Miss Travelette

EXPLORING THE BLACKSEA

2015-06-10T13:44:00.000+03:00

I've been to my daddy's hometown last month - never seen a place so green before! I had spent several weeks in the same region when I was a kid, but that was almost 20 years ago, so I had no clue about its limitless beauty though I knew the greenest part of Turkey is the east side of Black Sea.

It was surprising for me to see so many foreigners in the city, from all around the world, tourists were there to experience this perfectness. I, being a Turkish, felt quite proud about my roots which came from Rize. My mother is from somewhere else, but my daddy was born in a small village in Rize. We had a very little house over there, one made with wooden, and this was where my dad used to live when he was a little kid. He moved to Germany many years ago to study in the technical university in Munich, and lived there more than 10 years afterwards, but never forgot where he's real home is.

As his daughters, we're happy to carry on the tradition. My sister and I spent 5 days in this village, in a new huge house my dad got built. He planned every detail of the house, and got a huge 4-storey building in that small village. With this luxury and comfort standards, I will most definitely go there a few times in a year (!) Because otherwise, it's not that easy to stay in any village house in Rize as most of them are too old and everything gets a bit wet as a result of high moisture in the city.

The city itself is not a beautiful one, I should say that. But the rest is just so perfect! Do rent a car. Drive around the city. Follow the narrow pathways directing you to unknown villages... It's worth driving. You'll love seeing the dark green trees and high mountains everywhere.

The Bridges and the Castle

While driving around, you'll see many bridges that were built aaaages ago. These are masterpieces themselves and I loved photographing every one of them one by one. I now have a collection of bridge photographs (literally.) The one you see here is only one of them I saw when we were heading to a castle known as Zilkale.

Zilkale is the most popular castle in that region. It's sad that the castle has no web site that can be offered but it's easy to find as it's quite close to the city. 12 kilometers away from the city centre, when you start driving from the district named Çamlıhemşin to the south. You can ask anyone about the directions (if you can find some one speaking English of course), they will be more than happy to help you. Blacksea people are nice and helpful all the time.

The castle was built during the Trebizond Empire hegemony and was used by the Ottoman Empire afterwards. It's sad to see that most of the castle is gone now, and all you can see is incomplete walls surrounding the region. You might spend about 15 minutes in the castle, and that would be enough. It's quite small. Probably it was much bigger once.

The best part about the castle is, you can take magnificent photographs by the Kaçkar Mountains. Do take photos and share them with your friends! Most of my friends thought I went to Switzerland to see the Alps. Nope. All the photographs were taken right there.

Kaçkar Mountains, with the highest peak at an elevation of 3,937 meters, are alpine in character with steepy rocky peaks and numerous mountain lakes. They are definitely worth seeing and don't leave the castle without taking at least a dozen of photographs.

The Çat Village

When we stopped by a local cafe, one of the waitresses over there offered us to get to the Çat Village. So we all agreed to drive there, though we didn't know it would last more than 1 hour to get there! If you're a lover of beautiful views, you definitely must go and see the Çat Village; the view is utterly wonderful, but if that's not your kind of thing, then don't waste your time on the roads. It gets harder to drive when you get close to the village and as it's almost 3,000 meters high, you start to lose your control over your body. I experienced a serious breathing problem while climbing up the hills and begged my dad to drive back. As urban people who used to live with less oxygen, we're not accustomed to places with so much fresh air!

The village had a shocking effect on us as there were only 5 houses survived till today and the rest have immigrated years ago, God know why. After taking a few pictures on the top of the mountain, we left the village.

What to Eat
The cafe I mentioned above was one of the best local cafes in Rize. My dad told me that he visits them at least once every year to eat 'muhlama' in there. Muhlama is a traditional meal done with a mix of special kind of cheese, butter and flour. The Sini Cafe staff cooks it with garlic chive in it, and this was something new to me - I loved the taste of it!

The atmosphere in the cafe is also worth seeing. I may be saying 'cafe', but it was more than that. I loved the surroundings. Though it was quite cold, we preferred sitting outside to get some fresssshhh air (see my jumper, that belongs to my dad - I was silly enough to think Rize would be as warm as Istanbul is, so did not put any jumpers in my luggage). The cheesy think in the middle is 'muhlama' - my favourite traditional meal of that region. The organic butter and the garlic chive are what makes it look brownish red. Usually it looks orange-yellow without those ingredients in it. Another popular meal for Blacksea people is black cabbage though I don't quite like and eat it. But if you're in for trying new things, you should definitely try it - I mean try any meal with it, because Blacksea has countless dishes made with black cabbage. Anchovy is another thing popular in Blacksea, and local people can prepare different kinds of dishes by it. An example is rice and anchovy cooked together. Not my kind of thing again as I don't like eating fish most of the time, but those who like seafood may try it - I'm sure they'll like it.

