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From Basket Shop to Press Room This is one of my favorite Istanbul scenes: The Sepetçiler Kasri, or Hall of the Basketmakers, prominent on the shore of the Golden Horn, with the spires of the Topkapi Palace Harem rising above it and a restored kayik (traditional wooden coastal freighter) moored on the quai. It's one of those scenes straight out of the 17th or 18th centuries that you come across in Istanbul every now and then. The restored Basketmakers' Hall is now the Istanbul headquarters of the Turkish government's Directorate of Press and Publishing, a beautiful building where I go to pick up my Turkish press credentials on each visit. I know, I know: it wouldn't have looked exactly like this. But so many people come to this great city in search of nostalgia and look for it in the wrong places that it's nice when a nearly-authentic scene appears by itself. |
