Iman Adnan Sokak

Getting lost can sometimes be a good thing. We crossed the bridge to Beyoglu in search of a street the Lonely Planet said was “the heart of modern Istanbul”. We didn’t find it, not that time, but instead found a street we liked better: Imam Adnan Sokak. There, we found no cars, but bars and cafes with tables on the cobblestone street. There were people drinking tea and playing tavla (backgammon, which Lara will already have told you about), and indie kids drinking beer, and cute goths. We settled upon a bar which had couches, a spiral staircase in the middle, prints from graphic novels all over the walls. This is clearly not much of a tourist area, because when Lara ordered us some raki (and pronounced it with an “I” sound on the end) the guy looked at us blankly. After some persistence we got our raki and learnt that it is pronounced “raku” – and we were wondering why the dudes were laughing and miming at us as though boxing. They thought we were ordering Sylvester Stallone. We sat and drank our raki, and soon enough the owner of the bar, an enthusiastic bloke, came up and tried out some English. He didn’t have much. We have very little Turkish. Out came the phrasebook. Through some bizarre coincidence, he opened it to the page: “will you do it for me”. Hmm. He called in the troops – two younger bar staff who were learning English at school. They hadn’t got particularly far in this endeavour but were trying impressively hard. Eventually we hit upon the universal language of music. We fired band names at one another. Mehmet, an earnest boy of 18, said seriously: I like Metallica. Rammstein? It turns out the two young waiters play in a heavy metal covers band called “melodic” (in Turkish). We asked advice – the back page of our phrase book now contains a list of bands. For Turkish goth metal, he suggested Almora. Also for rock music: Duman, Gilekes, Sebnem Ferah. With her trademark optimism, Lara asked, “Pop?” That list goes: Tarkan, Kenan Dogulu, Sertap Erener. So there you go. Where there may not be much language in common, there is always Metallica.

Posted by Julieanne on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 02.47 am AEST