My view on Istanbul

I have written three or four pieces about Istanbul by now, that probably shows how much I love this city:) I have been visiting different parts of Istanbul throughout our stay. Thankfully the city was not as crowded because of holiday season, Istanbul traffic can become such a headache...We also made few trips to the museums, but not as much as I wanted...

I was shocked to see the nonstop ongoing constructions in ancient city, at some point I felt helpless and sad... Sometimes it is hard to see the sky because of sky scrappers.

Few weeks after I arrived I was brave enough to hop onto Havatas (nonstop bus, picks up from Sabiha Gokcen Airport and arrives to Taksim, it runs every hour and it is faster and cheaper! than driving own car, only 50 minutes for 10TL) I went to European side, and could not recognise it, how much can a city change in only one year...While I was walking to the metro station, at one point I felt claustrophobic, and sadness covered me. I looked around, suddenly felt very helpless and alone. Could not recognise where exactly I was. I was surrounded by people who seemed like they were all late for something, their faces did not show any sign of emotion...Than I noticed I was in the middle of Taksim square, which became one ugly concrete! (little info, Taksim is the area where historical Gezi demonstrations took place last year). Obviously, city governor kept his promise, and built the ugliest walkway I have ever seen in my life! There were cheap looking mid size pots sitting in the middle, with few plants in them that looked like they were trying to stay alive in this ugliness! I thought 'this is got to be a joke!' With one senseless and arrogant move, ancient Taksim area became dull and soulless place...It lost its charm and character forever...

The city is developing that's for sure, but I hope sooner rather than later government and city governor will stop this, otherwise this beautiful ancient never sleeping city will become one big concrete megapol...

The funniest thing is government advertise this as 'the new Dubai'!  I even saw one of the mall named as 'Mall of Istanbul', what a creativity! Dubai has a mall with almost same design named 'Mall of Emirates!'  I can't help it, this makes me ask 'Why would you want to change Istanbul's unique character and imitate somebody Else's success story, can not you create your own'??

There are newly opened shopping malls in every corner, seems like it is never enough...On the other hand there are not as many parks, playgrounds and green areas. Even mother nature shows red lag all of these, this summer there were more than 5 small size tornadoes in Istanbul. Locals were all shocked and scared, people did not know what to do, they were just frozen when it happened. Thankfully no body was injured. There was also water shortage, local news were saying all dams in Istanbul were in lowest level after 50 years. Are not all this say something??

Too much politics:) But at the same time, I want to be honest and open in my pieces/blogs either it is about Kenya, Turkey or somewhere else.