Festival-goers wait for the music to begin.
One of my favorite blogs is Istanbul Eats. Here you will find news and reviews, tips and advice regarding food and restaurants in, and occasionally out of, Istanbul. A post this week, The Other Hidrellez, led us on an adventure last night up the Bosphorus to the Çayırbaşı quarter of Sarıyer. Just click on that link and tell me that you wouldn’t want to go see what that was all about!
Wishes tied to strings above the crowd wave in the breeze.
Hıdrellez is a Spring festival that commemorates an important meeting of two prophets, Hıdır and Ilyas (Elijah). Apparently the meeting happened on May 6, so festivities begin on May 5 with bonfires, food, music and dancing. Hıdır is a prophet who brings good fortune, so people write or make models of their wishes on scraps of paper or fabric and attach the wishes to a tree (known as a Nahil or Wish Tree).
The band is upstaged by an exuberant dancer.
The summer before we moved to Istanbul, we watched a documentary about the Istanbul music scene called Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul. One of the musicians in the documentary was a clarinet player named Selim Sesler, and he was performing at the festival. When we saw his name of the list of performers, we were determined to go.
A mother and daughter share some cotton candy.
The Sarıyer district, at the north end of the Bosphorus, is bounded by the Belgrade Forest to the west and the Black Sea to the north. It took us about 30 minutes to get there by bus, but over an hour to return to Arnavutköy because of the never-ending street party in Bebek. Despite the return traffic, the trip was worth it. The food was good, and the music was excellent. I have not seen such a happy crowd of people in a long, long time. May all their wishes come true.
P.S. Here are some links to Turkish food blogs in case you are interested.
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