Was that Deja Vu All Over Again

In an earlier posting I mentioned the difficulty in determining memories from those things that had been retold so many times that they are thought to be memories. The following are not really in that category...but not explained very easily.

First, When I was in Istanbul I constantly had the sense of deja vu. Case in point: as I was wandering around the "Old City" I found a restaurant (the Yeni Regence or New Regency) and I was positive that I had been there before, this restaurant had a whole lot of history as it was the place where the Bolshoviks plotted the Russian Revolution. I knew the exact table where Lenin, Trotsky and the Boys were sitting, and in my "minds eye" I could actually see them. Did I remember and old photograph that I had seen in a biography or history book? Was I there in an earlier life? Or was there another explanation completely?

This happened many times as I explored the City...I experienced the sense of being there at another time, during different circumstances. It was if I had grown up in Istanbul, I never needed a map to find the old places in the City, only the new ones! Enough about my mental aberrations for now...but I may recount some more in a later post.

Back to Istanbul...

My first impression involved the sounds of the calling of prayer times throughout the city...there was a very large Muslim population while I was there and they may be the majority now. The City is dotted with Mosques and from each you could hear the "prayer call" several times a day. There was also the constant sound of sub machine gun fire as the Turkish Military Police (Oskars) shot the rats that were everywhere (some were the size of Cocker Spaniels).

Another impression involved sight, and the dichotomy between the "New City" and the "Old". Modern office buildings, discotheques, fashionable clothing stores, and modern department stores were only blocks from Mosques and structures that were centuries old.

And then there were those impressions created by the sense of smell. Beyond a doubt those memories are the most lasting. Turkey did not treat sewage and the smell of raw feces was overwhelming when you first got there, that coupled with the smell of raw, rotting fish is something that stays with you all of your life...but after six months or so, you really didn't notice it.

More of Istanbul in future posts.