The Village of Ortaköy
The weather has been so nice lately that we've been walking by the water more often. We live in this small village called Ortaköy that's chock full of history and architecture. So we thought we'd share why we love it here.
Istanbul is full of amazing places to live in. Most of my friends live in Üsküdar, across the Bosphorus on the Asian side. Others choose to live near Taksim Square or the Beyoglu area. But we like this little place for the following reasons:
It's near everything
Convenience is a big reason why we're here. We can go downstairs to buy all the ingredients we need to make dinner. Our street has banks, supermarkets, breakfast cafes, and when you want to, it's just a three minute walk to the water. No one lives in that area as it's full of restaurants and tourists, but just crossing Muallim Naçi Çaddesi will yield dondurma (Turkish ice cream) that's three times cheaper than the ones near the Ortaköy mosque.It is one bus ride to get to Osmanbey, where the refugee center is. Paolo's office is up the hill, and sometimes he walks down to get home.
Ortaköy is literally a village
Orta means "middle" and koy means "village". During the Ottoman empire it was a small fishing village and resort for royalty and dignitaries, and they named it Ortaköy because of its location in the middle of the Bosphorus Strait.They liked it so much they built houses here, so in the same district are the palaces of Ciragan, Feriye, and Yildiz. Not far is Dolmabahçe Palace, the main administrative center of the Ottoman empire and where founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lived, received guests, and passed away.Some parts of these palaces have been converted into restaurants, so if you visit Istanbul definitely come to this area. It's not everyday you get to dine in a sultan's living room.
You get to live like a local
We buy fruits from the local fruit vendor. Our favorite breakfast place is this family-owned restaurant in one of the inner streets here.
There's an orthodox church built in 1785 whose bells toll at 4:00 in the afternoon everyday. The bakery on the corner, built in 1955, is FULL of people in the morning.
I imagine it's nice to live in the busy, more cosmopolitan areas of Istanbul like Nisantasi, but it's also severely charming to be walking on cobblestone streets on your way home.
The sad part
Turkey is in tough times economically lately, and you can tell it's the little people that are affected the most. The chicken store nearby raised their prices twice in one month, bringing one kilo of chicken thighs from TRY 22 to 26.One of our friends has been working from dusk till dawn operating a gelato store. It's hard. Lots of apartments are going on sale instead of for rent. Unemployment is at 11%.Our landlord wanted to raise our rent by 12% this year. It's in the contract to adjust rent according to inflation, but those rates reached 25% early last year. Goodness. We negotiated and found a deal we were both happy with.
But it's sad to see shops closing down. Even big names like a Turk Telecom branch and Tchibo coffee shop on our street packed up and left. Their space was a little big, and probably not enough revenue coming in to cover rent. Numbeo places Istanbul's average monthly net salary at TRY 2,797.24 (PHP 25,970 or USD 503) but renting a one bedroom in the city is around TRY 1,894.16.The Times has a heartbreaking piece on the people affected by the economic crisis. Actually, the Lira plunged on the DAY WE ARRIVED last year. But as with everything in our family, we keep trusting God's plan for us.All in all, Ortaköy and Istanbul has been great for us. We'll be here as long as we're welcome.
How about you? Are you thinking of visiting Ortaköy? Let me know!