Monday, February 16, 2026

Yesterday I went to check out my old apartment building, which is about a twenty-minute walk from where I'm staying now. It's the second building on the right, on the third floor. The current tenant has put up some kind of blue tarp on the balcony. 

It may not look like much from the outside, but in the late 90s I really loved this place. It was the first apartment I'd ever lived in by myself, with no roommates. I was there for four years, from 1995-99. Until moving to Bozeman in 2009, this was the longest period of time I'd ever lived in a single place as an adult (or at least a close approximation of one). 

       See? Not so bad from the inside        

The location was perfect. The rent was pretty low: on average, about $300 per month, once you factor in the Turkish Lira's triple-digit inflation at the time. It was located in a neighborhood called Muradiye, just a few minutes' walk to much more fashionable areas like Nişantaşı, Teşvikiye, and Maçka. Muradiye was considered much less attractive due to the very steep hill upon which I lived, thus lowering the rent. 

The apartment had two bedrooms and a balcony that had doors leading to both the main bedroom (facing the street) and my living room. I could walk from one room to the other without going through the apartment, which I thought was the coolest thing ever at the time. 

I've lived in literally dozens of apartments over the years, and this one is still one of my favorites. The neighborhood has changed over the past 30 (!) years, with the restaurants and bars of Teşvikiye slowly encroaching. Nevertheless, the utter steepness of Göknar Street has prevented much gentrification, so it looks a lot like it did back when I was on selam terms with, it seemed, practically everyone in the neighborhood.