Corinne CrawfordThe hotel finally got the Wi-Fi working to allow me to connect by VPN and that made it a lot more convenient to get my work done and I spent a lot of time just wandering around the city and having tea or a snack or coffee at local little cafés. I didn’t spend a lot of time going to the major sites such as the many famous mosques or cisterns or palace because I had done all that the last time I was in Istanbul. I merely wanted to enjoy my last week or so in a city I loved just soaking up the vibe and culture.
And one of the things I was going to try to do was to find the carpet shop where my friend Mike and I spent a lot of time at 11 years ago. But a lot of things were working against me. #1- I did not remember exactly where this shop was but I had I general idea that it was near the Blue Mosque; #2. I did not remember what the name of the shop was but I had a general idea that it started with the letter G. #3. There are more carpet shops in Istanbul than coffee shops in Seattle so I didn’t really have a lot of confidence that I was going to be successful but I was going to keep my eye out for it and hope something jogged my memory. During my last time in the city, a young man named Yunus befriended Mike and I and his family owned this carpet shop. We spend time there drinking tea, playing backgammon and Yunus took us to some very authentic and local spots for food and culture. He and his family were a big part of the reason Istanbul always had a special place in my heart and why I wanted to return, because of the wonderful hospitality and kindness shown to us.
After a few days of wandering around and having every street and every shop look both familiar and non-familiar at the same time, I was thinking that I should probably put this idea out of my head as it was very unlikely that I would ever find it, and if I did happen to run across it, would I remember it or if it was even owned by the same family. I had my book and iPad with me on this particular morning and I thought I would find a coffee shop and sit with my book and a coffee for a bit so I looked on Google maps for a coffee shop and was directed to a North Art Coffee Shop with a nice front outdoor patio. I walked the little way there and took a seat outside.
As I looked around enjoying my coffee, I looked directly across the street and had a spark of recognition. It was Galata Nomadic Arts. I was pretty sure I had stumbled across the very shop I was looking for but I didn’t have 100% certainty. So after I finished my coffee, I crossed the street and entered the shop. When two guys approached me thinking I was a customer, I quickly told them that I was not there to shop but had a strange question. I explained my quest and asked if there was a Yunus that worked there after I had confirmed that the same family had owned the shop for the last 30 years. One of the guys got a big grin on his face and affirmed that indeed a Yunus did work there but that he had actually been in the US for the last 4 years. He showed me a photo of Yunus now on his phone and although it had been 11 years and I couldn’t have told you first certain, I was pretty sure it was the same guy that befriended us over a decade ago. I was disappointed that he was not still there but they invited me in for tea and we chatted and I told them that the hospitality from their family is one of the things that drew me back to Istanbul. They told me to stop by anytime for tea or if I needed anything and I did stop by to say hello anything I was in the vicinity.
