Turkey was one extra journey I fit into my 22 mostly because after Albania I felt I need to see the empire that for a long time in history made their neighbours make the worst nightmares **Conquest of Otranto 1480**. It was a cloudy and gloomy November here in Berlin and all I was aiming for was to move the calendar back for atleast a couple of months and dive deep into one of the biggest melting pot of the world, a country that is living controversial times but where things seem to be able to stand on an eternal instable balance. For the occasion I found in a library here in Berlin a book about an italian travel writer and journalist that I started to read ten years ago, when I was staying at a friend place in Paris, and never finished. The book is called "Se un indovino mi disse" from the author Tiziano Terzani, an eternal pure, calm and transparent soul, who has spend his life mostly abroad and mostly in Asia, working for "Der Spiegel"and taking notes on how the continent has changed, losing his spirituality and becoming more materialistic day after day.
During the first part of my stay in Istanbul, I enjoyed a lot reading Terzani and his adventures in the south-east Asia, he brought me back then years before when I was visiting the very same part of the planet. In particular I remember one afternoon, sitting in Archeo café in Karakoy and enjoying his company.
Before leaving I digged a bit into the national pop culture and came out with an easy movie to watch about an independent radio station that tries to make its way into a society where it takes a certain level of risk to say certain things, that Turkey still seem to represent ("Losers Club" is the title from director Tolga Ornek). Apart from that also a quick mention to the book that seem to be one of the most popular at the moment, or atleast one of the best promoted, called "Madonna in a Fur Coat" from Sabahattin Ali which I never red but put it on my list somewhere.
**Selda Bagcan/ Erkin Koray**