Beyazit

Beyazit was one of the first places that we started to explore in Istanbul. This street is
famous as a textile and shoe production district of the city. As we lived nearby, lots of our
days were beginning with short observation and free writing or at least just walking through

the Beyazit street.

From the very morning the street immerses into a very rush pace. You can see immigrant
workers of all ages from various countries doing hard work. Banners with the
advertisements in Arab languages are proving the fact that most of the workers here are not
Turkish. And in general, workers from this district belong to the lower than average financial
class. Lots of elderly wheelbarrows are carrying heavy loads with the goods that later will be
sent to our countries. Most of the goods are the famous brand replicas, that we usually see
on the shop windows in the malls. Regarding the sellers- almost all of them are men. This
was the first place where I have noticed the fact that there are no so much of women
sellers, as usually there are in Kyrgyzstan.

As I have noticed, those migrant workers and the locals from the Beyazit street are not very
friendly oriented towards the strangers and tourists. As we were passing by them, we could
feel those heavy sights, mutely questioning something like “What are you doing here?”.
So, from the side of the observer, I would not describe this place as one of the most
attractive and picturesque; on the contrary- everything around seemed to be quite dirty and
dusty. Trash, pieces of the cardboard, empty boxes were lying about the streets.
But there is another point here, such places can be regarded as one of the most authentic
and expressing the real atmosphere of the city or the district.