What to know about Turkish National Public Holidays On any of the many Turkish national public holidays, thousands if not millions of people are on the move. Istanbul residents take advantage of free public transport to go sightseeing in Sultanahmet and Eminönü while others head east to places like Şanliurfa and Diyarbakir, to celebrate Şeker…
The internet is bursting with ‘best of’ lists about where to eat in Istanbul, where to have a drink, the 10 best cafes and so on. As a professional freelance writer I know a lot of them are PR generated, meaning new restaurants open up and pay a public relations company to get them noticed….
If you’ve ever been to Istanbul you’ll have probably already seen the way Turks look after street cats. People put out bowls of water, piles of dry food and even set up cat homes in parks and apartment block gardens. It seems idyllic, at least that’s what many Instagram influencers would have us believe. Although…
I’m a member of too many Facebook Turkey travel groups to count, and see questions about intercity bus travel in Turkey pop up all the time. I wondered why so I did a bit of searching to see what information was already available. What I found were some brief overviews of bus travel in Turkey…
I’m a Sydney, Australia born sociologist, author and travel writer who’s lived on the Asian side of Istanbul for many years. I’m fascinated by the history, social life, religious customs and personal stories to be found in less famous sites around the city and set out to document the places that resonated most. Istanbul 50…
Back when I first travelled around Turkey on my own in 1990 there were no mobile phones, the internet didn’t exist and the only way to let my family know I was safe was via occasional expensive phone calls from the post office or aerogram letters that took six weeks to arrive. Needless to say,…
Now that you’ve booked your trip to Istanbul in winter, you’ll want to learn where to have a drink in Istanbul to enjoy some festive cheer, alcoholic of course, accompanied by some tasty Turkish delights. Luckily for us, Turkish wine expert Andrea Lemieux aka The Quirky Cork took some time out of her busy schedule…
You’d think the chances of crossing paths with someone who only lives a few blocks away from you in real life in Istanbul (pop 16 million and counting) via a Facebook group started by American writers would be pretty slim. Especially when you’re me, a woman from Australia and the other person is Pinar Tarhan,…
HISTORY The Sabiha Gokcen airport has been in operation over on my side of town since 2003. It is named after Sabiha Gokçen, one of the adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic. Gokcen is famous in her own right because she was the first ever female combat pilot…
If you’ve been following my writing for a while, you’ll know I have a pretty good level of Turkish. I learnt a lot by tackling things like getting my resident permit, going to the hospital, dealing with banks and bureaucracy on my own. This involved the endless repetition of questions and words on my part,…