Istanbul vapurlari (ferries)…

If you are from Istanbul or if you’ve ever been there, you know the beauty and the crucial role of the ferries in the city life. I mean the commuter ferries that cross the Bosphorus – that is from Asia to Europe, from Europe to Asia, from the main land to the Princes Islands, back and forth, back and forth for years and years. Ferries unite residents who define themselves as being “from the other side” much more than the two bridges that physically unite the city.

They don’t just carry people from one side to the other, they also have an altogether other world living on them. On the open decks you can feed the seagulls with simits (Turkish pretzels), drink ruby coloured Turkish tea in small glasses with narrow waist lines and read your paper fighting the wind which messes your hair but also clears the cobwebs away. On the closed decks you can buy tat that won’t last to the other continent from salesmen who entertain you better than last night’s comedy – or annoy you more than last night’s news….

Why am I writing all this? Because I’ve learnt (with some delay admittedly) that they are planning to replace the old fashioned ferries with ‘modern’ ones that are entirely closed, boring to be in and ugly to look at. There doesn’t seem to be an environmental or efficiency reason for the change (as was argued for replacing double-decker busses in London with new ones). It seems to be a change for change’s sake; for modernity; for conformity; for uniformity…Besides the new ones are much smaller (300 passengers) than older ones (1000-1500) – about 4 new trips for each 1 of old in an already congested waterway. If they change the ferries, they’ll regret it…the way they pulled the tram lines up in the 1960s-70s because buses were more modern only to build them again in the late 1980s. And who will pay? The residents of Istanbul of course – with loss of amenity and their taxes which will finance the new deal.

OK, I am also nostalgic…despite living in London for 15 years, the wallpaper on my mobile phone is still the silhouette of a ferry from Bostanci to the Islands in a pink January sunset. But to keep the old ferries running is not just a nostalgic wish of a ‘European Turk’ (as the likes of me are called these days) but very real wish of the locals too. So much so that they’ve started an online campaign: http://www.vapurumuvermiyorum.org/ I’ve signed it, try it for yourself…

The website is on the right – it’s in Turkish but you can at least see the pictures. And as for my Turkish friends – they can all read English.

Am off to Brussels tomorrow for a week or so – to fight the EU bureaucracy and for some mussels, fries and beer…