I want to answer with something clever, intelligent, exotic - along
the lines of what Fiennes told Kristin Scott Thomas when they were
stranded together in the desert in The English Patient. ("There is
a whirlwind in southern
Morocco, the aajej, against which the
fellahin defend themselves with knives. There is the africo, which
at times has reached into the city of
Rome. … The alm, a fall wind
out of
Yugoslavia ... The samiel from
Turkey, 'poison and wind,'
often used in battle.")
But I blow it with a blunder before we even begin.
So, we're going to talk about Istan-BUL.
Yes, please. As the people there say, Is-STAN-bul. Yes, it's very
funny. I've always said Istan-BUL, coming from England. But, there,
they say Is-STAN-bul.
I stand corrected. How did you discover it?
I went there as a child with my family, and I just never forgot the
Blue Mosque. It's such a beautiful mosque. Then, I went to the
Turkish Film Festival a few years ago with my boyfriend and fell in
love with it. The
Blue Mosque is immense, huge, and it's all blue
inside, obviously, as the name suggests. It's incredibly
impressive, visually, very romantic and awe-inspiring.
My guidebook says, "It takes its name from the mainly blue tile
work. Its minarets are circled by keening animals …"
It has hand-painted blue tiles, calligraphy, and abstract geometric
design, which has philosophical, religious meaning to the Muslim
culture. If you're interested in that, there's a museum of
calligraphy. They're big on calligraphy and geometric design.
That's what the tiles have on them.
So where does one camp out in Istanbul?