Advice & Info

There are more than 3000 active mosques in Istanbul and, in terms of architectural style, they can generally be categorized as either Byzantine (ancient...

On warm nights in Istanbul everyone is out. Restaurants open their doors onto the sidewalks of back streets, creating a maze of tables and...

How does one explain Barış Manço?  He is kind of like the Turkish John Denver, but with the notoriety of John Lennon and a...

Learning Turkish while living in Istanbul can be an experience both painstaking and profoundly exciting. There is an undefinable moment in this adventure -...

“Zeytinyağı gibi üste çıkma!” or “Don’t stick out like olive oil!” This time last year, my husband and I were sipping olive oil at a...

Being English, one of the foods I miss most from home is a good scone. A good scone, baked to perfection, served with butter, jam...

“Where can I find the best köfte in Kadıköy?” Ekspres İnegöl Köftecisi should be your first and only stop. Centrally located in Kadıköy it’s...

Beer in Istanbul is a touchy subject for a lot of expats, who generally fall into a few camps when it comes to preference....

Like many places in Turkey, there's a story behind Lake Sapanca's name. In fact, it derives from a myth that many locals apparently still...

As with most parents, picking a name for my children was a bit of a nightmare. My husband and I had many difficulties, as...

The summer of 2018 has been a dive in history and this dive would have been incomplete had I not visited the archaeological site...

Planning your dream vacation should usually be one of the most exciting and hassle free experiences. With hundreds of possible destinations and numerous travel...

As a vegetarian or vegan, by now you may have realized that Turkish people love their meat! Walking through the city you’ll see families...

If you want to know how to improve your Turkish, I have one word for you: Bureaucracy. Forget expensive courses and fancy textbooks. Just...

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

By Abdelrahman Mahmoud Permaculture. Does the word ring any bells? If yes, and you are already well acquainted with the concept, then hold on a minute...

If we were to take our students’ grammatical grasp of English as a direct indication of their level of intelligence, and were to recognize...

Being an expat is difficult. You need courage to leave not only your comfort zone and sense of security behind, but also your lifestyle,...

It's been a long day in Istanbul, and here you are, going back from work, school, or an anime world portal. In addition, you're...

“İnek var!” an alien called to the driver. “İnek mi var?” I replied to her great surprise then suddenly as if by pure magic inek appeared in...

“Çilesiz bir günüm olmadı gitti Bilmedim ömrümün suçu ne usta Allah'ın gücüne gider mi bilmem Verdiği bu candan ben bıktım usta My carefree days never came I don’t know,...

These days quasi-historical shows like Game of Thrones are the most watched (and pirated) shows on TV. Also, Muhteşem Yüzyıl, “The Magnificent Century”, a prime-time...

A darbuka drum is a Middle Eastern instrument whose structure varies depending on location. They all have a conical shape with a nearly circular...

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