Pretending to play the violin and dying in a pool.... and Delightful Turkish Food

My first job here in Istanbul was for a music video for a Turkish artist. The concept was quite interesting but it did mean that I had to pretend to be able to play the violin, which sounds like a pretty simple task. Not for me!
I found it really hard to hold it correctly, its actually not as easy as it looks but after getting the real violinist to show me, about a 100 times, I managed to hold it like you're supposed to, kind of. The noise that I made with that beautiful instrument was just horrendous, I felt so sorry for the team, its was a killer and I had to do it several times!

I have only done a few music video's before and I knew it was going to be a long day, it always is, 16hrs later I managed to stagger home and pass out on my bed lol!

Delightful Turkish Food

I have discovered some really nice Turkish treat, and the food here is pretty cheap as well which is great.
I have to say that two of my favorite things I have tried are Baklava and Simit.
Baklava is sweet and made of pastry, walnuts and almonds. I have a real sweet tooth so I  really love this, but its pretty rich so even though they are really small, one is enough.
In Istanbul they have pastry shops pretty much on every street corner selling Baklava and other pastry treats.

Simit is something pretty simple, its basically a bagel with sesame seeds. They have different types as well, one which is slightly lighter with olive paste inside, my favorite! When I bought it I thought it was going to be sweet as the bread looks similar to a croissant. The olive paste it looks like its filled with chocolate, but they are so yummy!
They are sold fresh in the morning by a man with a little box on the street and they are sold with fillings in the cafe just down the road from our apartment.

This weekend I am flying to Mardin so will try and get some images, apparently its a stunning city so am looking forward to it :)

Love,
Em xx

Istanbul

Day 1:
I arrived in Istanbul late Monday evening, and as soon as I stepped out of the plane I realised how much hotter it is over here! Even though we have actually had a decent summer in the UK, Turkey win hands down. It wasn't just hot, was baking and this was in the evening!
Anyway I quickly regretted wearing jeans, a jumper and black boots :P
I got picked up from the airport and driven to the model apartment, driving from the airport to the city there was this absolutely stunning bridge taking into the city.
It almost looked like a blue, glistering waterfall and whilst on the bridge you could see all the city lights and it was just beautiful.Unfortunately my phone had died by this points so no pics(see the image above the picture is not mine, I found it on
http://ninjacrunch.com/20-beautiful-photos-of-bridges/ )

It was pretty impossible to get any sleep just as it was so hot, needed a few more hours of beauty sleep to be fair but when I arrive to a new place I always find it hard to sleep properly the first night anyway.

Day 2: We had 6 castings in one day, which is usually pretty full on as in most places you need to get there yourself and with tight casting schedules it can be really stressful, but, we are pretty spoiled as we have a lovey driver that picks us up from the apartment in the morning and then makes sure that we make all the castings in time.
My agency Artroom Models is absolutely lovely, the bookers are so welcoming and nice and the other girls are lovely too, so all good :)

So far I haven't really seen that much for Istanbul as we have spent most of our time in the car, and the city is pretty big so am glad we are travelling by car.

As soon as I have some time to explore the city more I will take some images, from what I ahve seen though, Istanbul is gorgeous!

Love,
Em xx