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Charmed By Istanbul

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Aug 02, 2013
in Retirement/Living
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travel in Istanbul turkey
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Return To The Paris Of The East

Lief and I are right back where we started…in Istanbul.

Lief and I met about 16 years ago. We were married four months later. Between the wedding and our planned joint-relocation from the United States to Waterford, Ireland, we squeezed in a “honeymoon.”

I qualify that description of the trip we took because it wasn’t a typical honeymoon. With us came my daughter, who I didn’t want to leave behind at this critical time of our lives, and, as well, Lief’s long-divorced parents, both of them. The explanation for their participation in this expedition is difficult to remember today. It seemed to make sense at the time.

Our honeymoon destination was Turkey. I remember few details from the 10 days we spent in Istanbul and along this country’s coast. My memories are not so much of events or places as they are of sensations. I remember Kaitlin being timid and shy, uncomfortable with the attention her blond hair and blue eyes attracted among Turkish men. I remember Lief’s parents bickering as two once-married but long-divorced people might be expected to do finding themselves together in confined spaces for extended periods.

Istanbul I remember as, simply, grey. The mosques, the cafes, the bazaars…in my memory, they are all grey and uninviting. This is one of the most important cities in the world, with one of the longest and most richly varied histories. Could it really be as unappealing as my memory suggests? It seemed worth another look to find out, so here we are again, 16 years later (this time alone).

We landed in Istanbul to clear blue skies and a bright sun. Ten minutes into our first morning out, I turned to Lief and smiled. “This is nothing like I remember,” I said.

Istanbul could be the Paris of the East. Like Paris, the heart of this city has been developed over centuries and is best explored on foot. Everywhere you wander, in every direction you turn, there is something interesting to see, something beckoning you to continue a little farther, something else to discover. As in Paris, great wealth has been consolidated here through the ages and invested in making the place architecturally impressive. For this and many other reasons, this is one of the world’s great, classic, brand cities.

Istanbul is also like New York: young, eclectic, pulsing with energy, fully alive, and a melting pot. The streets are crowded with people from all cultures, moving around with a purpose. Some sport trendy or chic Western attire, others conservative Muslim dress.

And Istanbul is like Panama, one of the earth’s great crossroads. Out in the Sea of Marmara, ships from around the world line up to await their turns for passage through the Bosphorus. Because it is too narrow at some points for two ships to pass each other, traffic through the Bosphorus is one way at a time. Thus the queue of freighters in the Marmara that reminded us of the view out our windows back in Panama City.

Istanbul’s original shoreline has been expanded using reclaimed land to create a park along the waterfront…also like in Panama City. This green space is crisscrossed by walking paths and decorated with flowerbeds of red and yellow.

The old city was surrounded by three sets of stone walls. Where these remain standing, the areas in between are given over to vegetable gardens. The city granted use of the land to citizens with no income so they could cultivate it to grow food. The corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables produced by these communal gardens are offered for sale at weekly farmer’s markets.

“We need more time here,” Lief remarked at the end of our first day out. “We should plan a return trip, with the kids. This is a place we should get to know better.”

I agree wholeheartedly.

From that thought, another follows: What would it cost to invest in a small apartment here?

The section of the city overlooking the Bosphorus is the high-rent district. Houses and apartments here can change hands for tens of millions of lire (at the current exchange rate, 1 lire is worth about US$1.90). However, there is a section, on a hillside overlooking this waterway, that is undergoing a renaissance. The houses here are small and in need of renovation, but you could buy one for less than 200,000 lire.

We don’t have time to investigate further this trip, but we’ll be back as soon as we can.

Kathleen Peddicord

Continue Reading: Where Can I Enjoy A Comfortable Retirement On US$1,071 A Month?

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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