2 May, 2012, IstanbulBeat
Two cries, as throaty and resonant as bullfrog songs, often echo around the streets near Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence: “Eskiciiii!” and “hurdacııı!”
They are the self-annunciations of junk or used-item dealers — hurdacı and eskici in Turkish — who prowl the gentrified neighborhood of Çukurcuma pushing wooden carts over cobblestones, on the lookout for discarded goods they can pick up and try to sell.
The rundown neighborhood where Pamuk bought the museum building more than a decade ago has since become one of Istanbul’s must-see tourist destinations. Most of the businesses on the museum’s street are now antique shops, selling bits of Istanbul nostalgia that wouldn’t look out of place in the Museum of Innocence itself.
Julia Harte 