9th Day, 8th of May

After a week of very intensive work we deserved an easy day! So we got it! (don't you dare to think it wasn't well deserved!)
Today everybody woke up between 9 and 1o. We slept 1 hour and a half longer than the other days and it made such a big difference!! It's increadible! Everybody woke up happy today! :)
It was a lovely day here in Istanbul. Blue skies and perfect weather! We worked in the morning until noon. After the meeting yesterday night we divided ourselves in groups to prepare for the presentation due on Thursday and for the workshops in Sulukule. It's only an interim presentation but we have to be very organised so we know what we have to do next week (Oh my God we only have 10 days to finish the project! ).
At 12 we met in the hall of the hotel to go to the 'French Sltreet' of Istanbul. Just like most of the streets in Istanbul, Cezayir Sokagi is on a very steep hill. It is just off Istiklal Caddesi (a very busy commercial st where many pedestrians, a small tram and cars devide the space).
This street used to have Roma people as residents but it was transformed into this French style st with a lot of restaurants on the ground floor and residential flats on upper floors. The area is very charming and I have to say that the hill makes it even more interesting.

It seems that a group of French developers decided to rehabilitate the area that was quite run down. So they refurbished the buildings and added a landscape design. It looks like a perfect place to go for drinks after work or for a quick lunch, especially when the weather is nice.

There was only a problem: the prices are very high what explains why the restaurants were empty....Maybe if there were some shops there it would attract more visitors.....well, I still liked it. Natalia, Iyad, Mi, Sara, Cassidy, Michael and me had some food in one of the restaurants of Cezayr (Mi had a huge ice cream!). Meghna, Su, Lantana and Ioannis went to have a pizza somewhere else.

After the meal, Tonito and Cassidy went to Sulukule. Cassidy met Hacer (from the ALA) there and they both visited some houses in the area to try to find out how many people live in each house/room and under what conditions. They found out that some people share a room of less than 20 m2 with 5 or more people. They hardly have any furniture.

Tony met Gokce and both of them went to talk to some people to decide what would be the best place to have the workshop (model making).

The rest of the group walked down on Istaklal back to the hotel. We were checking some shops without buying anything. We still have 2 weeks to go and the drinks at night are tightening the budget for our 3,5 days holidays before we go back to London :)

Back in the hotel, we had to get back to work. It wasn't an easy task...the city and the weather were teasing us to stay outside. There is so much of Istanbul to see!! There's so much of Turkey yet to be discovered.....why can't we work for 3,5 and travel for the remaining 18 days?? Well, I guess we can't have everything....-renata