books and gelato, a match made in heaven

Is there anything more blissful than a bowl of gelato and a book? NO!!! 

I just came across a bookstore in my explorations of Nisantisi on foot. Knowing my weakness for books, I contemplated not going in, for a full 4 minutes, outside the store, weighing out the pros and cons of going in vs. not going in.  Going in won that match. My  resistance lasted 20 seconds, my decision further compelled by my lie that I will buy only a book or two. I came out 20 minutes later with 9 books.

Elif Safak--The Gaze, The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love

Orhan Pamuk--Snow, My name is Red

Mohsin Hamid--The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Aravind Adiga--The White Tiger

Continuing with my walk, I discovered a gelato store. Another weakness of mine. Only after I sat down in Cremeria Milano, did I notice they also had a store in Toronto. How ironic. I came all this way to enter a shop in Istanbul when I could have done the same in Toronto. I have to try out that store with a good book in hand to see if I would have a similar experience as here.

Great ambience? My kind of place

It is Saturday morning, and I am wandering Nisantasi in search for a good cup of coffee, waiting for Murat. I have noticed several things in conjunction sway me to a cafe or restaurant, some obvious, some idiosyncratic. Menu. Type of music playing. Ambience. Location. Non-smoking. The type of  customers it attracts/are attracted to it. It is rare to find a place that fulfills ALL these criteria but one strives to at least to be on the lookout for a place that has potential. 

More striking or memorable is when there is discrepancy between several criteria. Imagine this an upscale Italian restaurant, dimly lit with Grecian pendant lights, beautiful ornate Victorian chairs with plush pale green seats and Wham "Wake me up before you go go". What a mood killer! Not that I am anti-Wham. No, I do enjoy a little George Michael here and again but of my own volition and DEFINITELY not when I am in a nice restaurant, trying enjoy my meal.