Blacksea is a great place to escape from our every day city life. I felt fresh and happier after this vacation I had. And a perfect place to capture wonderful shots. Bon voyage to those who will be visiting it soon!

My Russia Trip - St Petersburg and Moscow

2014-08-02T02:52:00.002+03:00

Hello again! I am just back from Russia - been to two beautiful historical cities: One is St Petersburg and the other one is Moscow, and this week (Probably I should have said this month!) I will mostly be writing about this last trip of mine. Before starting my post about St Petersburg, I would like to note that Moscow was not as interesting as I expected it to be, though St Petersburg was way better than I could have imagined. Thus, apart from St Petersburg being the first one I visited in Russia, I am starting this series of posts with it as it looked much more appealing to me. I can't stop looking at the photos I took there - full of colour and energy, different from grey and crowded city Moscow, and too similar to magical city Amsterdam (Actually magical is not enough to describe it. I am a big fan of Amsterdam...) By the way, the one here is a picture of me and the Saviour-on-the-Spilled-Blood or the Cathedral of Resurrection as some may call it.

About Russia

Though I have been to a few countries earlier, this was a new trip to me - a country completely different compared to the West European countries, with the remains of communist years, maybe a bit boring or as most people warned me, lack of cultural things like local food or so... None of them was the case. Russian people are a bit different than the European people, that's true, but every nation is different, isn't that so? The best thing about Russia was, as a tourist, being able to walk around the city without caring about on which path I am walking. In Turkey, if you are about to cross the road on a pedestrian path, then you have to wait for the cars to pass by before putting your feet on the ground. Not too surprisingly, in Russia, pedestrians have the priority. You can use pedestrian paths freely as every single car would stop to wait for you. These are small details maybe, but if you do not want to stop on every corner just the way I did, you should know that. No waiting! You have the priority in Russia (If you are not driving of course).

Food is delicious. This is for sure. Before I got there, almost 9 out of 10 people I talked to told me that I would suffer from hunger. I never believed but my family did! Of course this wasn't the case either. Russia is rich about the variety of food, and you can eat whatever you want in any restaurant. I mostly preferred steak, french fries and salad as a meal (and now I feel quite fat), but they have fish, or pasta, or different kinds of desserts as well. It's all up to you.

This is a picture of me in Moscow - I just wanted to put it here as I love it very much!

Besides all these, getting around the city St Petersburg (and Moscow) is too easy thanks to the city's great underground network. The Cyrillic alphabet might look a bit difficult to read at first, but trust me, you get used to it in a few days - even in a few hours I could say! If you want to use the metro as a means of transportation, luckily, every station name is written both in cyrillic and latin/roman alphabet, and this helps you a lot. By reading all those station names, you somehow start to understand the cyrillic alphabet. I now can read words in Russian, but if you could hear me reading, you would laugh your ass off... I am like a kid in school, spelling out the words as learning how to read. Even sillier, I get too excited when the word I read makes sense to me; especially words such as Mc Donald's or Prospekt or parking, and some other international words we used to hear in every day life...

A little note about Russia: Russia is famous with its pickpockets - at least, I've heard so. So I kept my bag with me all the time and haven't put my money in front pocket as this would be an invitation to the pickpockets. You just be careful about what you are carrying, and you'll be just fine. People kept saying Sicily is full of mafia members, and I was so scared of being abducted the first time I got there (haha silly of me), but Sicily was a safe place and I haven't seen a member of mafia at all. It's all the imagination of people around you. So don't worry about the pickpockets.

Now... My next posts will include details such as the histories of both cities, their most important cathedrals, palaces, squares and a few famous historical people who lived in Russia - like Peter the Great and his wife Catherine, and Ivan the Terrible (or Ivan the Great as some may call him).

Please keep following...
Ciaooo

Vienna - the City of Arts and Music

2014-07-06T14:48:00.000+03:00

I'm back here after a long time and it's been quite like a surprise to me to see my blog has now reached 32.631 page views - This is surprising because I haven't been posting since the last October at all. I preferred not to post anything as I haven't felt like doing - been too busy working lately and on my spare times, I never had time to write on a blog - instead I worked on a novel. But there are many other places I want to share with you, like Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Thessaloniki and many more, and I can't stop that powerful urge inside me anymore.

