Dear *Glamour *Girls,
These are some behind-the-scenes photos from Istanbul, where we shot the fall premiere episode of Covert Affairs, which returns tonight.
When we checked into our hotel, the concierge said, "You know Hemingway stayed here." Skeptical, I emailed my father, and he wrote back: "Hemingway was in Turkey briefly, in '21 or '22. He didn't want to go but was ordered to go by the Toronto Star (for which he was a correspondent) to cover the war between Turkey and Greece. He began his first newspaper despatch this way: 'Constantinople is noisy, hot, hilly, dirty and beautiful...filled with uniforms and rumors.'"
This dusty, crossroads of a city promised century-old layers of beauty, and Hemingway's lines confirmed my hopes. A mysterious city of many names, Istanbul straddles two continents. Its grand bazaars are filled with leather, saffron, olives, dates, apricot, and raspberry flavors of Turkish delight. The sea air is softened by the scent of fresh, dark coffee, and the azaan, over the hills throughout the day.
From Galata Bridge on the Golden Horn, you can look out to where the Bosphorus meets the Sea of Marmara. This city is so old, that mosque in the foreground was completed in 1663, and it's called "the New Mosque."
We usually start filming just after dawn. Here are our cameras getting set up in early light, outside the Blue Mosque.
