Istanbul's basements hide miracles

Getting up with a headache from the previous night: raki fills your soul with melancholy, but it’s even worse what it does to your body. I need a coffee, a real one. Few seconds later, I am surrounded by hundreds of people going up and down Cihangir, enjoying first rays of sunshine, drinking cay and hoping some famous director of soap operas will notice them. The smell of Turkish coffee from innumerous bars in this neighborhood is irresistible. One of them looked particularly inviting.
While I was relaxing on the comfortable, red sofa, an old man was talking about me with the bar owner. At the end, Istanbul has just 15 million inhabitants, so if there is a new face in the bar, everybody knows it. And so, as a new face should always do, I got up, concentrated, and in my very best Turkish presented myself to the old man. The never-ending dialogue started. Did I know anything about Istanbul cinema? Could I imagine how the City used to be during ‘70s? Have I ever heard of Sener Sen? I did? And I loved his movie “The Bandit”? Yes, exactly, it was shot in Tarlabashi! Oh, it’s his favorite neighborhood too! One topic led to another, and at the end, the old man offered himself to show me his very own museum! At the end, he used to be a famous movie director, and certainly he had some great memories.
The museum was not the right word for what I’ve found in the basement of the old house where the man spent last 60 years of his life. Five square meters of magic would be a more appropriate description. Tons of photos, toys, writings. But the best was yet to come. Have I ever heard of Antalya Altin Portakal Prize? Ofcourse I have! And here it was, under the couch, carefully hidden, laying there for the past 30 years. The highest recognition of all the hard work of this old director was there, and he was more than proud to see the admiration in my eyes. I got to have a photo with the old man and his Golden Orange. And the happiest moment of Istanbul adventure.
Another goodbye, may God take care of you, may you live in wealth and happiness.. I was too excited to go home, so I wandered around for hours, feeling that Istanbul finally embraced me as part of itself. And it was not stunning mosques, breath-taking sunsets nor delicious food of street-vendors. It was the magic that can happen anywhere in the world, a random meeting with a random, special person. But it happens in Istanbul.