BasBasBas.com

Category: life

  • Drugs, Prostitution and Same-Sex Marriage

    That’s the title of a 10-15 minute presentation I’m giving soon for my Intercultural Communication classes at Yeditepe University, here in Istanbul. I designed it in such a way that it can also be enjoyed without my vocal explanations and here it is!

    Drugs, Prostitution and Same-Sex Marriage

    View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: travel international)

    The Intercultural Communication course is likely to be the most innovative course I’ve taken during my higher education (sadly — universities should make more use of modern technologies). Every Tuesday, we get into a classroom at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon and have a video conference with a class in Lincoln, Nebraska, US. We present ourselves, our culture, customs, daily lives and our countries to each other. It’s fascinating, because both the Turkish class as well as the American class have students from many different backgrounds.

    This part of the Intercultural Communication course, called Global Classroom, has been quite fun so far. We’ve managed to make 2 students from the Nebraskan class dance in front of the camera and they’ve managed to make 2 of our students wrestle in front of the camera (or was it Jiu-Jitsu?).

    There’s only a few sessions left, so I hope I actually get to do my presentation, as our lecturer wanted everyone to prepare one, but there will be no time to actually execute all of them.

    I hope the presentation has given you an insight into Holland’s liberal policies and if you have any questions please feel free to reply. I love answering questions about these issues.

    How about in your countries, how is your government dealing with these issues? What is your personal opinion on these matters? Has the war on drugs failed? Is same-sex marriage morally wrong or is keeping it illegal a form of discrimination? What about prostitution?

  • Snow in Bulgaria

    This weekend I was in Bulgaria due to my 1 year anniversary with my girlfriend, who’s from Bulgaria. We went to a mountain resort, which is cheaper than Sofia (in the low season). On the day we arrived everything was green, but this Saturday the world turned white. I love it. I notice I feel quite at home in Bulgaria, and especially Sofia.

    Will write more about my stay there in the days to come. Have to find my way back to Istanbul in this snowy mess. You can stay up to date by following my Twitter feed, or subscribe to this blog by RSS or email.

    I’m hoping for some nice snow in Istanbul this winter. Has it snowed where you are yet? Will it at all?

  • The Tourist View

    A view of the most touristic part of Istanbul. The mosque on the right is the Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet mosque, left of that is the Hagia Sofia which was a cathedral, but was turned into a mosque during the Ottoman empire and left of that is the Sultans’ palace. Quite a nice view, huh? On the left side of the picture, you see some land at the other side of the water… That’s where I live. Literally less than 2 minutes away from a nice sit at the sea with the view of the Hagia Sofia and the beautiful buildings around it.

    The picture was taken from Galata tower. If you come to Istanbul and want to come home with some cool pictures, go to Galata tower. If you have many friends who go to Istanbul, all of you will have the same pictures though, as everybody seems to go up the Galata tower. It’s also a nice spot for panorama shots.

  • Mosque Street Shot


    click to enlarge

    A typical shot of a street on the Asian side of Istanbul in Kadıköy, where I live. I didn’t want to feature this picture until I realized that this very every day scene for me might not be so ‘every day’ for the my many visitors from around the world. Click on the picture or here to get a larger and higher quality version of the photograph. In Holland we have a huge debate about the towers of the mosques, called minarets, spoiling the way the street/neighbourhood looks.

    What do you think, would one (or a few) of these towers spoil the sight of your neighbourhood? Why (not)?

    If you’re not yet subscribed to updates from this blog and you’d like to be, do so now either by RSS or through email updates. If you have any questions about Istanbul, about me, anything else, or you’d just like to tell me how your day was, do not hesitate to email me at .

  • Turkish Lamps

    click to enlarge

    Taken in a touristy shop along Istanbul’s famous Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue), this photo features the famous Turkish glass mosaic lamps. I’m not sure about the origins of them, whether they’re Middle Eastern, Central Asian or from other regions or just from Turkey, but they’re undeniably associated with Turkey. Every one of them is very unique and very beautiful and they make a great object for photography, don’t you think?

    I see there are quite a bit of mosaic lamps on Amazon, what lamps do you prefer? The mosaic lamps there or the ones above? Though the ones on Amazon are true works of art, I prefer the more exotic ones.

    Can anyone tell me more about the origins of these lamps? Can anyone tell me how to take these lamps on a long busride or airflight without breaking them?

    If you’re not yet subscribed to updates from this blog and you’d like to be, do so now either by RSS or through email updates.

