Soreya Reyes

www.searchingforemotion.com

STREET LIFE AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Twitter:  @street_photos_
Instagram:  street.photos.soreyar

Bosphorus B&W Photo Trek

This photo trek will take two hours and a half.  It will all take place all in a ferry thru the Bosphorus.  This is a great opportunity for you to see both sides of Istanbul from the sea.  You don't necessary need to take the Bosphorus tour although is pretty much recommended.  

The tour I did was from Kadiköy to Eminönu and from Eminönu to Üsküdar.  I did all the shots in black and white just because I wanted to see the beauty of light in a monochrome format.  You can do it as you wish it is beautiful either way.

Skyline of Sultanahmet. You can see the Blue Mosque, Haya Sophia and Topkapi Palace. Taken from a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy

The Blue Mosque and Haya Sophia's view from Haydarpaşa.  Taken in a ferry from Kadiköy to Eminönu.

Istanbul logistic port where merchandise download or load to be transfer to Europe or Asia.  Taken on a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy.

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Skyline of Beyoğlu where you can see Galata tower and bridge.  Taken on a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy.

Haydarpaşa Terminal.  Taken on a ferry from Kadiköy to Eminönu. 

   

Sultanahmet's skyline taken on a ferry from  Kadiköy to Eminönu.

Maiden's Tower and Üsküdar.  Taken on a ferry from Kadiköy to Eminönu.

  Sultanahmet's skyline taken on a ferry from Kadiköy to Eminönu.

Blue Mosque's view taken on a ferry from Kadiköy to Eminönu.

  Beyoğlu's view taken on a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy.

Üsküdar's view of Beyoglu taken on a ferry from Üsküdar to Eminönu.

Eminönu Iskelesi's view from a ferry from Eminönu to Üsküdar.

The New Mosque's view taken on a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy.

Beyoğlu's view taken on a ferry from Eminönu to Kadiköy.

Üskudar Iskelesi at Eminönu.

Süleymaniye Mosque .

Fisherman at Eminönu.

Seagull is following on may way back home.

I hope next time I will go all the way up to the Black Sea.  I still have to much to see from each side of the Bosphorus. Maybe next time in full color. We'll see ; )

Soreya Reyes

www.searchingforemotion.com

STREET LIFE AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Twitter:  @street_photos_
Instagram:  street.photos.soreyar 

Haydarpaşa Photo Trek

Today we are going to walk to the Haydarpaşa Terminal and take some shots of what it was the busiest rail terminal in Turkey.  This terminal is located in Kadiköy district at the Asian side of Istanbul. You can easily get here by ferry if you come from the European side, there is a stop before the Kadiköy Iskelesi.  If you come from the Asian side there is a bus terminal just beside it.  The trek will take us just an hour and a half and at the end of this you can enjoy a çay at the Iskelesi restaurant (ferry terrminal)  while you enjoy the skyline of Topkapı palace, the Blue Mosque and Haya Sophia at the European side of İstanbul.

The Haydarpaşa Terminal  (Turkish: Haydarpaşa Garı) is a major intercity terminal and transportation hub in Kadıköy, İstanbul currently closed for upgrades. It is the busiest rail terminal in Turkey and one of the busiest in Eastern Europe. The terminal also has connections to bus and ferry services.

"Haydarpaşa Terminal is the western terminus of the Istanbul-Ankara Main Line and was the western terminus of the former Baghdad Railway (İstanbul-Konya-Adana-Aleppo-Baghdad) and the Hejaz Railway (İstanbul-Konya-Adana-Aleppo-Damascus-Amman-Medina). The tracks do not cross the Bosphorus, but there is a train ferry which carries rail cars from the Haydarpaşa Terminal on the Asian side to the Sirkeci Terminal on the European side.^"  Wikipedia

It is now proposed that the station will be used as a terminal for high speed intercity trains to Ankara, while suburban trains will instead run through the Mamaray tunnel to the European side of the city.

This trek is important to me since is part of the reasons I am in Istanbul, the Marmaray project. I feel a connection between the railroad and my current life in Istanbul so I really wanted to take shots of this station just like it is today before is being upgraded.

On February 2, 2012, Haydarpaşa Railway Terminal temporarily closed to long distance trains for at least 30 months to allow for the construction of the Istanbul–Ankara high-speed railway, and the Marmaray rail transport project which will connect Istanbul's Asian and European sides via an undersea commuter train line. There will be no train services between Istanbul and the Asian destinations of Turkey at least until 2015.

If we look back at the history of this place we can find that the terminal was build in 1904 by two German architects:  Otto Ritter and Helmut Conu.

 Interior hall in Haydarpaşa Terminal

"They chose a neo-classical structure and construction started in 1906. Its foundation is based on 1100 wooden piles, each 21 meters long, driven into the mushy shore by a steam hammer. German and Italian stonemasons crafted the facade embellishments of the terminal. The German engineers and craftsmen who worked at the construction site of the building established a small German neighbourhood in the Yeldeğirmeni quarter of Kadıköy. The new pseudo-castle structure was completed in on August 19, 1909. The new terminal was inaugurated on November 4, 1909 for the anniversary of Mehmed V. " CFOA History - Trains and Railways of Turkey

Details on the columns at the interior hall

 Outside the terminal there is a beautiful Iskelesi (ferry station) to commute to the European side.

You can find Ottoman mosaic in this small building as you can see the details at the windows and the doors of this place.  They are beautiful and its color remain so vivid.

Besides this Iskele building you can find a caffee shop where you can take a cup of tea while you enjoy the view to Sultanahmet.

In November 2012, the station was the site of a three day art exhibit entitled: "Haydarpasa: Past, Present and Uncertain Future" which was organised in collaboration with the WMF (World Monuments Fund), and featured Canadian and Turkish artists and photographers, seeking to raise international interest in preserving the station as a vibrant public transportation hub.

Here is my contribution to this project while I grab your attention to this building.  I hope you enjoy this quick review of Haydarpaşa with this photo trek and hope you will do it next time you visit Istanbul.

Soreya Reyes

www.searchingforemotion.com

STREET LIFE AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Twitter:  @street_photos_
Instagram:  street.photos.soreyar