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trip to Istanbul, Turkey
On an otherwise quite peaceful friday I received a phonecall from a Politiken (sunday circulation app. 250.000) journalist. She wanted me to tell about a holiday-experience, as part of the newspapers "rejse-stafetten" series, where readers recount their worst or best holiday experiences. I was recommended for the job by Erik, who had previously entertained the Politiken readers with some brazilian caves (Gruta do Maquine).
Istanbul came to mind due to
some agressive (and funny) sales-tactics I experienced there. But
I started out by telling the journalist about my motivation for
going there in the first place all these years ago (+15). I.e. wanting to see the center of the eastern Roman empire, the remains of Byzantine churces like the famous Hagia Sofia etc. Afterwards I told her about my
experiences with some very aggressive Turkish carpet salesmen and
rounded it of with some reflections on Istanbuls place in Europes
future.
I.e. according to turkish writer Unsal Oskay, Istanbul is (1988)
the "precapitalistic jungle", which will
spread to the rest of Europe in the 21st century.
The Istanbul-feel,
McDonnalds and robots will in other words create the Blade Runner
21st century feel that we all know will be the way of the future.
At least thats what I told the reporter - the result follows below (in danish obviously):
Aarhus, DK - April 10 th 2005.
-Simon Laub
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