Taksim square, Istanbul
After our first five concerts, we have two days to relax in Istanbul. At first I thought: ‘Hey, that is strange: we play during the week, and not in the weekend?’ But if you think of it, it is perfectly logical, since we play at University stages, and a lot of students probably go home in the weekend. Istanbul is nice as ever. We visit two concerts at the Akbank Caz Festival, of which the first is a group with my friend bassist Dion Nijland, called ‘Talking Cows’. Crazy and nice to meet him in Istanbul, while we live only at a one kilometer distance in Holland. Ceylan and her husband Doruk take us on a very nice walk, through a park with plenty of cats (Ceylan loves them) and we go shopping afterwards. I buy two funny T-shirts for the little people at home.
Nex day we are supposed to be fresh after one and a halve day rest in Istanbul, but the contrary is true: the tiredness really comes out, and the travel to Eskisehir is really heavy. We have to search for energy before the concert starts, so this is not an easy one. But it turns out fine: nice hall, great audience, nice facebook discussions afterwards. Behsat’s older brother comes once again to see Behsat play: his brother took the train from Ankara, and even has to leave right after the concert to be home in time. Touching brotherly love. Behsat is very happy and performs a great concert. He has been doing so the whole tour by the way.
Next day there is a whole other vibe in the bus: everybody has gained energy from our gig in Eskisehir. The voyage to our next stop Bursa is shorter than the other days – we travel 4/5 hours most of the times – so today we had the possibility to get up later than usual, which feels great. In Bursa we stay in a hotel on the Campus (a very nice Holiday Inn by the way), so again we don’t see a lot of the city itself. But I were here already two years ago, and then I had enough time to visit the old center. The hall is big: we play for over 650 visitors, and it feels like our best concert up to now. Unfortunately, a part of the audience gets out at the wrong exit, so quite some people miss the CD selling spot and us signing and talking there. But maybe it’s even for the better, because 650 autographs and photo’s would be really too much….
Ceylan is in love with every cat she sees 🙂
Talking Cows, with Dion Nijland on bass
On the road from Istanbul to Eskisehir
First song in Eskisehir, Ceylan is still backstage
On the road from Eskisehir to Bursa, on a beautiful stop, where time stopped somewehere in the sixties
Concert at Bursa