When I come around to writing a new Turkish National Public Holidays guide I take some time to think about what I want to focus on in my writing over the next twelve months. For 2024 I decided I wanted to revamp my website, have more people know about it and my books, as well…
I’m a member of too many Facebook Turkey travel groups to count, and see questions about intercity bus travel in Turkey pop up all the time. I wondered why so I did a bit of searching to see what information was already available. What I found were some brief overviews of bus travel in Turkey…
I’m a Sydney, Australia born sociologist, author and travel writer who’s lived on the Asian side of Istanbul for many years. I’m fascinated by the history, social life, religious customs and personal stories to be found in less famous sites around the city and set out to document the places that resonated most. Istanbul 50…
Back when I first travelled around Turkey on my own in 1990 there were no mobile phones, the internet didn’t exist and the only way to let my family know I was safe was via occasional expensive phone calls from the post office or aerogram letters that took six weeks to arrive. Needless to say,…
Now that you’ve booked your trip to Istanbul in winter, you’ll want to learn where to have a drink in Istanbul to enjoy some festive cheer, alcoholic of course, accompanied by some tasty Turkish delights. Luckily for us, Turkish wine expert Andrea Lemieux aka The Quirky Cork took some time out of her busy schedule…
You’d think the chances of crossing paths with someone who only lives a few blocks away from you in real life in Istanbul (pop 16 million and counting) via a Facebook group started by American writers would be pretty slim. Especially when you’re me, a woman from Australia and the other person is Pinar Tarhan,…
HISTORY The Sabiha Gokcen airport has been in operation over on my side of town since 2003. It is named after Sabiha Gokçen, one of the adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic. Gokcen is famous in her own right because she was the first ever female combat pilot…
If you’ve been following my writing for a while, you’ll know I have a pretty good level of Turkish. I learnt a lot by tackling things like getting my resident permit, going to the hospital, dealing with banks and bureaucracy on my own. This involved the endless repetition of questions and words on my part,…
Even though the Turkey earthquakes of 2023 have largely moved off the front page of the news, that doesn’t mean the people affected by them are doing OK. If anything, their needs are greater, especially in south east Turkey and Syria where more than 50,000 people were killed, hundreds of thousands injured and people went…
Once again I am receiving messages from people asking if it’s safe to travel to Turkey and Istanbul. Once again I am updating this post I originally published in 2016. First, to put things in perspective, Turkey covers 783,562 km² (297,156 sq. miles) while Istanbul is a city of 16 million people in 31 districts…