Vienna is a beautiful city, that's for sure. I had visited it last summer - almost one year has passed by then. Quite rich with its palaces, cathedrals, squares, and beautifully built houses. The hotel I stayed was a bit outside the city (outside means only 15 min. away anyway!), and there houses had lovely huge green gardens and the streets were very quiet. I loved that face of Vienna.

The central part of the city was a bit more crowded, but still peaceful. As someone from a huuuuuge city (Istanbul hosts more than 16 million people now...), Vienna is only the same size with my little town. It was quite strange for us to see all the streets in the centre by only walking around the city for one or two hours.

Vienna is not as colourful as Prague, or lively as Budapest, but it has its own characteristic and this is a unique one. I would suggest you to see the famous Stephansdom, Graben, the Peterskirche, Am Hof, Freyung, Hofburg, Albertina, Staatsoper, Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum), Naturhistorisches Museum, the Parliament, the Rathaus (City Hall), the University of Vienna, the Votivkirche, Schloss Schönbrunn, the Gloriette, and the Belvedere Castle.

If you will be spending more than a few days and clearly have more time, then you might want to see some other places I will not mention here. There are plenty of them! But here, you'll find a short trip around the city.

A Short Story of Vienna

First permanent settlements in Vienna takes place in Neolithic Age between 3500-1800 BC. and Celtic settlement of Vindobona on the site of today's Leopoldsberg happens around 400 BC. In 15 BC., under Emperor Augustus, the Romans establish a garrisson of the same name on the south bank of the Danube. In 166 AD., Vindobona was destroyed by the Marcomanni. The town is rebuilt and Marcus Aurelius makes it his headquarters, and the emperor dies in Vondobona in 180 AD. The first Barbarian tribes approach in 395 and the Romans are withdrawn from the town in 405. In 433, Vindobona is destroyed by the Visigoths and later by the Huns. Repeated invasions by the Longobards, Goths, Alani and Rugi between 500-650. In 796, Charlemagne defeats the avars and constitutes the Eastern March; the area is colonized by Franco-Bavaresi. The first mention of the city with the name of Wenia (from the Celtic Vedunia, "woodland stream") starts in 881, but the city falls to the Hungarians, then defeated by Otto I, who reestablishes the Eastern March between 907-955.

Otto I enfeoffs the Eastern March to the Babenbergs in 976. Vienna is occupied by the Hungarians but freed by Emperor Conrad II in 1030. The consecration of the Stephansdom takes place in 1147, and in 1156, the first Duke Heinrich II Jasomirgott chooses Vienna as his residence. In 1200, Vienna becomes the second most populous and economically important German city after Cologne. In 1246, the Babenberg line is extinguished and Vienna is torn by struggles for succession. In 1282, Rudolf I Hapsburg becomes ruler of Austria, and the Hapsburg rule begins, so the Gothic style flourishes in Vienna. In 1365, Vienna's University if founded, and between 1485-1490, Vienna is occupied by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary; the city is retaken by Maximilian I in 1490. In 1529, the first siege of Vienna by Suleiman II's Turks takes place, and the second Turkish siege comes in 1683. In 1740, Empress Maria Teresa comes to the throne; and under her and her son Joseph II's rules Vienna enjoys a long period of economic and cultural prosperity. In 1848, Franz Joseph, destined to give a new face to Vienna, comes to the throne with his wife Sisi. The year 1918 is the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; declaration of the Austrian Republic with Vienna as capital, but Vienna loses its role as capital in 1938 and Austria becomes a province of the German Reich. In 1945, Vienna suffers grave damage during Allied bombings. In 1955, Vienna becomes the capital of the new Austrian Federal Republic, and becomes the third UNO city after New York and Geneva in 1979.

Me in front of the Stephansdom

Squares & Shopping Sites & Cathedrals

Stephansdom is the most popular cathedral, located right at the heart of Vienna on a square that is called Stephansplatz. It is fantastic - it looks massive outside and with the height of its roofs, only magnificent. It is known as the first Romanesque parish church on the site, and consecrated in 1147, and the Gothic choir was constructed by Duke Albrecht I in 1304. In April 1945, in the last days of World War II, the cathedral caught fire during bombing, and was restored later. The cathedral is 107 meters at length and 60 meters at height. The splendid coloured tile roof, which was originally supported by larch wood beams and was completely destroyed in 1945, has been rebuilt in steel.

