It’s the small things in life that bridge cultures and continents. A quiet sunlit afternoon at the square adjacent to the Galata Tower turned into a rowdy futbol match as local kids challenged a visiting group of Asian tourists to a pick up game.
Balls whizzing, people ducking and old men yelling advice flushed spectators out from their shops and homes and a community came together for an hour…all due to a beat up ball getting whacked from boy to man and back again. Talk about grass roots diplomacy…we should bring home the suits and send these kids on the road.

Some BJK fans patrolling (!) in Istiklal Street…

The hardcore fan group Çarşı is named after the Beşiktaş çarşı…

Before the game, have your meatballs in the famous meatball restaurant close to the Beşiktaş square. Damn it, i forgot its name but if you ask the place, i guess, people will show where it is. check out the walls:)

On the right, lies the famous Kazan bar where many BJK fans stop by. And many more stand and drink on this square. This is from a previous game. Yesterday, it was unbearably full…

oh i forgot to tell what this derby about: Beşiktaş vs. Galatasaray. Here is the derby news.

Our Turkish basketball team ‘12 Dev Adam’ (12 Giants) will be playing during the basketball world championship in Japan and since Istanbul is in Turkey and this is the Turkish National team and that we HAVE TO support them, I’ll still be jotting down their game times and dates so that you can grab your popcorn and tune into NTV (or it’s healthier counterpart) and cheer/support/yell/scream for our team to win! (I know I will be!)

19th of August: 13:30 Turkey - Lithuania
20th of August: 10:30 Turkey - Australia
22nd of August: 13:30 Turkey - Brazil
23rd of August: 10:30 Turkey - Qatar
24th of August: 13:30 Turkey - Greece

“Uh ah dev adam oooonnnn iki dev adammm uh ah DEV ADAM!” (you gotta be singing that when watching them, it’s their theme!)

Turkish football league starts tomorrow. Turkcell, sponsor of the league, decorated Istanbul streets with a nice ad campaign. Unfortunately, the photos I took are not that nice…

“horse racing is a social need for modern society.” k.ataturk

horses meant a lot for turkish people for centuries; once we were riding them all day long, now keeping up with the modern ways of life we prefer watching them from time to time. though some of us still all day long… according to the turkish jockey club around 30,000 citizens live on betting horses which needs clearly a basic instinct (meaning deep love for horses which i believe is embedded to the genes of some of “friend of ours”) and a total dedication to follow the news in the equestrian world.

here is the turkish jockey club providing info also in english about everything that concerns races, bettings, horses, stables, publications, relevant history, etc. and here is a humble suggestion for every foreigner to experience while breathing in turkish oxygen: do drop by “veliefendi hippodrome” some time to feel the power of one of the most beautiful creatures of mother nature and the real passion of turks instead of watching on tv half naked mares horsing around in summer time and turkish stallions on fire trying to tame them.

Have you heard about the cab that got burnt down by Fenerbahce fans last night during the celebrations on the Asian side?
Have you heard that they were supposedly stopping every cab/car on the ‘Cadde’ and checking to see if there were any Galatsaray fans in them?
Where were you last night? Out celebrating with your friends or sleeping peacefully? Outside Ali Samiyen or in front of your tv, crying and having comfort food after you saw your favorite team lose the cup and hand it over to Galatsaray? (like AmericanTurk probably did..)
I myself was stuck in traffic behind Besiktas and Galatsaray fans, at 1 in the morning, trying to get home..Spectacular.
I need to admit that it scares me to see how violent the fans can get. I sometimes don’t understand how a whole country can be so passionate about 22 men running around in shorts after a ball but I’m still ecstatic that my team got the cup.
I promise this is my last entry on the subject ;)

Galatasaray! In a game against Kayserispor Galatasaray won 3-0 and Fenerbahce lost against Denizlispor 1-1.
I’m having a hard time containing my joy! The streets are probably not a safe place right now though so you might want to stay at home, safe and warm, tucked in away from the trigger happy fans!

The quality isn’t the best because well..I used my mobile phone but it’s the thought that counts? :) Here is a sailing competition that took place on Sunday and that I was watching from my balcony.

Besiktas defeated Fenerbahce (3-2) in Fortis Turkey Cup final game and as usual Besiktas fans were gathering in Taksim Square tonight…

The derby game of the year in Turkish league starts between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. More than 4 thousand policemen will be in Kadıköy to prevent possible clashes between fans. According to Football Derbies site this derby is rated to be the number one. Probably Turks rushed to vote there as usual but this does not make this less important anyway. So at the end of a depressively fine spring day, football fans will be oversatisfying themselves! And it won’t be over yet. There will be another derby just in May 3 between Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş. So in a month Istanbulites will get whatever they can get from football since Turkey won’t be in the World Cup this summer….