Istanbul Nights

Caminando de noche se ven tantas cosas lindas.......

Hıdrellez

Festivals, celebrations, legends, myths..whenever they come together anywhere in the world, if they are true, they pours over to the streets....
Hıdrellez is no different. The reasons behind it? a few... two prophets that met to mark the adveniment of one of them onto earth, to deamulate and help us solve our problems and carry our guilt; the begining of the warm part of the year before someone decide to put a few seasons in between; the creation of something truly turk; the passing of some gypsis through town; I could go on for a while but I won't as the reason doesn't really matter... but the spirit does...
Upon my return to Istanbul I was told of this festival: "a night in which everyone pours into the streets behind Sultanahmet to chat, to partake, and, later on, to dance and drink as streets musicians make their appearance and try to make their way through these streets to the seaside..." a feeling of spontaneity running onmipresent in the open, a true street festival, a people festival, that's what I expected and fantasized about...
But we are men, and as such, greedy. Some big wallet bought the rights of the festival (yes, that's IS possible) and translated it to a nice/safe/easy-to-control-the-entrance location where he would provide great amusement from great bands and even easy access to food and drinks. All for the convenient price of only 20TL.. a true philantrop....

The first posters advertising the "new and revamped" festival marked the begining of a heavy mood. The though of someone "buying" the festival was unbearable.
So unbearable people had to show different. Everyone I talked to told me they were going to the original site, to the non-existing event. But it did exist. The streets of Ahırkapı were packed by the time we got there, and as I saw, people never stopped pouring in. And yes, there were drinks and food and music but mainly camaraderie. To the beat of a clarinet and a drum,a darbuka or a djembe we danced. It is so beautiful to say "we" meaning everyone in the place. The collective beat. The up and down of a crowd. The wave of a unique feeling. It does fill the spirit....












Spontaneous... that will be my description.
A two man show appearing at a corner, playing for a half an hour, lifting people from the ground with their beats, and then dissapearing for 10 minutes to reappear again 50 metres down the road. And again, play, lift, dance, dissappear to only appear again. Of course, if you want them to stick around a little longer a drink or a cigarrete will take you a long way ;)
Joy of the beat that crawls up the spine and into the head and down into the feet at 80kph....
Eleven marks the time to start making way for the bay front. Musicians leading, the masses move in waves across an old wall arcade. The street is no obstacle, cars will just have to wait as the procession of dancers cross the road. Some even join by stepping out of their cars and shimmy for a bit. Spontaneous. I said it.




The time to jump the fire has come and the time to rest the feet along the Marmara, that big body of water that saw me arrive in Istanbul more than a year ago now :) .......













punto aparte:
la luna, que pedazo de regalo. Ella siempre coqueta como solo ella lo sabe ser, pero hoy con los ojos abiertos a gigantesco, mirandonos a todos y cada uno de nosotros, viendo como al saltar a ella nos acercamos... pues es seguro que sabemos que bien adentro, es eso lo que queremos, alcanzar un pedazo de luna seria bello....

Wishes

Be it high in the Andes, low in the lowlands, deep in the jungle or next to the sea, in places as cold as Murmansk in the North Circle or as hot as the Equator, the idea of a wish seems to be omnipresent, but maybe more so the idea or hope that a certain wish could be granted if we somehow find the correct formula/prayer/petition/ritual. Of these rituals, many mesmerize me, be it for its intricacy or for its simplicity. Delightful every one of them. And I got to try some more today as I strolled along these gipsy-for-a-day streets:  jumping over a freshly started fire, scribbling some unconnected words on a piece of paper and later paste it onto a wall were my ways of tempting fortune today.

The becoming true or not is probably the least of the worries, too trivial, the biggest wish was to be present this evening. Wish granted. Second wish, for it to be a big party. Yet another wish granted. Third and last wish, to be surrounded by good people. Granted granted granted. There is nothing much more to ask for, so I don't bother going into the more traditional way of getting a wish: buy a balloon and ask your love one to grant it ;) 

Maybe next year....