Stephansdom has a fascinating exterior design and will leave you speechless with its sculptural details capturing different historical moments in every special piece. I would suggest you to stand in front of the cathedral for a while, and see what's there - you will see a great deal of sculptures bringing the story of Christianity to life again.

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Inside the cathedral, there awaits a very surprising part with strange people faces on the walls: the Four Fathers of the Church on the parapet of the pulpit. Apart from that, there are many more to see inside the cathedral, and I won't be able to write about them all, but I would definitely suggest you to get inside to explore the world inside. I loved this beautiful building.

Graben is where The Peterskirche is located. Graben is the elegant shopping district of Vienna, a street for first-class purchases and a classical site for meetings. I remember my eyes getting wide open the first moment I saw the Swarovski label on a building (as if we don't have Swarovski in Turkey...), and spending more than one hour inside the store - it is massive with its 3 floors (or maybe it was 4?!), and like a dream with its product types. If you are looking for a special kind of Swarovski, then this is the right place. I bought a few pieces and left the store smiling like a dumb (A typical woman)...

The store from where I bought my lovely accessories

There is another store selling accessories on Graben and it is very close to the Peterskirche, but very unfortunately, I can't remember its name. If you just take a walk around this sqaure, I am one hundred percent sure that you will see what I mean - the store shows its beauty even from its outside.

Me in front of the Peterskirche

Anyway. Peterskirche is also worth seeing with its old baroque style and lively colours. It is said that the church was built by the order of Charlemagne, but this is not for sure yet. The interior, with frescoes and ochre-and-gold stuccowork, is the work of famous Baroque artists including M. Altomonte, L. Mattielli, M. Steindl, S. Bussi, and A. Camesina. The fresco of the dome is a masterpiece by J. M. Rottmayr.

This church is also worth seeing, especially its interior - just magnificent. It is quite small compared to the other two - The Stephansdom and Votivkirche, but has a unique beauty that captures all your feelings.

Me inside the Peterskirche

Go and visit it - it is just easy to get there and free entrance is a good reason to enter.

Around Graben, I suggest you to spend some more time to look at the stores - as already said, this is the main shopping area, and you surely will find something for yourself. If you are not in shopping mood, then you might take a little walk aimlessly anyway, as you will see quite interesting things during those walks. The horse carriage you see below is one of those interesting things you can never come across with in any other city easily.

This site has these two churches, and some other less famous ones hidden among the streets of central Vienna, so I would suggest you to walk around the centre, to get into the smallest streets without saying "There can't be anything interesting, this is just a simple street far from beauty," and to explore the city's real face. Because I believe it is the smallest streets that shows a culture's real side.

A street on Graben

The last one I want to mention is the Votivkirche - This one is a bit far from the last two, very close to the University of Vienna, and was under construction the day I visited it. Hopefully you will be luckier than me, and visit it during your stay in Vienna.

Votivkirche was erected by the future Emperor of Mexico, the brother of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853. Designed by Heinrich von Ferstel, who took his inspiration from the great French Gothic cathedrals of the 13th century, Votivkirche was the first post-Baroque church in Vienna. Each of the bell-towers are 99 meters in height and the idea was that of building a temple celebrating illustrious Austrians, similar to London's Westminster Abbey.

Me and Votivkirche in one

Me and a friend of mine in front of the Parliament

After seeing all these, when you walk towards the Rathaus, you will see the Parliament on your way - next to two main museums of Vienna. The Parliament has been my favourite as it has the evidence of ancient Greek architectural design. This building was completed in 1883 and was the seat of the Council State until the year 1918. A double ramp, embellished with statues of Greek and Roman historians - among whom Thucydides, Herodotus, Tacitus, and Sallust - and by bronze sculptures of the Horse Tamers, leads to the entrance. In the square at the foot of the ramp stands the monumental Pallas-Athene-Brunnen (Fountain of Athena Pallas): the goddess of Wisdom, more than 4 meters tall, is surrounded by allegorical figures: in her right hand is Nike, the goddess of Victory.

Palaces of Vienna

Me at the Hofburg

There two popular palaces you should see in Vienna: one is right at the heart of the city, called Hofburg, and the other one is a bit outside the city, named Schloss Schönbrunn, and you can get there by tram only.

