My magical encounter with Istanbul

It was 6:00am and it was still dark when my heart stopped for a second. Between scared and excited, I opened my eyes and run to the window to witness what would become a magical and unforgettable moment for me: I was in the old Sultanahmet neighborhood in Istanbul, listening to the Muslim call to prayer for the first time in my life.

There was a small mosque across a narrow pebble street, right outside my window, so the sound was pretty loud, and I struggled deciding what I should do to fix this moment –and feeling– in my memory: I run for my camera and started filming through the window but, of course, I couldn’t see anything but a black image, only the sound on the back. A short no-image-video that is my only proof of that unique morning when I became part of a different world.

And I really did because that was just the first of many new emotions I experienced during my ten day trip to Istanbul, a destiny I had dreamed about since I was in school and read novels about Turkish princesses. So, a little later I went up to the small hotel’s roof top terrace, where I ate breakfast under a blue sky full of seagulls, amidst tens of gorgeous minarets and in front of the Marmara Sea’s waters.

Feeling part of one of those novels I used to read, I walked out the hotel and started wandering around the narrow pebble streets, where vendors were organizing their colorful Persian rugs and setting tiny tables and chairs where they would later drink apple tea. A few days after my arrival, many of those Turkish men smiled and screamed “Hola, Colombia” when I passed by. I couldn’t believe it, but I started expecting it every morning.

Then, I understood everything was full of magic in Istanbul and fixed in my memory many other images like the indescribable sunset I watched from the Galata Tower: a pink and orange sky over two coasts –one European, one Asian– in the Bosphorus, embellished by the most beautiful minarets and a unique historical atmosphere.

Standing there and watching that sunset, I heard the call to prayer again and felt like flying through history, through my childhood dreams, my adult dreams, my writer dreams.