Paradise Restaurant

A raki-and-fish restaurant near Galata, by the Golden Horn. As you can see from its dual-language signs, this place caters to the local community of Ex-Soviet workers and tourists in Istanbul. I wonder if this Paradise Restaurant has anything to do with the Hotel Paradise I featured earlier.

An Eccentric Vehicle

Here we go with a big article on one of the weirdest vehicles I've ever seen on the road. This mobile home belongs to a Turkish eccentric who aspires to travel through every city in Europe, advertising Turkey's history and culture on the way.

The entire vehicle is covered in assorted stickers and pictures, but its back section deserves a special look.

The sheer visual chaos of local gifts from every part of Turkey... Notice the prominent portrait of Kemal Atatürk, a heart-shaped pillow belonging to the soccer team of Sivas, where this guy is from, a plastic cobra snake and a bird.

This van is a more honest and heartfelt work of art than all of the crap at the new "contemporary" galleries put together.

As if all the fake birds weren't enough, this guy has a REAL BIRD to keep him company on the road. He has it all!

Fresh Fish

A heap of fresh fish from a charming restaurant at Ortakent, Bodrum. Notice the grotesque flip-side of the sole, (something from the order Pleuronectiformes,) which has both eyes on its right-hand side.

A Turkish Couple

Fighting or flirting? You decide.

Ottoman Artillery

Ottoman muzzle-loading cannons line the famous "Skaters' Square" in Beşiktaş. There is a popular urban legend about these pieces of artillery, about how they are Mehmed the Conqueror's original cannons and are equipped with a certain "mystic technology" that can hit targets thousands of miles away.

Of course, they are also zeroed straight on Athens, and will blast the enemy the moment a new Greco-Turkish conflict erupts. Unfortunately, Mehmed II was more than two centuries dead when these cannons were cast, and they are pointing towards Asia, but this doesn't seem to effect the rumors.

Artsy-Fartsy Nightmare

I saw this couple when visiting Selda Asal's "Apartment Project" gallery in Asmalimescit. The girl was taking care of the bollocks "art installation" and boy had dropped over with a bottle of wine.

They were having quite a nice time, as you can see.

The exhibition, on the other hand, was a total joke. The artist, whoever he is, was charging up to $2000 for shit plushies like this. Would YOU buy this for two grand?