A ferry in the distance, a plane overhead. A couple having tea and a group of young men hanging around, enjoying the view along with everyone else. Small waves full of jellyfish rolling through time. Cement sidewalks wet with drops from splashes against the rocks. It is one of the reasons that Istanbul is so magical. In so many big and small ways, the Bosphorus is Istanbul.

The attack last Saturday on İstiklal Avenue shook me up. Not just because it happened in a place that I have walked often, a short distance from my apartment, but because I don’t know what is happening to the city I love.

There have been many days when I wish I could have transported my family and friends to Istanbul so that they could sit and have tea with me at sunset by the Bosphorus. For me, it has become a place that calms the mind. So the other evening, when I took out my voice recorder and shot some small videos of the strait, I hoped to capture just a tiny bit of that magic.

I want to focus on the city I love so very much in a such a very uncertain time.