Culture / Turkey

A Dance For Haydarpasa

Haydarpasa and Trains (a dance for haydarpasa)

It began like this:

“Let’s meet at Haydarpasa. I think there’s some kind of performance there tonight.”

I had a rendezvous with a film photographer expat, a friend-of-a-friend with a vintage Rolleicord. Haydarpasa Train Station is not a usual place to meet at 9pm, but it is near my Kadikoy apartment and I was intrigued. What could possibly be happening in an abandoned train station on a Thursday night?

Abandoned Haydarpasa Trains (a dance for haydarpasa)

As I walked towards itβ€” past the green-lit Haydarpasa Mosque, past the fenced-off and unmoving trainsβ€”Haydarpasa glowed a dim orange in the evening light. Climbing the stairs, music wafted out of the train station– old music, evocative music. Beautiful cinematic tango music.

Kabir in Haydarpasa (a dance for haydarpasa)

The Haydarpasa Train Station is an elegant gem of a building that harkens back to a time when train travel was romantic and practical, when Damascus or Baghdad or Tehran was just at the other end of the tracks, uncomplicated by geopolitics. It’s a grand, soaring thing.

There is poetry in this building.

Inside Haydarpasa (a dance for haydarpasa)

It’s unused now. The trains, slowly but surely, have stopped fanning out across Anatolia; in theory the transit hub is closed for “repairs” but when, if ever, it will reopen is unclear. There is talk of turning this classic building into a(nother) hotel.

Haydarpasa Train Tracks (a dance for haydarpasa)

Haydarpasa (a dance for haydarpasa)

This is where the late-night tango comes in.

The “performance,” it turns out, was a tango protest against the development of Haydarpasa Train Station.

Tango in Haydarpasa (a dance for haydarpasa)

I tucked myself into a corner with the photographer and let myself drift away on dreams of Astor Piazzolla. The tango dancers spanned all ages, with the very old dancing with the very young, middle-aged uncles and twenty-something girls, teenage boys and women who could be their mothers. This was more than a performance– this was a community, coming together in the dark high-ceilinged terminal of the train station. It was a celebration of a special Istanbul space, of grandeur gone by. I wasn’t expecting something so ethereal, so moving, but that’s just what it was. It was an ode to Haydarpasa.

Tango in Haydarpasa (a dance for haydarpasa)

I sat in the hazy shadows as the empty trains stretched out like ghosts and just absorbed the wonder of it all, the ineffable magic of Haydarpasa Train Station. This building remembers a hundred years of travelers and dreamers passing through, remembers empires long gone. Today it contains our tango ode; tomorrow it will be empty again.

 

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43 Comments

  • Dalo 2013
    January 7, 2014 at 4:45 AM

    Another great series of photos…best wishes and safe travels in ’14.

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:27 PM

      Thank you! All the best to you, too.

      Reply
  • Very Hungry Explorer (@VHungryExplorer)
    January 8, 2014 at 1:34 AM

    Love this post, it has a touch of magic to it!

    Reply
  • jhowell1221
    January 8, 2014 at 5:19 PM

    Wonderful post. I feel as though I was there (and wish I was, but have enjoyed living it vicariously!). Thank you for sharing your magical experience and such beautiful photographs with us!

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:31 PM

      Thank you so much! Sharing these little wonders is my pleasure.

      Reply
  • segmation
    January 8, 2014 at 5:47 PM

    You need to go back and bring many to tango with you!

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:31 PM

      I need to get someone to teach me how to tango! Then, next time, I can participate.

      Reply
  • carlitab54
    January 8, 2014 at 6:05 PM

    Thank you. That was a good read. your post takes me to the place and I can just visualize the people on the dance floor.

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:32 PM

      I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  • awax1217
    January 8, 2014 at 6:53 PM

    You got to love the tango. It is so rich. To bad I have three left feet.

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:32 PM

      It’s a beautiful dance, and it’s always seemed so complicated to me. I would love to learn how to tango!

      Reply
  • M. R.
    January 8, 2014 at 8:03 PM

    Love the B&W especially, with your way of processing that engenders the old time. Congrats!

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:33 PM

      Thank you! I shoot film, so there’s almost no post-processing– analogue photography has a naturally nostalgic feel. πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • M. R.
        January 12, 2014 at 1:52 PM

        Actually, I meant ‘processing’ in the real sense, not done with PhotoShop. I had erroneously thought you might be introducing some fx in the bath … my husband did, from time to time. Shooting film in this day and age is a skill almost beyond compare! πŸ™‚

        Reply
  • Turkey's For Life
    January 8, 2014 at 9:12 PM

    We love this building – really hope it remains as a station! And what a way to protest. Love your photos.
    Julia

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:34 PM

      Thanks Julia! It’s one of my favorite buildings in Istanbul; I hope whatever happens with Haydarpasa allows it to maintain its integrity.

      Reply
  • Paul Bowler
    January 9, 2014 at 1:00 AM

    Wow, that’s great, love the photos!

    Reply
  • Fraukje
    January 9, 2014 at 4:41 AM

    It’s magical indeed! What a great post πŸ™‚

    Reply
  • Laxman Prajapati
    January 9, 2014 at 6:19 AM

    Nice post πŸ™‚

    Reply
  • kathleenahulbert
    January 9, 2014 at 7:13 AM

    Magic. I love.

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:35 PM

      I’m glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  • bachinoregon
    January 9, 2014 at 1:20 PM

    I’m glad you posted these pictures from this tango! In high school, I attended Argentine tango classes with a friend. Your comment on teenage boys dancing with women who could be their grandmothers is so true!

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:36 PM

      It certainly adds an extra layer of delight to the performance πŸ™‚

      Reply
  • darkersideoflight
    January 9, 2014 at 4:30 PM

    enjoyed the story and photography

    Reply
  • The Vagabond Baker
    January 9, 2014 at 4:42 PM

    Beautiful, what a magical experience. It seems so fitting for such an magnificent grand building. I hope with all my heart that their protest has an effect. I travelled through Haydarpasa Station in January 2008, an ethereal place to depart Istanbul on a misty winter morning, in a time-worn wagon-lit to Aleppo, Syria. The journey seems of another time now…

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:37 PM

      In many ways, that journey IS of another time– strange to think that six years can in many ways be a lifetime. I’m jealous of your journey– it’s wonderful that you were able to have that experience!

      Reply
      • The Vagabond Baker
        February 3, 2014 at 5:29 AM

        yes, it’s like a dream now, lost to another era. Thank you xx

        Reply
  • naililsanicne
    January 9, 2014 at 5:10 PM

    I was left wanting more! Lovely photos of a great building and more important, beautiful people celebrating life together.

    Reply
    • Katrinka
      January 12, 2014 at 12:38 PM

      Thank you! It’s a lovely community we have here; it’s moments like this that remind me of it.

      Reply
  • Kerry
    January 10, 2014 at 12:47 PM

    This is just magical.

    Reply
  • aroundedu
    January 12, 2014 at 11:59 AM

    I am an amateur tango singer. The shower/cooking type. I would have loved to be there. Astor…

    Reply
  • insiderwell
    January 12, 2014 at 11:56 PM

    Gorgeous pictures. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  • Gina
    January 15, 2014 at 8:33 AM

    What an incredible sounding night! Beautiful pictures…and beautiful words to accompany them, Katrinka. Loved this.

    Reply
  • sherayx
    January 16, 2014 at 7:36 PM

    Great post!

    Reply
  • Dzulfiqar Fathurrahman
    January 19, 2014 at 1:25 AM

    Nice! The old building looks like a museum here in Jakarta, Indonesia

    Reply

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