Lifestyle & Commentary

Friday night. A few minutes before midnight. April 20th, 2020. Kaan is in the CCTV room of the luxurious hotel where he works as...

I found myself popping out of a packed dolmuş onto the side of a winding country road. Shortly after, my overstuffed tan hiking bag...

cold, dark, eerie leather soles staccato along pavements avoiding cracks and stray van İstanbul becalmed, again street lamps whisper through hüzün diesel engines growl like kangal buses ready to depart north...

Turkey is one of the few countries in the world where the rate of HIV/AIDS cases has been increasing in the past decade. Despite...

Three weeks ago, I was taking the metrobüs with my brother from Şirinevler, on a very rainy day. Being as crowded as it was...

Let’s first and foremost acknowledge the great privilege of being able to choose your place of residence. Most people are not granted the luxury...

It was a bright, sunny Saturday, during my very first trip to Istanbul, when I went where very few tourists would dare – Yedikule...

Personality is a phenomenon which describes the way people behave in everyday life. It’s an essential concept in order to understand and predict our...

My favorite season in Istanbul is fig season. Never having seen or eaten a fresh fig in my life, I was fascinated by this...

Walk. Breathe. Eat. Drink. Consume. Repeat. Wasn’t life nice and easy in Istanbul before coronavirus? We didn’t realize how fortunate we were back then. Thankfully,...

I went and played my first game of football for a team in Turkey, adding to several other nations around the world in which...

Back in 1990 when I first visited Turkey, toilets, whether squat or what we think of as ‘normal’ but the Turks call Ala Franga,...

Before moving to Turkey, I read Orhan Pamuk’s autobiographical work “Istanbul”, in hopes of getting to know the city in advance. Let me tell...

I’m pretty sure we hit traffic the first time I visited Ortaköy. I distinctly remember being in a taxi for what felt like ages,...

We recently made an open call to our community for suggestions and have since compiled a list of organizations that are currently taking part...

While regular weekend lockdowns in Istanbul have been a unifying experience in a myriad of ways, so much of our experience is tied to...