The two devastating earthquakes that struck south eastern Turkey in the early hours of Monday and again around midday, 6 February 2023 continue to effect the people of Gaziantep. However the city is once again welcoming visitors. Tourism dollars go some way to normalising life but there is still a lot to be done. If…
(This post was originally published before the earthquakes that struck in south east Turkey. Recovery is on ongoing, and if you want to help please read my Turkey Earthquake 2023 post.) In this post I introduce Gaziantep in south eastern Turkey and give everything you need to have a brilliant time. I’ve divided this guide…
I’ve often said Istanbul isn’t so much a metropolis as a series of small interconnected villages and a set of coincidences I experienced when I went to Hatay and Gaziantep has really confirmed this belief. One day I was looking for a Whatsapp chat I’d had with someone at an animal shelter on this side…
The first time I went to Buyukada (Büyükada in Turkish) was in 1990. I was travelling solo and had met up with some English uni students spending their summer break in Istanbul and other parts of Turkey. I kept a diary at the time and here’s what I wrote. “It was the playing field of…
As soon as I saw a photo of the Odunpazari Modern Museum, I knew I wanted to see it in person. The building was conjured up by Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma and Associates, known for designs featuring natural materials such as timber, stone and paper. They aim to amalgamate nature and architecture to create…
On a recent trip I visited the Eskisehir Museum of Independence. Housed in an early example of Turkish first national architecture built in 1915, the museum celebrates Atatürk and the Turkish Republic through hundreds of photos, paintings and collages. It includes displays of events such as the battles of Gallipoli, Sakarya and Dumlupınar, models of…
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…
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…
Almost as soon as Kim set foot on Turkish soil he started taking photos, and he’s been doing so ever since. On his very first trip to Göreme in central Turkey he took more than 200 photos in a week. In these days of digital that might not seem a lot, but back then everything…
Reading Carla Grissman’s memoir Dinner of Herbs took me back to my first long stay in Turkey in 1990. I was in Göreme, still a small village back then with a population of 2000 and a nascent tourism sector. Most Göremeli still grew their own vegetables on plots of land wedged between fairy chimneys, ate…