zellij

Chellah's examples of zellij, or glazed terracotta tile work, are mostly crumbling away on weathered orange stones, but the portal of the ruined mosque and its stunning minaret make it easy to imagine how splendid the structure must have been.

There was also some lovely mosaic work in the ruins of Roman buildings:

marhaba morocco!

I keep pinching myself in disbelief... I get to live here!

the prettiest train station

The Estação de São Bento in Porto is the prettiest train station I have seen, with the landscape, culture, and history of Portugal delicately painted on thousands of tiles that cover the walls of its vestibule. This is the work of famed azulejo painter Jorge Colaço, who created this masterpiece in the early 1900s— I was unaware of it at the time, but I had photographed some of his azulejo panels at the Pavilhão Carlos Lopes in Lisbon last year.



It's truly a remarkable space— wonderful for waiting in, while getting lost in your thoughts over a paper cup of coffee.

yellow and blue

My apologies for the silence, I was away and unplugged for a little spell!

urban

Porto is moody, gritty and grey, with gems of brilliant colour.

stories in blue

Lately my life has been something of a bee's life; buzzing to work and buzzing home, getting up with dawn and rushing off to work again. Life in Büyükçekmece is peaceful, and there isn't much to write about or photograph, so I've been stretching the Zagreb trip to its limits as far as posts are concerned. Elections in Turkey are just around the corner, which is likely to disrupt things, but being far away from the city centre, I'm not sure what to expect. Buildings are plastered with massive campaign posters and obnoxious lines of flags are twisted and draped between and around street lamps, signs, and just about everything. Everywhere I go I feel a politician's eyes on me...

I was in Lisbon at the end of February, and it was so good to be back. Though my Portuguese is still quite limited at this point, and navigating the city is just now becoming a little less confusing, I felt like I was going home.



This beautiful aging pavilion is named after Carlos Lopes, Portugal's first ever Olympic Gold medalist. The details in the azulejos are simply stunning... Lisbon makes me want to draw.

já estou melhor, obrigada

piety

The little tiled niches depicting biblical imagery which I spied throughout my adventure in Portugal, reminded me of the mini shrines I became so familiar with in Nepal— minus the butter lamps, smears of magenta powder, and smoking incense. I suspect the niches are occasionally graced by a melting candle or two, and perhaps some flowers. This need to build a little space of worship, this common thread between such different religions and cultures which lie nearly halfway across the world from each other, is touching. I find that people are more alike than unlike. We just need to remind ourselves of it more often.

more than a touch of blue

lisbon in tiles

It got to the point during my wandering, where I was snapping photos of tiles nearly every ten steps. Lisbon is a city of unexpected colour combinations which somehow work harmoniously together— salmon and cerulean, saffron and bordeaux. Many of the city's buildings are tiled in mesmerizing patterns, which naturally pulled me to extract my camera from my bag, with oooohs and aahhhhhs.



Turkey has a rich ceramic and tile tradition, with gorgeous cobalts and floral motifs, that I can't help but wonder why there aren't more buildings covered in tiles. The fairly new Hacıosman metro station has massive panels of stunning Iznik tiles which feature the çintemani motif, a pattern of three circles, representing royalty and power. I imagine the cost of tiling entire metro stations would be astronomical, but it's just so lovely— and what a way to keep a tradition current.