Istanbul’s iconic Ali Sami Yen stadium is to disappear soon… an İstanbul roundup…

Bulldozers tear down the stands of the iconic Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul, which witnessed 14 of it former owner Galatasaray’s 17 Turkish league titles.  AA photo Authorities begin demolition of Istanbul’s iconic Ali Sami Yen from Hurriyet Dailynews Authorities began demolition work Tuesday on Ali Sami Yen Stadium, one of the most iconic … Read more

Erkan had an "encultured" Saturday

Started the day with brunch at La Mekan (I will definitely post about this place) with Can. It is just in walking distance to our apartment. To start the day there always makes me happy. It satisfies my quest for a good diner like I used to have in Houston. Then I moved to santralistanbul to my office and spent the day until evening there. Youth Studies Unit was having a hip hop workshop with high school kids, otherwise I haven’t seen any colleagues and I did hang out in my office alone. No one would complain of loud music. How nice. I got tired of longer hair and had an haircut in our campus hairdresser, now I am as if I have just come from the Service, then I had more coffee and did some more work and when it was around 8 pm as no body was left in the building, I began to feel self-pity and it was time to leave.

Then the second and more colorful part of my day began: Thanks to Çiğdem Buğdaycı, I first stopped by a small art galery in Cihangir: Çukurcumart. Not always but on some Saturdays there are Jam sessions there. We attended one yesterday. We were offered super quality wine, warm, cinnamon, juicy..

Here a few drawings exhibited in the gallery (more can be found in the Facebook page:

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