Bye bye, Istanbul Again.

After living in Turkey for the past three months, it is time to depart.

We have danced Tango in Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Ankara, and Samsun.

We have traveled as far south as Antalya and as far east as Trapzon. West to Gelibuli. We have traveled by car, bus and plane. In Turkey, it’s so easy to take the bus, but very limited in train travel.

The larger cities have good bus, tram and train systems.. but as to a schedule, maybe, kindof and its possible.
The driving in Turkey is for the mostly good. Most of the commonsense rules of driving etiquette are employed. Flash your light’s means I want to pass you, so move over. Horn honking is very prevelant all over Turkey. For any reason, honk your horn, although I read it is prohibited after 10pm?

But the occasional crazy left turning from the right lane occurs.
The rules in bigger ciites are no rules for me but there are for you. Sound familiar? Florida?

Next on our travel list of locations is Petra Jordan.

Couldn’t resist going to this new marathon, as I have always wanted to visit this part of the world.
All those old desert stories come to mind.
Now add tango. We’re in.

We get to stay in Aqaba Jordan on the gulf of Aqaba for a few days before going out yo Petra. Hoping to visit Wadi Rum too.

This part of the world is similar yet foreign.

My eyes are accustomed to seeing large swaths of green forests of the northwest USA or beiges of the prarie plateaus of Argentina.

It will be a visual change to view the vast lands of deserts and sandstone canyons and the differences in the colors of the landscape.

Hot days, cool nights and lots of tango!!!

Abrazo

Baby…IT’S HOT !!!

So today, for the first time in 10 days, the weather is glorious and only 89 with a little wind.

The recent heat wave that engulfed not only Turkey but most of southern Europe really was a wake-up call for many.

Physically dealing with this kind of heat meant staying indoors, most of the day until 18 or 19 hours in the evening.

One day we went on a boat ride to escape the weather.

And even then, when venturing out, you were immediately hit by a wall of heat. OMG. It literally takes your breath away.

So, I’m trying to imagine dancing tango under these conditions.

Yes, we tried to tango at quite a few local Antalya milongas. At most, the air conditioning could not keep up, and the added body heat made it unbearable for me.

I found myself stopping dancing after 2 songs. Trying to dance a full tanda of 4 songs was impossible for me.

At this point, that is an advantage in Turkishtango as you dance on an open embrace. So very little body contact.

Me, I just can’t do this, as Argentinetango to me is a close embrace.

Period.

With lots of indoor time, I spend some time reading on social media. Came across this article, which I would like to share.

Dimintri from the Tango Parnter app recently released the results of a survey he conducted about people’s opinions on Milongas, whether it’s friendly or has terrible dancing. He wrote about his belief that it’s the responsibility of the organizer to be aware of all situations. Good and Bad

Heres the link to article:

https://thecurioustanguero.com/better-milongas-lets-make-it-happen/

I will just comment on one that I have experienced.

As we have attended many milongas in İstanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and marathon s in Turkey: Istanbul, Cappadocia and Antalya and in Spain: Tarragona, milongas in Madrid and Barcelona.

In both countries, we are the foreigners, and we have had a mixed reaction to us. Not really welcoming or either shunned, just accepted or ignored by locals. I would say not much curiosity.

It is an issue as I love to dance tango, and my body is enchanted by the music. I move in my seat to the rhythm of the music.

My partner is the same, as he plays a bandeon and probably knows most of the tango orchestras and singers. So together we are musical as dancers and only dance Argentinetango.

We are not shy people.
We are very kind people.
We love to share in Tango.

So here’s an idea for organizers of Milongas and festivals.

Would it be so difficult to have a table or chairs set aside and marked for visitors. This way, all the locals would know are visiting?

And for Marathons, would it be so difficult to have a table or two reserved for first-time event attendees?

Or maybe a section for foreigners, so locals can choose to meet the travelers?

Maybe we should get buttons made that say in the local language:

We are visiting from Buenos Aires and look forward to a tanda?

I find most tangeros are wonderful once the ice is broken and conversations happen, but there is no reason for attitudes of superiority or inferiority as we are all people who should treat each other with respect and kindness and continue to dance tango.

The Joy of Traveling

Istanbul, the city of many mysteries and relics from the past, offers its visitors an amazing experience.

As we like to be local when we travel, we ride the buses, take the trains, trams and ferries all over this vast city of 15 million

It is such a huge city that it can take up to two hours to cross from an outlying sections to the edge of the city by the Bosphorus Sea and not even cross to the Asian side of the city, which can stretch for another two hours.

There is so much traffic that to go any distance by bus is a minimum of an hour, and depending on traffic can take up to two hours to go 8 km.

But the views and the people are wonderful.

Bodies are packed very close together, but the men are mostly respectful of the women and children.

Sometime you enter the bus in front and pay with your pass. Other times on crowed buses, you are entering from the rear doors.

To pay for your journey, you hand your bus pass to the next person, and they send it forward to the driver to pay your fare.

Minutes later, your pass comes back in the same manner.

Passing forward or back. But to me, the amazing part is that it gets returned.

Ride the tram on Sultanamet, and you pass the ancient Roman sistern, the Hagia Sofia, the Blue mosque, and parts of the ancient aqueduct system that brought water into Istanbul in the times of the Roman Empire.

Add to this visual mixture, the restaurants and the variety of foods and goods to buy and enjoy, and before you are even aware, a week has gone by. You might even be a bit exhausted.

Then there’s the Tango world here.

Remember Türkiye is a country of Muslims but not a Muslim country.

