(Sep 2 – 14) 27th Istanbul Jazz Festival from IKSV
From the organizer:
Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and sponsored by Garanti BBVA for 23 years with the support of...
Yabangee Summer Checklist
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...
Istanbul Revisited: Impressions from 1964 to 2022
First Encounter, September, 1964
I arrived at Sirkeci Station on the Orient Express — the real Orient Express, a train that was anything but express...
Insider Trading: Mua-licious
Summer, fall, winter, or spring, we all want ice cream. Luckily, the ice cream makers at Mua have a flavor for every season. Their...
Confessions of a Dumbphone Devotee
Thus with a text, I die. If any spark of life be yet remaining amongst Dumbphone owners in this developéd world, it will by...
Buying a House in Turkey – Finding the Right Place (Part...
So, you’ve been in Turkey for a while and decided that it might make sense to buy a house or maybe you have your...
Returning to Selçuk Year after Year: Camel Wrestling and Authenticity in...
There are certain constants that one can rely on when attending camel wrestling: The booze is always flowing, the camels are consistently covered in...
Istanbul Street Names: The Stories They Tell
Having only laid claim to most of their monikers since the declaration of the Republic, Istanbul’s street names often go unnoticed (highly due to...
Insider Trading: Cook’s Corner for Expats in Turkey
I discovered a great passion for cooking when I started traveling around the world. I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing! I wanted to...
Setting of Records: Istanbul’s New Mosque
Three years ago building of a new mosque began on one of the highest hills of the city, where roosters still crow and visitors...
STD & STI Testing In Turkey: Tips and Advice
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...
Five Cocktails to Make This Summer
It's an undeniable part of life in Istanbul that, while it has many things going for it, the city is somewhat lacking in resources...
Göbeklitepe: The Zero Timeline
The summer of 2018 has been a dive in history and this dive would have been incomplete had I not visited the archaeological site...
Insider Trading: Bargain Hunting @ B. SS, D Designers on Sale
Bargain hunting is a mythic activity in New York City, which is filled with historical temples of fashion (Loehmann’s), teeming bazaar-like meccas (Century 21)...
Top 10 Worst Things About Living in Taksim
Up until last year I was a happy man, a contented man, living in that commercial hub cum residential suburb of Bakırköy. Bakırköy’s unique...
St. Mary of the Mongols: The Last Byzantine Church
Nowadays Istanbul is known for its mosques, but prior to 1453, Constantinople was a completely Christian city replete with churches. Many of them exist to this day:...
Weekend Getaway: Edirne
Looking for an affordable, easily explored, and architecture-filled weekend trip from Istanbul? Edirne is the place to be! While not as glamourous as other...
We Are All Refugees, One Year Later
Editor's Note: We asked Smilja Brown, the driving force behind last year's "We Are ALL Refugees" benefit concert, to reflect on last year's event. Below, she...
Open Call – ‘We Call It Home: Istanbul Dialogues’ Speaker Suggestions
We Call It Home: Istanbul Dialogues is a new monthly series showcasing the inspiring contributions being made by Istanbul’s diverse international community to the...
Turkish 101: Lullabies of Anatolia
Turks have always admired and emphasized oral traditions in poems, sagas and rhymes throughout their history. Babies grow up with lullabies, children play alongside...
Student Life: 8 Tips to Live in Istanbul on a Student...
Is living on a budget a choice or an obligation? In my case, unfortunately, it had to be an obligation. I’ve moved to Istanbul...
The Turkish Fez, Hats & Atatürk
I’m Australian, so coming from a country with one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, wearing a hat in summer,...
Exploring the Princes’ Islands: The Kınalıada Mosque
The Princes' Islands (Adalar) are a chain of nine small islands in the Sea of Marmara, about 20 km east of the center of...
In Conversation with Multidisciplinary Artist and Researcher C.M. Kosemen
C. M. Kosemen is an artist and independent researcher born in Ankara, Turkey in 1984. He studied at Cornell University, Istanbul’s Sabancı University and...