After visiting the exhibition Matter+Light II at Bourosan Music House (highly recommended, on for only 2 more days) we discovered HiC, a very original interior design shop only a couple of minutes away from there… Find colorful Kilims, fun chairs and boxes, shelves and anything to spice up your apartment. Over in the old city, Sulthanamet we wondered the streets only to arrive in tourist hell, which the Grand Bazaar is the absolute epitome of. If you want to shop we highly recommend the Spice Market, or Egyptian Bazaar instead. Here you will find everything you were expecting to buy in Istanbul just as much, it’s just less of a hassle. Divan is a great little shop if you are looking for jewelry, scarves and caftans. Delicious Black Cod at Zuma,  Rainbow Arabia gig at Babylon and sleepy time…

For a special last day we traveled all the way uptown to the slightly surreal setting of the Sabanci Museum, an Italian-style Villa and beautiful garden overlooking the Bosphorus. While most of the interiors and current exhibitions didn’t really blow us away, we were incredibly touched by Sophie Calles project “For the Last and First Time”. Divided into two parts, one enters the realm of physically blind people at first only to continue into the world of Istanbul’s inhabitants which have never seen the sea. A very poetic and emotionally charged exhibition, which left us very eager to have a bite a their trendy Restaurant MüzedeChanga.

Bye, bye Istanbul… Find more insight on the Biennal itself in our next issue, out this fall!

Bourosan HiC Divan Rainbow Arabia Sabanci Museum For the Last and First Time MüzedeChanga

By Cosima Bucarelli