Everyday, in a suburb somewhere in Istanbul, a weekly street market is being held. One of the one of the many traditions brought to the big city from small towns and villages, vibrant, crowded, noisy Turkish street markets persist, despite the increasing number of supermarkets opening up every year. Trucks loaded with produce criss-cross the…
Behind the bright lights of shops selling well-known fashion labels on the one mile long Istiklal Street linking Taksim Square to Tünel, lies a warren of Taksim backstreets containing a surprising wealth of cultures. But you have to know where to look. Next to traditional Turkish restaurants featuring linen-covered tables and the wailing sounds of…
Istanbul has long been known for its historical collections of art and antiques, such as the overwhelming wealth of jewels in Topkapı Sarayı and the priceless Hereke silk carpets in Dolmabahçe Palace whose gigantic crystal chandeliers reflect the waves of the Bosphorus from outside. Elsewhere the hills of the city are dotted with the former…
Tombs are very important in Dervish traditions in Turkey and elsewhere. One tomb I particularly love is in a suburb called Merdivenköy, also on the Asian side of Istanbul. Today this is a heavily built up residential area but the suffix köy, meaning village, points to its history. During the reign of the Ottoman sultans…
Named after the Albanian (Arnavut) builders brought to Istanbul by Sultan Abdülmescid in the 19th century to lay sidewalks in the city, Arnavutkoy is home to beautiful wooden houses, many of them lining the Bosphorus waterside. The original population was a mix of Turks and Albanians, and there was a large community of Greeks and…
Living in a foreign country it’s usual to feel homesick sometimes, especially now when the end of the year are just around the corner. For many of us this is a time of celebration, to observe our beliefs and be with family. However during Christmas in Turkey there are few if any of the familiar…
On my way back from taking photos for my post on Turkish tombs I rediscovered the wonderful neighbourhood of Yeldegirmeni Kadikoy. The suburb gets its name from four mills that were erected here by Sultan Abdülhamid I in 1774. They supplied the flour used over in the Topkapi Palace kitchens. In the years since I…
A Turkish friend recently invited me to attend a mevlit, one of the important Turkish death rituals, to be held for her mother. Her mum had been failing for months, going from being a chirpy chatty woman to a small silent figure swaddled in a now too large bed, who no longer spoke but always…
Tucked away on the shores of the Bosphorus, next to the far more fashionable and better known suburb of Emirgan, is Boyacikoy, which means ‘Village of the Dyers’. The suburb is so named because in the eighteenth century a large family of dyers from Kırklareli in Thrace, north west of Istanbul, were resettled here by…
Karakoy, once home to itinerant sailors, has been attracting a lot of attention in recent years. The section east of Galata Bridge already boasts an eclectic collection of cafes, bars and galleries. However I prefer the everyday working area to the west of the bridge. In the wonderful rabbit warren of backstreets bounded by the…