There are two types of tango danced here, Argentinetango and Turkishtango.

Closed and open embrace.

Using Hoy Milonga and Facebook, it is possible to find all the milongas here.

But be aware that some are in old buildings with no elevators and a 4th or even 5th floor walk ups.

While others are in restaurants and bars, almost none are on street level.

The problem for me is the number of people here who are smokers. There seems to be many more tango dancers that smoke here in İstanbul than in Buenos Aires.

Smoking is not allowed inside but only outside on the terraces and decks.

As to admission prices range from
80 T ₺ to a high of 125 ₺ [similar to prices in BsAs about 800 peso to 1500 pesos.

At my favorite milonga at the Armada Hotel, for example. This milonga has been going on for 24 years. There are tables surrounding the floor, while at Tangoist, Tango Nar [ all in Tasksim], there are chairs against the wall.

Sometimes, the host seats you at a table, and other times, it is free for all. Turks do not believe in saving seats, even if all your stuff is left there, someone else will sit there.

The most wonderful part of this…
Yes, there is Argentinetango all over the world to find.

So far this year, we have danced in Spain and in Turkey. In September, we are off to Petra, Jordan for a marathon.

Traveling just takes time, money and patience.

Making new friends and discovering a new place for a milonga in any given country is why we travel.

To be able to dance, to travel and enjoy all that is there, is truly a gift.

With gratitude to you my reader, who encourages me to write and foto.

Abrazo

Late August

Its late August. Where did the time go? A moment ago it was June.

As we prepare to travel to the the USA for a month or so, my thoughts focus on the experiences of living and dancing in Istanbul.

Primarily, this city is a dichotomy of new and old creating a force field of energy that is unique to this city alone.

Stark clean modern underground trains [the Metro] take you from one area to the next in minutes, but only until midnight during the week and 24 hours on Friday and Saturday.

Car and taxi traffic is incredible toxic during early morning rush hour and again in the evening. Never take surface transportation during these hours if you can get to your destination via a train or tram or ferry.

This city has buses, ferrys trains, trams and a funicular, rentable scooters and motorcycles. But my favorite is always walking except uphill, and there are many hills in İstanbul as Istanbul is historically known as the City of Seven Hills

Living in Buenos Aires, I walk alot but here in İstanbul am walking almost double the distances as everything here is very large and far flung.

Residing in the part of the city called Şişli, close to Osmanbey train station, we are able to go to the milongas in Taskim or Beyoğlu by train in 10 or 15 minutes as as we are one or two stops away.

Most milongas are not on ground level, unless you are at the Armada Hotel [changing to Monday] or Zeytuna on Thursday. In my opinion, it’s one if the best in the city.

Many milongas are difficult to find on first attempts. You must listen for the tango music or see another milongeros entering the space. Sometimes asking the nearby restaurants owner works too. What a relief to arrive at the correct place, especially after climbing the stairs as most Istanbul buildings are fairly old and do not include elevators.

Often the spaces are very small, some with beautiful old floors and antique trim on the ceilings. While others are checkerboard black and white tile or plain linoleum. A few are in basement and others are in shopping malls. A great variety of spaces as the dancing in İstanbul is as varied as the places.

There is style I would name Turkish Tango. Its very different from Argentine Tango. It is usually excercized by younger dancers in open embrace, with no musicality or connection and involves lifting the legs high on crowed floors and lots of giros [turns] too. Especially on crowed floors. Injuries do happen. Seems more like gymnastics than tango to me.

Fortunately, we have found spaces to dance the tango we love and practice, Argentinetango.
Having a few helpful tango friends, we discovered a few other practitioners of Argentinetangoas we know it. Close embrace, and listening to the music. This discovery made our dancing so much more enjoyable at many milongas.

Shortly we will dance in a few cities in the USA, one east coast, Miami and two west coast cities, San Francisco and Seattle.

Look forward to this. Visiting some friends not in contact with for over two years…should be exciting.

Istanbul stories

We’ve been here two months and continue our discovery of all the milongas in the city while exploring the food and nightlife that exist here.

We love Tango. We live Tango. We love Tango. We live Tango.

But sometimes a change is really good for the hips and heart. [Think tango and then blues fusion]

On Saturday night in the heart of Taskim, we found a blues club Kumsaati Blues Club. The club holds about 50 people and to gain entrance requires walking down the stairs to the cellar from the street. Think Greenwich Village vibe in the 1970s. The beer is on tap, the music is loud and good and smoking is only permitted outside. Was a fun experience sitting in club in Istanbul listening to 3 guys wail out blues riffs on their guitars.

Later that night we walked to the main street at 1.30 in the morning, but we were not tired. So we went in search of more music.

We found a great club for nightime Jazz. Coq Coq Pera is a Thai restaurant down the street from the Pera Palace that serves traditional thai food in a beautiful environment
complete with an outdoor
garden deck.

On the night we visited, there was a jazz trio, stand up bass, saxophone and guitar with a soulful singer. The space is a mixture of intimate bar space with a few couches and chairs. We tried to dance tango on the floor but we needed different shoes or powder, but still had a blast playing around with the jazz and 60’s sounds

The following day, after celebrating two Cancer friend’s birthdays we decided on Sunday night to go dancing again, we looked for a place to do some more salsa dancing…in a turkish city to find Latin dancing was not that difficult.

We found it at the Grand Pera AVM, a mall with a large open space on the top floor that offered Salsa lessons in one area and Batcha classes in the other room with Latin rhythms playing continually.