as jobing in istanbul is not a good deal, one has to do his or her own business, some way. i tried selling fotos on street, which was not really feeding me, but all in all intersting, because İ got some inside view on street business. know its time to try something else, and becauese İ had to produce an advertisement, İ do publish this text here as well:

visit more istanbul!

guided gecekondu tours

İstanbul was growing rapidly in the period from the 1950`ies to 2000. people where mostly coming from the east of turkey, in order to escape both, the desolate economic situation and the civil war . Gecekondu - litterally “built over night” - is the result of this development. simple housing and poor infrastucture at least at the beginning.
so there`s not the one gecekondu style. some are 50 years old, some five, some are bungalow style, some 3-storey-concrete-buildings. and often one style is located just next to the other.

how to discover istanbul`s outskirts?,

well, if you just have one or a few days, you will not really get an overview of istanbul as an whole. on the other hand, if you just take a bus and go somewhere, you will most probably see something interesting.
İ can offer you some guiding. This does not mean, that İ will know evrything worth to be visited, nor, that there will be a strict program what to see. İ just have some experiences visiting european side outer districts, and some knowledge, how the issue gecekondu is discussed in turkish society and western art and sociological literature.

tour example

drive to gaziosmanpaşa and take a walk through old village style gecekondu from the 1950`ies.

have a çay somewhere.

drive to the egde of the city, yes, this city is not neverending.

see examples of planned city enlargenment as a contrast to gecekondu.

go back - this should be enough for one day.

terms:

guiding through gecekondu isn`t like guiding through an museum or offering a bosphorus boat tour - which you absolutly should do, if you`re in İstanbul.
Be aware, that all of us will be strange there. we will be asked, why the hell we`re going there. So it`s much about communication, where İ might be able to help a little bit.

For some reasons İ will guide you to areas, İ`ve never seen before: going every week to the same places will influence them enormous. İ don`t want to show you something pure, but İ think its better to change places.
On the other hand, İ want to learn more about these issues, to be able to show and tell you about more detailed and - of course - because of my couriosity.

mostly the tour can be made by car, which is not available every time. But it`s also possible to do by buses, minibuses and other public transport.

So, İ can`t promise you anything . Therefore ist`s hard for me, to tell a price for my guiding. İ expect costs of my transportation and beside that, what you want and are able to pay if you`re not disappointed.

So, that`s it, you have to do without my very progressive layput, cause İ couldn`t translate to html.