Art-market Ortikoy Part2: hand-made

This is our friend Alp-Arslan. He was a an excellent host for us and we're very grateful. He gave the idea to try to sell my pictures on Ortikoy market.

No problem, we did so. Although I couldn't sell anything, we finally found the way to get rid of my pictures=))

This is what is sold on the market. Most of the things are real hand-made item but some of them are made in China.

Looks like they like miniature things (like those bikes) here

These are amazing small houses with fine made details. The master is siting right here making a new one.

Ataturk is everywhere...

He's on the magnets next to Che Gevara

He teaches the kids to write their first letters

He's in the old bookshop 

It's difficult not to see him. Ataturk is deep in the Turks' hearts.

This is a significant picture: in the evening we passed Hairetdin (Fridrich) Barbarossa's tomb and decided to make a picture. At the same time Alp-Arslan took a bicycle from one kid and started making different figures on it...I was very suprised to see that=)

So, we like Istambul very much. Now we're on the way to Samsun and then will go to Trapzon to get visa to Iran.

Art-market Ortikoy. Part1: cats

We spent several days in Istambul and have got many great memories and good photoes.
Ortikoy is a place in Istambul where the artists sell their pictures and hand-made. It's a nice place for a walk where you can eat local sweets and stare at the shops.
But the first thing to is the cats. Istambul is full of big fat cats, Ortikoy is crowded by them.

some more...

and more...

they are everywhere

sunny jinger cat

People feed them with special potato dish called 'Kumpur'

The cats also have water

At the same time there was a cat-fest with this huge figures

Cats eat here because people feed them. What do the people eat? First of all,  they eat Kumpur - baked potato cut into two pieces and hidden under cut olives, corn, meat, souce and other food. And this is a shop selling local sweet vafels with strawberries, banana, chocolate and cream...

And tea, of course. Everybody drinks tea in Turkey. People make it right on the street, like that

The place is full of hand-made and next post will be about that.

Laundry washing at the mill in Agnanda

Hi! This is a post about mill-laundry in Agnanda and about wonders that can be waiting for just around the next corner.

Agnanda is a tiny town in Peloponnese close to Pramanda where the Horizons Unlimited meeting took place (see the previous post about it). We found Agnanda ocasionally, just wanted to buy some food in Pramanda but shops were closed due to siesta. So we decided to go to the next city.

In Agnanda we found a minimarked full of different small items, placed in the shelves withoun any order and price. The shop accistant didn't know the prices himself and he called for his mother to tell us the cost of this and that. This is his mother, a very nice lady. She lived in Germany for a while and wanted to talk to Alex. So she invited us to drink a beer and gave a slice of some kind of special pie, made of bread, eggs and cheese.

And then she invited us to have a look at the mill that they have in the town. The mill is broken but water is still running. Volunteers made this place very nice looking and comfortable.

This is the mill itself on the top of the hill

This is the water that comes down from the mill

The Greeks found a usage for free clean fresh water: they wash their carpets and blankets here

And then dry it right on the rails

Next day we came there to  wash our clothes but the grill was closed. It was 13.30 and he locals close it usually at 14.00 but that day the man who has the key decided to go to the next city and didn't open it at all. So we tried to wash without opening and our clothes just has drawn somewhere in the dark water...

I tried to save it and I failed

Then we opened it in a very simple way..

While washing we met this nice ginger guy, he was happy and sung us his song: pur-pur-pur

 And one more picture...

So if you go to Agnanda, find the old lady and say hello from us!