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…
Unlike the pictures of Queen Elizabeth hanging on the walls of the halls and schools where I grew up in suburban Australia, showing a poised, distant figure, portraits of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, show an intense, charismatic man, seemingly ready to burst out of the frame in order to bring Turkey into the modern world. Born…
Extract about Ramadan in Kayseri “… I was living in Kayseri in central Turkey for my next Turkish Ramadan. It was 2002, and winter once again. The cold made me permanently hungry so food was of paramount importance. Knowing most of my colleagues and students would fast, I took a sandwich with me to work…
Whether you support it or not, circumcision in Turkey (sünnet in Turkish), is a touchy subject that can’t be avoided if you stay in the country for any period of time. On my first trip here in 1990 I listened with baited breath as a fellow traveller, an Englishman called Adrian who was bicycling to…
Writing on Turkey Writing on Turkey In addition to writing for this website, I have published five books about Istanbul and Turkey, written articles for magazines and internet travel sites, as well as researched and produced an audio tour of Kadikoy. Listed below are details of my writing about Istanbul and Turkey, including links. To…
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…
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….
Behind the mundane route of the Istanbul Metrobus system lies another world. Find out more in this extract from my story “Metrobus Dreams”. “At Uzunçayır, I envisage the long fields to which the name refers. Fully grown sheep and brilliantly white newborn lambs dot meadows covered with long blades of grass swaying gently in the…
The complete version of “Antique Street Kadikoy” is available in the 2nd edition ofInside Out In Istanbul: Making Sense of the City. For as long as I can remember, Tellalzade Sokak in Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul, has never been referred to by its registered name. Streets in Turkey are called after a…
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…