A fight camel named Tsunami.

Sushi-seller scene and people besiege Beyoglu district of Istanbul. Only two weeks away was Maximilian Popp, his street, he hardly recognizes again. So he flees to the Camel campaign in Ephesus and is experiencing an ancient sport - with a winner, of his name.

 

Monday, 5 January: Home Where are my boys?

Is that still my street? It looks similar to the old buildings, the potholes, the grocer at the intersection. But since when my neighbors sell sushi? And suits from Italy? I was in Germany, just two weeks, now I am back in Istanbul - and see the street where I live, hardly again.

In the house next door, which had stood empty, a Japanese restaurant has opened, and the locksmith to have a fashion shop ousted. So does that now for a year: Neighbors come and go. The first floor has an architecture firm replaces a Turkish couple, now in the second live a Paris designer instead of a Turkish family. Soon I am the longest serving tenant in the house.

There are, of course for the change is a buzz word:
Gentrification - the Yuppisierung a neighborhood. The Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg am complaining about the hamburgers in the hill districts, the New Yorker in the Meatpacking District. But the change that through Istanbul, gentrification is in motion.

Even three years ago, says Ubeyd, my roommate, it was possible, in the city for 50 euros a month for an apartment for rent. Today is lucky, who in Beyoglu for 300 euros a room there. Ubeyd together and I pay 700 euros for a three-room apartment - and only because our landlady, an elderly Turkish lady, no longer the rent has increased.

Beyoglu was until a few years, a slum. The houses stood empty, adolescents sold drugs, the mafia weapons. Only maniacs or dared criminals in the district on the Golden Horn. But when the Turkish economy began in 2002 to recover, were students and young families in the old flats. This was followed by artists, designers, musicians.

In Beyoglu headscarf girls kissing boys with rings in the nose and tattoos on his arm. In the women to dance clubs fast drum'n'bass rhythms - Lucky Strike in the mouth, gin and tonic in hand, for life in the eyes.

Kerim, who one month before a delicatessen shop in my street has opened up, says Istanbul currently experiencing a re-resurrection. "People look forward. It also has the financial crisis did not change." Alper was a manager for the Formula 1 race in Istanbul is responsible, now he sells Italian salami and French wine. "Never were the conditions for a cheaper shop," he says.

Sunday 18 January: "This duel do not forget!"

I'm with a friend drove to the south - to Ephesus. Greeks and Romans in Ephesus Theater and palaces built buildings the Austrians have two thousand years later excavated, and so today every year hundreds of thousands of tourists to the Aegean Sea.

Claudius I, however, are another reason here: Once a year occur in Ephesos camels to fight on - for the entertainment of the spectators, but the glory of their owners.

The history of the Camel campaign is older than the history of Turkey. It begins with duels between nomad caravans in the Ottoman Empire more than 300 years ago. The camel fight has survived the revolution, Ataturk, the modern age. There are still thousands of spectators to travel to tournaments in Izmir, Bursa and Ephesus. Several hundred camels fight in the Turkish Camel Wrestling League ", November to March they each Sunday in another city in the battle.

We meet Mehmet Uyar, 63, from camel keepers Pelitköy in Anatolia. For many years, he and his camel to the tsunami tournaments.

The festival noise increases to a roar as we are on the road to the arena building. Children are screaming, moaning camels, booms from the speakers of Turkish pop. Soldiers assist in unloading the camels. The women at the stands selling camel sausage, kebab, kebabs, tea.

"This duel, you will not forget!" Shouts the stadium speakers. Camels are not born fighters, they must fight to be misled. Therefore, the Advisor to the Bulls before a female. Tsunami runs saliva from the mouth. His opponent puts the head, then the camels successive release. It loses the camel, the first fall or flee.