Staring Down the Evil Eye in Istanbul – Perceptive Travel

When I first visited Istanbul, I found myself fascinated.

I mean “fascinated” in the word’s original sense — to cast a spell, through the use of a fixed stare.  All over the city, there were many eyes fixed on me. Blue eyes.

They were hanging from the walls of restaurants, displayed in quantities in the warren of the Grand Bazaar, dangling from the rearview mirror of cars and taxis, from key chains, from the necks of fashionable women. A glance down at a table would reveal a thicket of blue eye beads, braceleting the wrist of a dining companion, just peeking out from under her sleeve. Read more at Perceptive Travel