Turkey
Kavusmak
September 2014 • This proves you can go back. After two years away, I thought a visit to Istanbul might be doomed to disappoint—and thanks to a pilot strike, the landing was indeed rough: 24 hours late, middle of the night, streets deserted, feeling tired and pessimistic about a trip down memory lane. But the misgivings were way overblown. Warm welcomes and lengthy catch-up sessions with friends, favorite cafe owners, neighbors, colleagues, and students were like a shot in the arm. Four years ago, after arriving in Kadikoy, I compared it with Brooklyn in terms of its across-the-water proximity to Beyoglu, the glamorous European side of Istanbul. Now Kadikoy resembles Brooklyn in more insidious ways, like the doubling of rents and the can't-swing-a-dead-cat ubiquity of new bars and cafes—useful reminders that the scourge of hypergentrification isn't confined to just the U.S. Also made a side trip to Ankara to reconnect with Berk and Murat, who taught me the word that would underscore the entire visit.
