We all walked up to the protest sites on Friday, but there were no protesters. We could walk all around Gezi
There was, however, a solid police presence
In blocked-off Taksim Square, every park bench and entrance had 3 or 4 cops sitting on it
On one side of the park, it looked like the demolition had begun
These images were spray painted everywhere
So, we went home Friday, slightly disappointed we didn't get to see any action. Then, on Saturday, Pat was doing some shopping up in that area, and texted us the next two pictures.
He said he stood as protest groups passed him for 20 minutes solid heading to the park. Kev and I hightailed it up there to go check it out.
Just before getting to the protests. Notice the capitalism at work with the guy selling masks.
This guy was leading the chanting. We got very close to him
The crowds were HUGE! It was very peaceful, and most people had smiles on their faces. You could feel their relief about being able to speak their minds, to stand up to what they'd feared for so long. Still it was otherworldly. We were walking up THE shopping street in modern Istanbul with children playing and nothing out of sorts. Then you come upon thousands singing and chanting ready for the government to make the next move.
We climbed up onto the rooftop terrace of a Burger King to get a better view. We watched for 30 minutes or so, then left. As we were leaving, police buses looked like they were being moved around strategically. When we got back to our hotel, we were reading news reports of police dispersing the crowd and arrests, including arrests of foreign nationals.
We did get lucky with the timing of it all to emerge unscathed (foreign nationals were arrested on Sat). It was exciting to be in the middle of what feels like an historic change taking place in a country and region.
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