Louise Bell’s novel The Final Summer of Vodka is a light-hearted romp through the alcohol fuelled nights and hangover daze of 30 year old single Brit Lei who lives in Marmaris, Turkey. Having already met, split from, got back together with, broken up with again The Turkish One (aka Mr Wrong) about a zillion times,…
The story in Not Constantinople follows a young American couple who come to Istanbul planning to work for a few years, save money and then go back home to buy a house. Fred and Virginia’s dream comes to an abrupt halt when they return to their rented Istanbul apartment one night to find a family…
For a Turkish person, not having enough food to eat is as unthinkable as not being able to breathe. So imagine Noah’s delight when the ark finally came to rest near Ararat in eastern Turkey after the great flood, in finding enough leftovers to create the gourmet delight known as aşure. Asure is also called…
Even if you don’t know the name of the actor with the elastic face who played the bumbling character of Şaban (Turkish for bumpkin or clot), the simple villager from a poor background, in numerous films in Turkey during the 1970s and 1980s, the face is instantly recognisable. It belongs to Kemal Sunal. Born in…
Visitors to Turkey often stumble across colourful Turkish weddings in small towns and villages. They are great fun to attend. But what about the legally required civil ceremony part of modern Turkish weddings, do you know what goes on there? Find out in this extract from my memoir Istanbul Dreams: Waiting for the Tulips to…
Although he left the world stage for the last time more than twenty years ago, Zeki Muren will always have a special place in the hearts of Turkish music fans. Born in 1931, he auditioned for Turkish Radio when he was only twenty. Even then he knew a huge range of musical standards off by heart…
I’ll begin my story on Hidrellez traditions in the manner of a traditional Turkish folk tale. Once there was and once there wasn’t a Turkish Australian friendship between a woman from Istanbul, Turkey and a woman from Sydney, Australia. They met at a language exchange night in Kadikoy and became good friends, going out to…
Trees as well as flowers have long been associated with Istanbul and the most famous of these is the Erguvan or Judas Tree. From the Latin, cercis siliquastrum, the name is derived from the Greek and is a combination of two words, cercis meaning tree and siliquastrum meaning fruit. Istanbullu have long called it the Erguvan…
Perking the Pansies by Jack Scott tells the tale of Jack and Liam, a gay couple, who move from a thriving metropolis to a small Aegean town in Turkey, expecting to find a satisfying social whirl, albeit with better weather. Instead they face the dilemma of any expat – a small community which expects everyone to…
In my first post about the Ottomans in Romania, “Ottoman Empire Romania I”, I wrote about the way the Turkish language had entered into the Romanian tongue. However words aren’t the only traces of the Turks left in the country today. In most cities and towns there are beautiful architectural and cultural signs of the…