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Category: travel

  • 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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  • Foreign Hairdressers

    It’s always interesting to go to a hairdresser in a different country, or even to go to a hairdresser from a different country in your own country.

    I clearly remember the first time I went to a Turkish hairdresser in The Netherlands. As a student, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on haircuts, so I went to a Turkish one, since they’re a lot cheaper. After he was done cutting my hair, he pulled out a metal stick with some cotton on it. He dipped it in some liquid and I assumed it was to clean the equipment. He then lit the cotton on fire! Now I was very surprised and quite anxious about what he would do next. He then stepped back behind me in that typical hairdresser manner of manoeuvring and started making quick strokes along my face with the burning end of the stick, quickly followed by what can be best described as soft slaps (either because he could get away with it, or to prevent my face from catching fire). I hardly ever find the opportunity to use the word flabbergasted, but that time I was completely flabbergasted by the hairdresser’s shenanigans with his grooming paraphernalia.

    Over time I got used to it and quite appreciated it. A warning when he did it the first time would have been nice, but I might have politely declined and missed out on all the adventure. 😉

    Another ‘odd’ experience I had with hairdressers was this summer in Strumica, Macedonia. I entered the smallest hairdressing shop I’ve ever been to and it was almost like the scene of a movie like Hostel. Very Eastern European. Very cool. You can read about it here: Strumica: Last Days (incl. pictures!).

    So today I got my hair cut here in Istanbul… and it was about time. I decided to go with a simple shave. First I haggled a bit about the price… “Hayır. Benim arkadaş… beş lira!” (“No. My friend… five lira.”) We agreed upon a more reasonable price and he did his job. At the end there was no burning stick, but he did something I haven’t encountered before. He got some cotton out, which immediately made me think he would do the burning stick thing, but then he put the cotton on a comb and held it under the tap for a second… He then combed through my hair a bit. I suppose it was to get all the little hairs out.

    So what about your foreign hairdresser experiences? How about in your country? Anything that foreigners would consider ‘unusual’?

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  • A Bosphorus Trip (Video)

    Right down Istanbul’s European and Asian side, runs the Bosphorus, which connects the Mediteraenean and the Black Sea. As I recently had a job on the European side, but live on the Asian side, I was crossing the Bosphorus a few times per week. The best way to see Istanbul is from the water, but what’s also great about these boatrides is the birds that accompany your boat. I tried to capture this in the video below and hope I succeeded. 🙂

    If the video playback is iffy, just click on play, pause the video and let it load for a few minutes.

  • My Holiday Flat in Sofia

    This is the apartment I’ve rented for a few days here in Sofia, Bulgaria for just 35 euros per night. It’s a normal price for a double room in some shabby hotel in the outskirts of most European capitals. Even in Sofia, most of the double rooms in hotels are around 20 euros per person. However, do a little searching and you’ll find yourself something way more awesome for a lot less money! 🙂

    Oh and it’s not in the outskirts, it’s right in the center, just between Popa and NDK for those of you who are familiar. 😉

    If you’re ever planning a trip to Sofia, I strongly advise you to find an apartment, as hotels are mostly overpriced. If you’re interested in the apartment in this video, you can call Ms. Georgieva on +359 888 502 981 (mobile number).

    Tonight I’m hopping in the bus back to Istanbul, so new Istanbul updates very soon!

  • Bring It On!!

    Please, don't use boiler. There is central hitting - running hot water. Thank you!

    Bring on the central hitting! 😉

  • Reading!

    Since I spend a lot of time on public transport (either traveling or in the crazy traffic of Istanbul), I get to do quite a bit of reading. At the moment I’m reading two books. “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle, this one I’m reading for the second time, and “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai. I found two inspirational quotes in these books that I want to share.