For more than six centuries, the Hofburg was the residence of the Hapsburgs, who governed first as Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1806 onwards as Emperors of Austria. The Hofburg has no intrinsic architectural unity; it is rather the legacy of a centuries-long history in which each epoch has left its mark. The complex has 18 buildings, 19 courtyards, 54 staircases, and 2600 rooms. It has different parts such as Michaelertrakt (St Michel's Wing), Kaiserappartements ( a part where you can see the difference between the simple lifestyle of emperor Franz Joseph and that of his royal consort Elizabeth - the Empress called as Sisi in Vienna), In der Burg, Amalienburg, Leopoldinischertrakt, Reichskanzleitrakt, Alte Burg, Heldenplatz, Neue Burg, The Neue Hofburg Museums, Ephesos-Museum, and Hofburg Gardens...

In the Gardens of Hofburg

Hofburg is easy to find as it is right in the city centre, so you can ask anyone to show you which direction you should go - you can get there by walk. But Schloss Schönbrunn is a long way to go, so you'd better take the tram to get there. It won't take too long though - as I remember it was about 15-20 mins. away from my hotel.

Schloss Schönbrunn

Schönbrunn is not the most beautiful of the Austrian castles, but it is undoubtedly the most famous. The closest station has a Jugendstil work by Otto Wagner, which is distinguished by two obelisks topped by the Imperial eagle.

the Gloriette from my camera

The castle has an interesting story: It was destroyed by the Turks in 1683, and in 1743 Empress Maria Theresa employed Nikolaus Pacassi to complete the castle and she lived there with her 16 children (no kidding) as their permanent residence. From 1848 until the end of the long reign of Franz Joseph, the castle was used as the Imperial summer residence - so you will see lots of stuff left by the Empress Elizabeth inside the castle. Of the 1400 rooms in the castle (no kidding again), only 40 are accessible to the public. Tapestries, porcelains, chandeliers, and rare pieces of Chinese and Japanese art and furnishings in valuable woods fill these rooms. At the entrance, there are e-guides in different languages, for free, and really good at guiding you through the rooms, telling which room belonged to who, and used for what and etc.

The castle has a massive garden (well, actually they call this part as Schlosspark), and this has even more grandiose aspect than the castle itself: with its oft-restructered 1.6 square kilometers, covering almost the same area as Vienna's first Bezirk (Innere Stadt), it loses nothing by comparison with French models.

Upon entering the park, your attention will be drawn by the Gloriette, the elegant neoclassical arcade that dominates the low hill south of the castle. The Gloriette 19 meters in height and 95 meters wide, decorated with trophies, animal skulls, and armor, is the best vantage point for enjoying the panorama of the castle and the park, as it offers a view that sweeps over the entire city.

Schönbrunn Zoological Gardens and Botanischer Garten (Botanical Garden) are also worth seeing!

Museums

Jane Seymour's portrait by Hans Holbein

There are countless museums in Vienna of course, but considering you'll have limited time just as I had, I suggest you to see the most important two: Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum. The first one is about arts, and the latter one is about the history of nature. I only had time for the first one (well, I had to pick one, and I chose art of course!), and visited it, which took more than one hour of course - this one was a huuuge one, and there you can see masterpieces from famous artists of history, such as Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir and many more... This museum includes masterpieces from different cultures as well - like Egyptian, Greek and Roman sculptures and terracottas, French and Flemish tapestries (the museum owns these but cannot exhibit for reasons of conversation), Austrian Baroque and Rococo works, furniture, objects, German, Dutch, Italian Baroque items and so forth. I think the Bust of Isabella of Aragon is a piece one should see only because she was an important character in history. A piece I was happy to see is Jane Seymour's portrait done by Hans Holbein the Younger - this is a work you can see in almost every book telling about Henry VIII's life. Van Dyck's The Fish Market is also one of my favourites...

Cafes

Yummy yum...

Today, the number of cafes in Vienna is about 2000, and the coffee house is a true institution in Vienna. As legendary says, it all started with Turkish armies leaving Turkish coffee behind them, and people of Vienna changing it to make a more favourable coffee that would suit them.

The cafe I sat near the Rathaus

Now in every corner, you will see a coffee shop, and though there are a few famous ones (mostly the oldest cafes), I suggest you to get into the one you fancied. This is what I did - there was a cafe, where I could take a look at the beautiful Rathaus from where I sat, a cafe very close to the tram line on that street. I enjoyed the sun shinning on me, with a lovely cup of coffee and Vienna's special dessert Sachertorte (don't leave the city without giving it a try!)...

