My apartment back home is nestled between the narrow streets of Kadıköy, a neighborhood bursting with vibrant colors, the mixed scents of honeysuckle and terebinth trees and conversations escalating with a buzz as the street vendors periodically interrupt with their thunderlike voices: in short, a sensory feast. Kadıköy, for me, is a place alive with its contrasts; alive with its cozy parks and vibrant hills meeting the sea; new-wave-artsy with its music after 8 p.m.; full of history as you splash water on your face from a 300-year-old fountain.