    Something I find very worrying is the growing phenomenom of antitheism. While using StumbleUpon, I noticed an immense number of sites that are very hateful towards religion. Understandably so, because they feel their way of life is being threatened by religion, but personally, I don’t feel that bashing, mocking, fighting or anything else that comes out of negativity can do any good. In “A New Earth“, Eckhart Tolle expresses my feelings very clearly:

    “In certain cases, you may need to protect yourself or someone else from being harmed by another, but beware of making it your mission to “eradicate evil,” as you are likely to turn into the very thing you are fighting against. Fighthing unconsciousness will draw you into unconsciousness yourself. Unconsciousness, dysfunctional egoic behavior, can never be defeated by attacking it. Even if you defeat your opponent, the unconsciousness will simply have moved into you, or the opponent reappears in a new disguise. Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.“

    Very wise words. I really admire Eckhart Tolle’s works and can keep reading it over and over. If you really want to grasp the full meaning of his words above, go check out the book.

    A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai

    On my way to Bulgaria, I figured that Eckhart Tolle’s stuff might be a bit heavy for a 10+ hour journey and I’d need some novel to read. I found some novels in my apartment (left by previous inhabitants) and found an interesting one about life in Nepal around the time of the Nepalese independence movement in the 80s. I picked it up and took it with me… On the third page or so, I came across this marble of beauty:

    “Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Romantically she decided that love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love was the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself.” 

    Taken from Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of Loss“. Haven’t quite formed my opinion about it, since the print in my version of the book is quite small and it wasn’t ideal to read in a bus on a Bulgarian bumpy road (and at night), so I had to put it away.

    Have you read any of these books? Thoughts and comments very welcome! I find books are one of the best topics for meaningful and engaging conversations! 🙂

  • Off To Bulgaria

    I’m off to see my girlfriend in Bulgaria. Which means I’ll be writing a bit about Bulgaria over the next week. If you want to know what it’s like there, just head over to my Picasa albums and have a look at the lower half of the page.

    Speaking of Picasaweb… I took some pictures yesterday of a more or less typical day of me in Istanbul. Go check them out now. 

    Also some great news… I got a freelance writing opportunity passed down from the international office from my university. Turkish Daily News, a Turkish newspaper in English, sent them a message that they’re looking for international students because they could offer an interesting perspective on Istanbul. This is very exciting and I hope to get a nice chance to show my take on Istanbul on a bigger scale, as well as increase my journalistic experiences after having worked with the Bulgarian National Radio before.

    My life’s developing at lightspeed! I can feel the rush! (and the stress, but enough about that already!)

    I’ll write soon, from Bulgaria!

    Edit – Oh, and I’ve been included in a blog carnival called Carnival of Cities, covering many interesting posts about many interesting cities around the world. Go check it out! And Foxnomad was so kind as to make a summary of it and include my post 🙂

  • 10 Things That Frustrate Me In Istanbul

    As much as I’m enjoying Istanbul, there are also things that frustrate me or have frustrated me in the first weeks after my arrival. I felt a comprehensive list was in order. 😉

    10) People thinking I’m a tourist.

    I generally dislike being seen as a tourist. I’m not a tourist. I prefer to discover places by living there instead of just going there and not truly experiencing it. I did this for Sofia, Bulgaria and I’m doing this for Istanbul. I have a negative opinion of most tourists and don’t want to be perceived or treated as such. However, it’s hard to hide the fact I don’t belong here, because of my Irish skin and blue eyes, but I don’t mind being seen as a foreigner. Hopefully I’ll be seen as a foreigner who lives here as time passes. Which brings me to the next point…

    9) Getting ripped off.

    Like in Bulgaria, if someone thinks they can take advantage of you, they will. This is true just for a minority of people (and a great majority of people at the bazaars 😉 ), but whenever it happens it’s very annoying. The first weeks I was very cautious of it, but it seemed to happen more… Or maybe I’ve just realized something about Istanbul that I didn’t realize before.

    8 ) Istanbul is not as cheap as I thought it would be.

    When I paid 4 lira (about 2 euros) for a coffee on a terrace somewhere, I was sure I was getting ripped off. Looking back, maybe I wasn’t. It’s a very mixed city and in one street you can find a tea or coffee in a bar for just 1 lira, but in the next you can pay 6 or more. Apartments are cheaper than in Holland, but not by much. Although I’m comparing furnished apartments in Istanbul to unfurnished apartments in Holland. This difference makes it a lot harder to settle in Istanbul than it was to settle in Sofia. Sofia, for a Dutchman, is cheap… for now.