Rathaus

I'm sorry to be unable to tell you the name of the cafe, but if you follow the tram live that goes to Rathaus, there you'll see a big and elegant one - this is the one. Not hard to find, just look around.

Transportation

Transportation in Vienna is not a problem at all. You can walk anywhere you want in the centre and take the tram if you're going a long way from where you are. The tram doesn't have many lines, but I think the lines are enough to get around the city. You can solve your transportation problem by taking an underground map as you must be doing in any other countries around the Europe. Except Schönbrunn, the places I mention here are all in walking distance, so you will like wandering around the centre- I think this is the best way to explore a city.

So, BON VOYAGE to you all!

DRESDEN on the Elbe

2013-10-13T23:34:00.002+03:00

Me in Zwinger's courtyard

Dresden! A beautifully created gothic city that is located in today's Germany - the formal electoral and royal seat and capital of Saxony (today capital of the Free State of Saxony).

Dresden is a city called "Florence on the Elbe" - indicating how rich its art treasures are and how splendid its architecture is.

Having spent only one day in Dresden of Germany, I will be limited with only the must-sees of this unique city, however Dresden has a remarkable richness in terms of its nature, buildings, gothic style, its modern face and liveliness, so whoever goes there, at least two or three days must be spent to see the whole city and all of its beauties. Here, you will see the historical face of it only (But I think EVEN THAT is enough!)

The first time I entered the city, I had thought "how magnificent and how small", and recalled the perfect architectural beauty of Paris with realising how similar those two cities actually looked.

Me at the entrance of the gardens

Well, compared to Paris, Dresden is a very little compact city and remarkably new - that's because after the war years, the city was all ruined and had to be rebuilt later on, now looking exactly the way it was before the destroying. This is the good thing about the city - nothing have changed! All remained the same thanks to the successful German architects! This is very obvious when you see the old paintings of the city to see how it looked before the destruction.

What can be seen in Dresden?

Not being too popular in Europe, Dresden is a city that is not heard much probably, but there are very beautiful buildings in the heart of it. The most important ones and the ones you should see are Zwinger, Hofkirche, Frauenkirche (In each city, there must be a "Frauenkirche" in Germany anyway!), Taschenbergpalais. Besides, for some art lovers, there is a very special piece of art, Raphael's "Sixtine Madonna" which I will mention later on!

one of the figures near the terrace

After German residents of the city leave, in history, Slavs come to this part of Elbe and the name Dresden derives from the word "drezdane" which means "place of the inhabitants of the marsh woods". The oldest village was probably in the Neustädter Markt and the first town centre was at the old market. I will not write a lot about the history here as I do not think Dresden has a very interesting one.

The city centre starts at the end of the Augustusbrücke, where a group of figures "Der Morgen" (The Morning), installed at the base of Brühl Terrace, which was called "the balcony of Europe", linking it with Schlossplatz, stand. There you will see four figures depicting the "four times of a day". The terrace was converted into magnificent gardens in 18th century. This gardens have been my favourite part in the city, and I have spent approximately one hour there. The natural beauties in the garden, view by the river when you sit on the seats, the silence and beautifully created figures are just wonderful!

a part of the garden from my camera

the cathedral

Theaterplatz - the cathedral (Catholic Court Church, today the cathedral SS. Trinitatis) and Semper Opera House are on this area. I loved this church more as probably it was built with Roman late baroque style and its colour is a bit dark because of its surface (the material they use to build these buildings is some kind of chalky stone and it gets dirty very easily). This one was built by catholics as their main place of praying, while Frauenkirche was built by the protestants. The Semper Opera House can be a special time activity really, it's huuuge and have a very beautiful interior design. It witnessed a number of famous opera premieres, especially some of the famous Richard Strauss.

The Georgenbau, with its neo-Renaissance style and its entrance opposite Augustusbrücke, is also worth seeing. This building was built first around 1530 and burnt down in 1701. The one you will see was built later on (the pictures on the right).

Left of this building, you will see a huuuuge yellow-white-black fresco in Augustusstrasse, named Fürstenzug, that is 102 metre long - that one was originally created in sgraffito first but then they had to change it with tiles as the work was showing the signs of weathering. The 800-year history of the House of the Wettin is portrayed here with illustrations of 35 margraves, dukes, electoral princes and kings on nearly 24.000 Meissen china tiles. The work will make you stand there and watch the wall for at least a couple of minutes - there is a real story indeed (see below).

At my back, the huge Fürstenzug

The Johanneum is also another building you will come across on this street - a building that served as an art gallery up to 19th century and later as an armoury and a transport museum lately (see below).