  • Kadıköy Bazaar

    The following shot was taken at a big bazaar that’s held every Tuesday and Friday in Istanbul’s Kadıköy area, which is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.  You can find food like fruit, vegetables, spices, nuts and grape leaves there, but also clothes such as the headdresses below. I was walking around there with a blond girl and boy, do you draw attention if you’re a young, blond, European woman in Istanbul. People were yelling out “Obama, Obama”, “hoş geldiniz” (welcome), “hello!” and “buyrun” (come in please/come here).

    I apologize for the recent lack of updates. I had a friend from Holland visiting me here, but will now resume my posting about life in Istanbul. 🙂

    I plan on posting a lot more pictures and short stories like this one in the coming time, so if you’re not yet subscribed to updates from this blog, do so now either by RSS or through email updates.

  • Republic Day Fireworks (Video)

    On the 29th of October, Turkey celebrates the foundation of its Republic in 1923 by founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This goes together with Turkish flags hanging from every window in Turkey as well as some free parties in Istanbul and some amazing fireworks above the Bosphorus.


    Click here to see the video on Vimeo

    They spent quite some money on the fireworks, as you can tell from the video. Last year the show was even bigger and they also had a lasershow showing important images from Turkey’s history. This year the show was a bit shorter allegedly due to terror alerts. Still an amazing show and I bet it keeps the Turkish people in Istanbul proud of their nation for yet another year. 😉

    It’s every year, so if you have the chance to be here around the end of October, seize the opportunity!

  • Dawn in Istanbul

    click on the photo for alternate version

    Just before dawn, Istanbul’s fishermen get in their boats and move onto the Bosphorus or the Marmara sea. If you walk or sit along the coastline, you can hear them talking or listening to music. A great place to visit in Istanbul, if you want to sit along the coast, is Kadıköy, which is also where this picture was taken. Inspired by the work of Michael Kenna.

    Tell me, which is better, the above or the alternate version?

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  • The Inheritance of Loss

    I got tagged by a dear StumbleUpon friend, shpongolina. Usually I don’t participate in this type of things, but because it offers something interesting and it comes from a great person, I’ll make an exception. 😉

    The rules are as follows:

    1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
    2. Open the book to page 123.
    3. Find the fifth sentence.
    4. Post the next three sentences.
    5. Post a comment and then tag five more people.

    The Inheritance of Loss

    by Kiran Desai

    Gyan was twenty and Sai sixteen, and at the beginning they had not paid very much attention to the events on the hillside, the new posters in the market referring to old discontents, the slogans scratched and painted on the side of government offices and shops. “We are stateless,” they read. “It is better to die than live as slaves,” “We are constitutionally tortured. Return our land from Bengal.”

    I wrote about this book a while ago. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m still reading it. Worse yet, I’m not even halfway through, even though it’s a great book. My excuse is that I’m an expat in Istanbul and there’s just so much to see and do here. 😉

    I love this book, because it talks about life in India at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the north-eastern Himalayas around the time of the Nepalese independence movement in the mid-80s. This is something I knew nothing about in terms of facts, let alone in terms of experience. That’s the awesome thing about books; they let you experience something like you’re there. It’s the power of writing. It’s a very moving story and has many elements in it. Classes/castes, love, freedom, happiness, travel, work, study, war, conflict, poverty – many things which I either have never been in contact with, or that I have always taken for granted.

    You can read more about the author, Kiran Desai, on Wikipedia. Check out the book, including reviews, at Amazon.

    I would like to tag Dori (From A Yellow House In England), Chris (Beyond Taiwan), PJA64X, Emm (Emm in London) and lala (Coastal Commentaries).

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  • We Found BATMAN!

    After a few weeks, we finally found the ‘batcave’ where BATMAN resides. No, not the fictional Batman. No, not the real Batman either. Since we moved into our flat here in Istanbul, we’ve spotted a strong connection all throughout our apartment which is named ‘BATMAN’. Online 24 hours per day, stronger than all the other connections in our area… Where’s BATMAN when you need him?

    Well, no more daily trips to the coffee bar around the corner (it’s still an awesome place though and I’ll gladly take you there). After ringing all the doorbells in our flat, talking to everyone, showing our note written in Turkish, asking strangers if they were Batman… Nothing. Then we went to the apartments nextdoor… No Batman to be found. Finally, after trying everything, we discovered that there were 2 apartments in the -1 level of our building… Could this be… the batcave?

    Yes! We did it. We proposed to share the costs for an unlimited internet account for the next few months in exchange for a password and access to BATMAN. Internet at home’s a ‘luxury’ in Turkey, but for students used to European standards, it’s a necessity. Imagine what it’s like for a blogger. 😉

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