    (more…)

  • The Vegetarian Sandwich

    Being a vegetarian in Istanbul is quite the challenge, but it can be done. This however, is not the topic of today’s post. I want to talk about bar/café culture here.

    In Holland, or most North-Western European countries, if I go to a place to eat a sandwich where I’ve never been before, the next time I come back they won’t even remember I was there before. Small towns or villages are (generally) an exception to this rule, but in this 15 million population metropolis called Istanbul, you are remembered and valued.

    The first time I went around the corner here to get a sandwich, I tried to get a vegetarian one. I got a sandwich with some cheese. I liked their attitude though (it was very hospitable and accommodating) and told my friend about it and took him there. When I came back I could see in their eyes that they were happy I not only came back a second time, but also brought another new customer to the place. My vegetarian sandwich now contained cheese and tomato.

    Today I went there again and I heard the one guy say in Turkish to the other something along the lines of “look, he’s back again”. It’s nice to be noticed and it’s great to see how much Turkish business owners value returning customers. This time I got the same sandwich but with cucumber and salad. Next time maybe some fries? Another example.

    In Istanbul there are many places to have some tea with friends, smoke some nargile (hookah/seisha), and play some games (mostly backgammon). Last week I already spoke about going to a nargile traditional waterpipe place in Taksim with some friends. We decided to go there again and I think we’ll be having weekly meet-ups at this place once we’re all spread out over town at different universities. Well, so far we already have weekly meet-ups 😉

    Anyway, we sat down, drank some tea, ordered a banana flavour nargile which had milk instead of water in it and started playing backgammon. After one game, we put back the board and brought out Balance, probably known as Jenga to most Westerners. We played a few games, but the concentration and energy that goes into this game is magnetic and we soon had the attention of the staff. We invited them to come play and had a lot of fun with them. Great!

    It’s important here to form a bond with people. Not just for the free tea, nargile, or having many friends, but for the simple fact that the customer / staff relationship is rather different from in Holland. In one way you are treated with more respect and more formality, in the other way more personal. Maybe because of the more personal touch there is more respect between staff and customer. People don’t just see each other as their roles (there are exceptions of course) or as numbers, but as actual people and treat you as such.

    Except for in Turkey’s mobile phone network provider Türkcell’s shops where they treat you like someone who doesn’t mind having to “come back tomorrow” for seven days per week to avoid getting cut off from the network. Big thumbs down to Türkcell and how their staff treats foreigners. (Just wanted to vent)

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  • Ramadan starts tomorrow

    Ramadan, Islam’s month of fasting, is set to start tomorrow. Since Turkey’s population is said to be 98 to 99% Islamic, I expect the Ramadan to be rather noticeable. Hence my decision to start an article about it and introducing the topic, since I’m sure it will be a returning topic over the next month or so.

    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and starts on September 1 this year. Ramadan’s believed to be the month in which Angel Gabriel revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad. For 30 days, all Muslims are expected to refrain from consuming food and drinks during the day (this includes water and also chewing gum), besides this sexual activity during fasting hours is also forbidden. One is expecting to keep their thoughts and actions pure for the sake of learning patience and humility. It’s a time when even very moderate Muslims who do not go to mosques join in on the fasting and prayer.

    At the end of Ramadan, the breaking of the feast is celebrated by the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr, but from what I gather from the papers, the whole month of Ramadan is celebrated. In the old area of Sultanahmet in Istanbul, people get together in the evening to celebrate their ‘iftar’, which is the evening dinner consumed to break the fast. According to Turkish Daily News, you’ll be able to find classic puppet shadow plays throughout the neighbourhood which are filled with humour. This puppet play called Hacivat and Karagözwas popularized during Ottoman period in which the two characters portray the illiterate and the educated class, leading to humorous situations. (more…)

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