The Johanneum

Frauenkirche and the statue of Martin Luther

Both Protestantism and Catholism had effects on the city; there are two main churches, one serving for protestants and the other for Catholics. The one built for Catholics was mentioned above.

So the protestant church... Frauenkirche, however, with its cupola (Stone Bell), was built for the protestant believers - a very beautiful church in the heart of Dresden, has been the proud symbol of Protestantism. The original church was, very unfortunately, ruined during the second world war, and its reconstruction was completed in 2004 - so the church is actually very new but nothing looks different compared to the original one.

Church's reconstruction costed approx. €250 million; this shows how important the rebuilding of this jewel of baroque style architecture was! Not to mention that, Frauenkirche was always regarded as the main church of the German Protestants in the old times and it obviously remains as one of the most important pieces of protestantism.

The interior design of the church is decorated with very simple paintings and soft colours - but yet this is another characteristic of protestant churches! I think the entrance was free, but you must check before you get in.

The statue of Martin Luther right in front of the Frauenkirche, another important piece, can be seen after a visit to the church. Tourists mostly prefer taking pictures there with the Martin Luther statue!

Interior design of the Frauenkirche

Another important church is in the Altmarkt area, near the New Town Hall, named Kreuzkirche. This church was destroyed several times because of fires, wars and other reasons. Especially during the Seven Years' War, the Prussians wrecked the church so it had to be rebuilt in a new baroque style in 1792. The interior of the church has been kept intentionally simple. The church is the home of the world-famous Kreuzchor. It was there that the Reformation was introduced in Dresden in 16th century and peaceful demonstrations against the East German regime began in 1989.

the Kreuzkirche at the back

Another interesting building, The Yenidze is a mosque-looking building (as I know, built as a mosque but then used for other purposes), designed in a very oriental style and quite beautiful at nights with its glass dome illuminated when it gets dark - used as a cigarette factory earlier, renovated and converted to function as an office building and a venue for events later on. It's really strange to see such an oriental building at the heart of the city, which makes that area look like an eastern compound.

the Yenidze

And now, the most beautiful baroque building of Germany, Zwinger, the most exciting one (I mean, really exciting - it is a great feeling to stand in the middle of the inner room), the symbol of the city Dresden... It started as a construction of a festival ground on the bastion of the city fortifications in 18th century. The Zwinger courtyard is a huge area, and I took many photos there - which you can see below (only one here). The Glockenspiel Pavilion with its 40 bells of Meissen china dominates the south eastern section. The Wall Pavilion is opposite this. This huge building was also badly damaged but fortunately it is now as beautiful as it was before.

The Zwinger Art Gallery is a place all art lovers should visit - the Gallery of Old Masters (as you can guess from its name) exhibits many important European paintings, and the one I mentioned before, Raphael's Madonna is also in this gallery at the Hall of the Sixtine Madonna.
All these are located on the historical part of Dresden, however, there are plenty of modern buildings as well, but for that, you have to get a bit more inside. To eat, I would not suggest the cafes on streets as they are poor at quality but I might suggest Karstadt, a shopping mall (the company itself is based in Essen, but you can find its branches in other cities as well) very famous in Germany. You can find it in almost every city of Germany and their food is quite rich at diversity. Whenever I enter a Karstadt in Germany (I did this in Munich a few times!), I eat A LOT. Delicious, excellent, not very expensive - not expensive at all. So this is a suggestion but you might want to have your lunch on streets anyway, this is also another good way of experiencing the city atmosphere - I generally love doing this. Besides eating, you might want to shop after the lunch, so you will find everything you look for in any Karstadt again (Nope, they're not paying me for advertising them, but I do really love their food mmmm...)

I have not mentioned anything about transportation, because there you will not need it. The city is quite small and you can walk everywhere!

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If you have been there before, and have anything to add, please feel free to comment!

Kensington Palace and Its History

2013-09-10T23:13:00.000+03:00

Me in front of the palace

Today I've finished a book about Kensington Palace and its history; a book I bought inside the palace when I visited it last April. At first, I thought it was an ordinary guide book telling you where to go, what to see in the palace, and how to manage your visit and to learn some brief information about the royal families that lived there. Luckily the book was more than that and it led me to write some about the palace.

Kensington is a place where you can go and see inside it freely - only some parts of it of course! As an example for the popular royals we know, Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Diana had lived there during their marriage, and only after their separation, Charles moved out and Diana stayed in the palace. Now the palace has become a home for the popular couple, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his beautiful wife Catherine Middleton (Kate Middleton as we all call her most of the time).

