Advice & Info

Like every other Turkish kid who grew up in the 90s, I have been to many “gold days” (altın günü) hosted by my mother...

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...

If I knew then what I know now: Which neighborhood has the best, cheapest or most fashionable dresses? How much should I pay? Should I...

One of the many seemingly incessant complaints I hear from other yabancılar is a disdain for Turkish wines. Navigating the wine scene in Turkey...

If you have lived in Turkey for a while, you’ve probably got an account with a local bank. It is easy enough to open...

I have been living in Istanbul for four years. Just writing that sentence makes me dizzy. As a Spanish expat living in this amazing city,...

As a person who has a deep interest in the contemporary history and the treatment against the minority groups, I tend to get super...

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...

Ramadan, pronounced in Turkish as Ramazan, is once again upon us. There are the basic tenets of the month-long fast that anyone living in...

Expat life can get dull, eating the same kind of food every single day. The lack of foreign food in a cosmopolite city like...

Did you notice that every Renault 12 in the known universe had disappeared? Are you worried that some black hole had appeared and was...

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,...

“Where are you from?” “How long have you lived here?” “Where do you work?” “How much do you make?!” and, of course, “Why Turkey?”...

Tophane is a very pleasant area to spend an afternoon smoking nargile and playing tavla. Or, if you are more into art than the...

Taksim Square is a place that is planned into almost every trip to Istanbul, one way or another. The name “Taksim” means “division”, from...

Why isn't love enough?  It's hard to compete with rakı while overlooking the Bosphorus.  It's even more difficult to suggest that your taste buds might...

“O for a beaker full of the warm south,” wrote John Keats, capturing that almost marrow-level need for sun after a long time in...

Finding out that I was pregnant came as a complete surprise, my husband actually found out before I did, but that's a whole other...

Someone recently described Istanbul to me as a city where you can "have the best day of your life, followed by the worst day”,...

In Istanbul, when December arrives, you might observe a sudden change in the streets. Decorations hung up on the poles in the shape of...

Colife is an Istanbul-based international smart-rental startup that operates as a full-cycle property management company. From the start, Colife has been revolutionizing the rental...

We are an English-Turkish family and we travel around in an old Mercedes bus that we converted ourselves to a camper van. A year...

Yıldız Technical University (Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi) commonly shortened as YTU or Yıldız, is one of the top public technical universities in Turkey. It was...

Aristotle, roasted almond mezes, and a tortured history… Of all Turkey’s hidden treasures, Assos (Behramkale in Turkish) is an insiders’ favorite, conveniently located between...