Strange sights

My office is in a the business area of town. Many businesses such as Petrol Ofisi, HSBC, Deloitte and Akbank have their headquarters located here. It is busy and chaotic to say the least.

When you think of business area you think of a downtown area like Manhattan, or like in Melbourne the CBD (central business district). My office is situated in one of the highest towers in this area with all the mod cons you could imagine from retina eye scan automated entry to automated lifts where there are no buttons inside the lift.

But when you look from above, the 14th floor I mean, things take on a different perspective. To the back side of the building you can see one of the hundreds of military zones in Istanbul with soldiers patrolling and training. You can see the fresh new construction of 'Mashattan', and directly below you can see where the endless trash from the construction zone has been buried in some kind of makeshift landfill which reeks and houses endless mosquito's which enter in through any open window even 14 floors up, but lets not get me started on that.

From another window you can see the remains of what used to be here. About three or four gecekondu style houses made of up of things picked up from the roadside or left over PVC sheeting, old tiles and plastic crates stacked up by the hundreds strewn all over the place. Yes, people do live here. In the middle of a business area. They own a couple of cows too which are kept in a flimsy backyard which faces one of the three roads that lead in and out of the area. And to walk by there is no pleasant trip, believe you me, there is a stench that lingers and in summer time is a challenge to anyone's lunch meal.

Today I went to visit someone in their office and from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something moving slowly along the road that runs in front of the military zone. It was a group of nine cows, one after the other, following each other down a road. There was no shepherd (or whatever the correct name is for a cow hearder) or any person for that matter in sight leading this pack. In between the pack were three young calf. They didn't seem bothered by the cars swerving around them or tooting at them and moseyed on their merry way. I couldn't believe the sight I was seeing. Cows in a downtown area. I just could not imagine seeing such a sight in Melbourne. I was truly astonished. I wish I had my camera with me to take a snap shot.

It's just another day in Istanbul......