Tag: turkey

This post is sponsored by MDFV. When you think of a blue cruise, fitness is not usually the first thing that comes to mind. But...

I am fascinated by hamams. Their architecture (those gorgeous holed domes), their history (the ancient ritual of public bathing) and the leisure (they provide...

The World Expo, held this year in Milan, is one of the foremost opportunities for states to dazzle the rest of the world. This...

Just behind Kadar Has University stands a dream house. A creative place where only positive energy is welcome and ideas about how to reuse...

About twenty minutes into our walk, our guide hushed us. We were about to enter the Iğneada Longoz Forests National Park, and he asked...

Long-term residents of Turkey know that buying cookies here can be a fraught activity. Turkish kurabiye (cookies), while delicious, are typically dry and biscuity, quite different from...

Right before Valentine’s Day, I published a piece here on Yabangee about my online-dating and winter-drinks-sampling adventures across Istanbul. (Un)surprisingly, I received a lot...

You might have already noticed that Istanbul is a place that can be hard to comprehend. Thousands of years of history, millions of inhabitants,...

We asked for your cat photos for Yabangee's first ever Istanbul Cat Photo Contest, and boy, did you ever deliver. It was difficult to...

The expat life is a transient one, and for many of us, Turkey isn’t exactly a permanent stop. But for those of you with...

Sick of leaving Turkish hair salons looking like a 50-year-old, overly done-up newscaster? No matter how much you try to tell hairdressers that you’re...

Everybody knows that Istanbul is full of history and culture, so what better way to experience it than by tasting your way through both?...

A few days ago I was waiting for the bus in the ridiculously long line at Beşiktaş Square - some mornings the line turns...

I remember being 5 or 6 years old and watching in awe as a pretty-looking, round-eyed young woman came on the TV screen, captivating...

And so continues my quest to cover all the performance halls in Istanbul, in the name of art and music. And the next venue...

Istanbul has been around since 660 B.C., back when it was Byzantium. Bach is more than 300 years old. Neve Shalom Synagogue is from...

If you have ever strolled through the ferry port of Beşiktaş on the European side of Istanbul, chances are you have walked past a...

Çay is the traditional black tea of Turkey... and one of my favorite things about day-to-day life in this country.  Even if you are more...

As one of the fanciest areas in Kadıköy, Moda has so many great places to eat and socialize that it's really hard to surprise...

Friends and family were surprised when I announced that I had tickets for the Erol Evgin concert at the Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theatre...

  Fear not fellow summer lovers! Yes, September approaches and all your expat teacher friends are bemoaning the end of their two-month-long vacations, but the...

There comes a time for all of us when we have to purchase Turkish souvenirs for curious kith and kin back home. To get...

I remember walking down the large avenues and neatly perpendicular streets of Washington, D.C. not too long ago, longing for old buildings and crooked...

By Bairma Kihoro People have always been crossing borders. Not just geographical, but social, cultural and psychological ones as well. Everyone has their own dramas,...