a couple of weeks ago, i had a VERY istanbul evening. went out with turkish friend who is a photo editor at one of the papers here. he brought along an english photographer friend. after a few minutes of talking, turned out the english guy used to date one of the turkish women i've met at the acrassicauda shows and who is friends with the band. a few minutes later, we realized we had emailed and talked on the phone about a year ago - about work stuff - but we had never met.
then the two guys said something about how they were going to meet with their danish photographer friend, who they named. my first thought was - "j? noooooo.... can't be the same j." about that time, an iraqi friend showed up. the turkish guy mentions j again and the iraqi said, "oh, you're going to hang out with js?" ahhhhh.... it IS the same guy i was thinking about! i'd never met him but know his name because he filmed part of the "heavy metal in baghdad" documentary in baghdad. (rockumentary?)
i left the guys talking and went to meet an american friend (we met in bucharest a few years ago) who was in town for her job at microsoft vienna (tough life!). as we were sitting outside a restaurant having a drink, the guys all walked by so i finally got to meet j. a few minutes later, a friend from work and his bulgarian girlfriend and her family walked by and stopped to talk. then a few other friends passed. my american friend was stunned - especially given the huge crowds out on the street at that time.
after dinner, my friend and i went to meet one of her turkish friends and his wife for drinks. in the middle of that conversation, he looks at me and apropos of absolutely nothing that i could discern, says, "you know c, don't you?" at that point, i didn't even have to ask which c. for probably the same random reason he asked, i knew who he was talking about. yes, i do know her. she is my neighbor. in fact, i live in her old apartment.
did you know, there are 17 million people in istanbul, plus or minus about 2 million? and that's just the residents, not the expats.
so it goes.
this past saturday, as i was walking home around 8 in the evening, after an afternoon of aimless wandering, i ran into c and her husband and sister. they were headed for nevizade for meze (think tapas) and invited me to join them and some other friends. as we sat at the exact same table where my friend and i sat the week before, we were joined (as planned) by several other friends. what wasn't planned was that my roommate was at the same restaurant with her friends. nor was it expected that another friend and his wife would also stop by.
welcome to istanbul. it only seems like we all know each other.
Wow, you make Istanbul seem like a wonderful, cosmopolitan and friendly place (I appreciated your other post about being nice with people as well btw). I know people tend to move in the same circles internationally, but it is serendipitous to bump into so many friends and acquaintances in such quick sucession (or else you're just madly popular darling!).
Posted by: Alison | April 28, 2008 at 02:43 AM