I do a lot of research before going out exploring Istanbul and other parts of Turkey and also for writing these posts. More and more these days I reference websites written in Turkish. There are a couple of great ones run by Turks who travel independently all over the country and I use them a…
Summers in Istanbul are hot and humid so when I have to be out and about I always try to combine errands with a bit of exploring. I was a winter baby so heat and I don’t get on. This year summer started early so when I headed to Üsküdar in the last week of…
Welcome to the first in my new series of posts about side trips you can make from Istanbul. The aim is to provide those of you living in Istanbul with suggestions of places you can reach without a car for when you want a break from the lovely but hectic world that is life in…
Turkey’s first female Olympic competitor, archaeologist and patriot Halet Cambel (Çambel in Turkish) was the first female Turkish athlete ever to compete in the Olympic Games. This remarkable woman represented Turkey in fencing, helped decipher Hittite hieroglyphics and founded Turkey’s first open-air museum. Halet Cambel was born in Berlin in 1916. Her father Ibrahim Hakkı…
Kurban Bayram, known as Eid el-Adha in Arabic, is the most important Islamic festival of the year in the Muslim world. It falls about seventy days after Ramazan and the start dates for each are determined by the Muslim calendar, thus changing every year. Traditionally, all Muslims are expected to mark this occasion by sacrificing…
Although now part of the hustle and bustle of the greater city of Istanbul, once upon a time Eyup was a sleepy backwater, a small village famous for containing the final resting place of Eyup (Job) Ansari, standard bearer to the Prophet Muhammed. For this reason Eyup is considered the third holiest site after Mecca…
The very first time I went to Kas Antalya was in 1990. I remember going for a swim at Küçük Çakıl beach. At that time there was only a ramshackle tea house on the cliffs above the little inlet and the eucalypt lined council run tea gardens down the hill did a steady trade in…
I’m very persistent when it comes to exploring neighbourhoods in Istanbul if it means finding the remains of an old mosque or hamam I’ve read about but never seen. I’ll happily walk up and down the same street numerous times and ask for directions in my not-quite-perfect Turkish from anyone who looks like they can…
On a clear sunny winter’s day in Istanbul I paid a visit to the Yahya Efendi tomb, located halfway up a really steep hill in Besiktas. Born in Trabzon in 1495, Yahya Efendi was a famous scholar of the 16th century. His year of birth coincided with that of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, whose mother also…
In many countries around the world it’s traditional to give a key as a present when someone turns 21. It’s a sign they’ve reached maturity and are now an adult. Famous people like sportsmen, film stars and successful residents are sometimes also given the ‘keys to the city’ to acknowledge their contributions to a particular…