Each month in Home from Home we ask someone to compare Dublin with another city in which they have lived. Sometimes they are Irish who have lived (or are still living) abroad, sometimes they are expatriates in Dublin. If you drew a line across Europe to try and split it in half, it’d probably start in Dublin and end in Istanbul. Conor knows the two extremes well, and paints a charming picture of life in Turkey – though his wishful thinking concerning the things he’d like to bring back to Ireland makes us slightly sad…
What were you looking for in Istanbul when you decided to move there?
More than anything I think I was looking to have an exciting experience of something different. Although I knew next to nothing about the city, I was inspired by this vague image of a kind of sun-soaked ‘city of the orient’. That image got me curious, and through reading online and listening to my relatives who’d been there, I found out that the city was actually far more modern and Westernized than I’d thought. When I arrived I found this to be the case, but I also saw how it has still maintained a lot of its history alongside its more modern image, and this is what gives the city a lot of its charm – it’s a cliché to say but it really is a kind of melting pot of different cultures and times, and a meeting point for East and West.
What has been the biggest obstacle in settling down in Turkey?
I actually feel surprisingly settled in here already. One of the best things about the city is that it accommodates to a lot of different lifestyles – people who want to live a more Western/free (/alcoholic) lifestyle can live alongside the more conservative and religiously focused peoples, usually without too many problems. But there are some obstacles to feeling completely settled here. I’d say the language barrier is the most frequently felt, because it stops you from properly connecting with the locals. They seem to have a lot of day-to-day banter amongst themselves, and I always enjoy that kind of thing in Dublin, but I can’t yet understand what they’re saying to each other here. Seems to be funny though.
What’s an Irishman’s life like in Turkey?
Good craic! There’s amazing food, great nightlife, and the country is full of incredible places to visit (like Cappadocia or the Lycian Way in the South).
If you could bring one thing back from Istanbul to Dublin, what would it be?
It’s a toss up between the food, the women and the skyline. Bringing back women sounds a tad disrespectful, and you can already find some of the food here, so I’ll go with the skyline. Not very realistic, but that’s my answer!
Words & Photo: Laura Gozzi
