Previous page : The mesmerising interior of the Blue Mosque . Left : Istiklal Street , used by three million people every day .
But none of it is real . The objects are all real , the narrow triple-story 19th-century house I ’ m in is real , but the rest is all out of the imagination of Turkish Nobel Prize for Literature-winner Orhan Pamuk , author of The Museum of Innocence and creator of this quirky museum . Pamuk painstakingly collected the items from the 1970s from fellow Istanbulians , family and antique shops , and collated them all in this house to conjure a story within a story , leading visitors to believe that Kemal – a fictional character – had shared his fanatical love story with the author before his death . The line between fact and fiction is beautifully blurred here . As it is almost everywhere in a city with a history stretching back to 660 BC , where the myths and legends of the Byzantines , Romans and the Ottomans have become liquefied into the historical bedrock of modern Istanbul and the lives of its 14.5 million citizens . Byzantium , Constantinople , Istanbul ; this city has known many names under its various rulers . Each dynasty ’ s grip left fingerprints that remain to this day : the tracks etched into the earth by Roman chariot races at the Hippodrome ; the crumbling remains of the city walls that the Ottoman army cannon-blasted through after a 53-day siege ; the giant Ottoman-era
Hagia Sophia , where Christian and Islamic art swirl into one .
© DUMITRACHE / SHUTTERSTOCK
Street art . Below : A Turkish hamam .
© PARENTE / ADOBESTOCK
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THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE BYZANTINES , ROMANS AND THE OTTOMANS HAVE BECOME LIQUEFIED INTO THE HISTORICAL BEDROCK OF MODERN ISTANBUL
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© JEDIES / ADOBESTOCK
doorway to the Galatasaray High School , now incongruously bookended by high street shops on Istiklal Street , the city ’ s main drag . Beyond this wide avenue , used by three million people each day , lies a network of side streets that offer up Istanbul ’ s less obvious treasures . A sun-dappled courtyard café that doubles as a street-art gallery , an ancient hamam ( Turkish bath ) housed in a ramshackle wooden building and curiosities like the Museum of Innocence . Each discovery inevitably leads to another , which is how – after making my literary pilgrimage to the museum – I stumble upon Istanbul ’ s own hipsterville , wedged into a few blocks perched at an almost 90-degree angle . Street art peeps out from every nook and cranny of the steeply descending , narrow side streets lined with vinyl stores , vintage clothing shops , local designers ’ originals , art galleries , antique stores and coffee shop after coffee shop .
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 35