Tucked away on the slopes up behind the port of Harem on the Asian side of Istanbul, almost hidden by heavy containers and giant cranes, is the little visited Haydarpasa Cemetery. Dating back to 1855 when the Turkish Government gave the site to the British Government, it contains about six thousand graves of victims of…
My family wasn’t religious, so when I was a little girl in primary school I was always slightly jealous of the other children at Easter. I’d see them emerge from scripture classes clutching Easter bonnets festooned with strips of paper, straw baskets filled with fluffy yellow cotton wool chickens and colourful pictures of the saints….
Living in Turkey for more than fifteen years, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to watch and adopt Turkish cultural practices. I’m fascinated by what I see and always want to learn more. I read everything I can get my hands on and pepper my Turkish friends with numerous questions so often they say I’m…
In a recent interview with world famous Turkish photographer Ara Guler in Today’s Zaman (Nov 14, 2014) he said, “The Istanbul that I lived in wasn’t Istanbul. Actually, I didn’t see Istanbul either. Istanbul was already over. And Pera is over, too. When the Russian invasion happened in 1917, the White Russians came here, that…
“A few months ago, Lisa Morrow, an experienced travel writer living in Istanbul, contacted me. She had just released a book, Exploring Turkish Landscapes, about Turkish culture and asked if she could send a copy, for a published review. I said yes and a week later, received a 162-page book via cargo. Since I am…
How I came across Mehmed Sokullu Camii When I started writing about Turkey, it was with the idea of sharing my thoughts and experiences. When I moved to Istanbul, I hoped to give people an idea of what everyday life is like for an expat here. Many of my posts have made people laugh, and…
There’s an awful lot of information on traditional Turkish life available, but things change. Read on to get a taste of contemporary life in Istanbul through this excerpt from my memoir Istanbul Dreams. “…Since I first came to Turkey more than twenty years ago, trade has opened up, overseas travel has become cheaper, and society…
Turkish slippers are as Turkish as tea, simits and minarets. Plain or fancy, flat or with heels, no home is without them. “…Anyone who’s ever visited a Turkish home knows not to enter wearing outdoor shoes. Given the state of the pavements both in Kayseri and elsewhere in the country, and the fact that interior…
My reluctance to go shopping for Turkish underwear predates my move to Turkey by quite some years. As a young teenager I was a tomboy, so getting my first bra wasn’t something I looked forward to. When the fateful day came my mum took me to a long established Sydney department store for a proper…
If a picture is worth a thousand words, proofreading is probably worth even more. In a country like Turkey where the fascination for using English in advertising usually far outstrips the ability and attention to detail, checking something before sending it to print is priceless. The end result is what I call Turklish. Some fine…