Sunset on the Bosphorus

'Life can´t be all that bad,' I´d think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, I can always take a walk along the Bosphorus'. (Orhan Pamuk, ISTANBUL- Memories of a City)

Sailing through the Bosphorus is like listening to the voices of the past and present at the same time. Orhan Pamuk nostalgically describes the family walks to The Bosphorus (tur. Boğaz-throat) in his book “ISTANBUL- Memories of a City”. They were supposed to have a beneficial effect on the health of children and adults. In his memories The Bosphorus is a magical and somewhat idealized place,  a kind of collective consciousness of the Istanbulers. During Pamuk´s childhood, visits to The Bosphorus had been prescribed by family doctors for generations. 

Nowadays, the fishermen renting modest fishing boats to  Istanbul’s residents for trips around The Bosphorus have been replaced by shipping companies for tourists. The European coast boasts with its jewels such as the Dolmabahçe Palace, Ortaköy Mosque or Rumeli Castle, as well as modern villas and yachts. The tourist crowds wait for the next cruise ship. 

We also board one of them and, surrounded by a bunch of noisy seagulls, look at  the historical facades of the wooden summer houses Yalı forming a continuous line on the Asian side of The Bosphorus. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these wooden villas served as summer residences for the descendants of wealthy Ottoman families. Due to their difficult maintenance, they were usually not owned by just  one family, but were transferred to another family after a year or two.

During the “Republic period” in the twentieth century Turkish politicians began to emphasize the old-fashioned identity of the Yalıs. For this reason were many of them neglected or destroyed. Those which remain make a proud and calm impression with peaceful greenery in the background. Their distorted facades are reflected on the dark waves of the Bosphorus and gradually disappear with the setting sun. Neither the bathing families nor the beaches, where Pamuk´s mother used to swim, can be seen on the coast of the Bosphorus. Just the sun and the moon’s reflections on the dark water surface remain unchanged. 

"To travel along the Bosphorus, be it in a ferry, a motor launch or a rowing boat, is to see the city house by house, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and also from afar, as a silhouette, an ever-muting mirage." (Orhan Pamuk, ISTANBUL- Memories of a City) 

Západ slnka na Bospore

'Life can´t be all that bad,' I´d think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, I can always take a walk along the Bosphorus'. (Orhan Pamuk, ISTANBUL- Memories of a City)

Plavba bosporskou úžľabinou znamená načúvať hlasom minulosti aj súčasnosti zároveň. Orhan Pamuk nostalgicky opisuje rodinné prechádzky na Bospore (tur. Boğaz- hrdlo). Tie mali mať blahodarný účinok na zdravie detí aj dospelých. V jeho spomienkach je Bosporus čarovným a čiastočne aj zidealizovaným miestom tvoriaci akési kolektívne vedomie Istanbulčanov. Počas Pamukovho detstva návštevy Bosporu dostávali celé generácie na predpis od rodinných lekárov. 

V súčasnosti rybárov prenajímajúcich obyvateľom Istanbulu skromné rybárske bárky na výlety po Bospore nahradili lodné spoločnosti pre turistov. Európske pobrežie sa hrdí palácom Dolmabahçe, mešitou Ortaköy, hradom Rumeli ale aj modernými vilami a jachtami. Davy turistov čakajú na nasledujúcu výletnú loď. 

Aj my nasadneme do jednej z nich a obklopení húfom hlučných čajok neskôr vyjavene sledujeme historické fasády drevených letných sídiel Yalı tvoriacich súvislú líniu na ázijskom pobreží Bosporu. Počas osemnásteho a devätnásteho storočia slúžili tieto drevené vily ako letné rezidencie potomkov zámožných osmanských rodín. Kvôli ich náročnej údržbe väčšinou neboli vo vlastníctve jednej rodiny ale po roku alebo dvoch ich nájom prešiel do rúk inej rodiny. S obdobím republiky v dvadsiatom storočí sa začala zdôrazňovať ich obsolétna národná identita, čomu padli za obeť mnohé z pôvodných Yalı. Tie, ktoré zostali, pôsobia hrdým a vyrovnaným dojmom na pozadí upokojujúceho zeleného porastu. Zhypnotizovane pozorujeme ich zdeformované fasády odrážajúce sa na tmavých vlnách Bosporu postupne miznúce so zapadajúcim slnkom. Na pobreží Bosporu už nevidieť kúpajúce sa rodiny s deťmi, ani pláže, kde sa zvykla kúpavať Pamukova matka už niet. Len odrazy slnka a mesiaca na tmavej hladine Bosporu zostávajú nemenné. 

"To travel along the Bosphorus, be it in a ferry, a motor launch or a rowing boat, is to see the city house by house, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and also from afar, as a silhouette, an ever-muting mirage." (Orhan Pamuk, ISTANBUL- Memories of a City)