The palace has been home for countless royals, but most important of all, Princess Victoria (of Albert) grew up here and spend some time afterwards with her husband. Also this is where she met her husband Albert and fell in love.

The palace was named as Nottingham House earlier; a mansion only, but was purchased by King William III and Queen Mary II as a new place to live in. The mansion, then, costed £20.000. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect who changed all the design of the mansion and transformed it into a royal palace for the couple. Later, Queen Anne added an Orangery to the gardens, which is one of the most remarkable buildings of the palace, where the oranges of Queen Anne had been kept during the cold winters. The building is still there to see.

the Queen's Gallery

The King's State Apartments are worth seeing. The King's staircase is the first link to the circuit of rooms making up the King's State Apartment. Keep in mind that this staircase was once where the visitors of the palace went upstairs to meet the King or his officials. You must stop there to explore the environment as there are a lot of masterpieces; wall frescoes (frescoes are only on walls but anyway...), sculptures, iconic statues and ceiling drawings... All have stories but you would better get a guide book before entering the palace, because I would not be able to end this post if I had to start telling them all!

Most of the rooms are empty, which indicates that these rooms were being used as meeting rooms or ballrooms where people who are closer to the royal family met and danced till the morning. Besides, these rooms were used as meeting points as a celebration area after special events, such as baptism of a prince or princess or mournings for royal members.

William Kent was the painter of the palace, and did a really good job; the King appreciated his works a lot while other painters tried to insult him about his paintings as a result of their jealousy. I recommend you to observe the magnificent ceiling in the Privy Chamber, which was Queen Caroline's favourite entertaining space, to see Mars, the Roman god of War and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, painted by William Kent. There is a strange object right in the middle of the room; a clock, a music box that play Handel. The pictures on the sides depict four monarchies from antiquity.

The Cupola Room is the most splendidly-decorated room in the palace, which marks a great new beginning in the history of design. William Kent had lived in Italy for about ten years, and when he came back, his artworks included an Italian effect, which changed all the design standards not only in the palace but also in the whole country. So this room is where it all started. Lastly, this is the room where Princess Victoria's baptism was celebrated in 1819.

The Queen's state apartments were lower-key and plainer than the King's. There, you can see Turkish carpets, embroidered hangings and lacquer furniture. Queen Mary's obsession about porcelain led her to collect many pieces, and there were over 150 pieces in the room where now the Queen's Gallery is presented. The Queen's Drawing Room, Eating Room and Bedroom, all are located on this side of the palace. The famous story about Queen Anne and her ex-best friend Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough also happened in these apartments. After talking to her friend Sarah Churchill for the last time, the queen rejected talking to her again. The reason is still unknown.

The palace has a part named "Victoria Revealed", where you can see her early life and family life in details; her clothing when she was a kid and her nine children's dresses and shoes, the Red Saloon where she had her first official meeting when her Uncle died, the drawings she made of her lovely children, the mourning room that tells more about Albert's unexpected death and many more. Besides these, you can see a statue of Queen Victoria, done by her talented daughter Princess Louise, that stands in the garden at the moment.

Royal family members of 20th century like Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent and Princess Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon preferred living a modest life in the palace, so they changed their apartments in the direction of the modern design of that times. Kensington Palace is also where the Duke of Edinburgh left for his wedding to Princess Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1947.

Kensington had been a home for Prince Charles and Princess Diana during their marriage and Princes William and Herry were often taken to the gardens of the palace by their mother young Princess Diana.

Today, the palace is a home for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate use the palace as their London home.

The palace has a great exhibition of clothing wore by royal family, mostly from the 18th century; where you can see real mantuas (formal, wide skirted dresses), suits, waistcoats, baby dresses and shoes (mostly clothes of Victoria's nine children) and many more...

The palace garden has a cafe and shopping store as well as its public green areas where you can wander and see beautiful flowers - especially do not forget to see the statue of Victoria in the East Front gardens, done by her daughter!

For more information, please visit the Historic Royal Palaces

Camber Beach in East Sussex

2013-09-10T21:29:00.003+03:00

This is a photo I took on Camber Sands Beach.

I have just found a very useful website for Camber Beach near Rye, and wanted to share it with you all! Some of you may want to visit the lovely town Rye or another town around, but do not leave the region without seeing the Camber.

Here is the link for the website: http://www.camber-sussex.co.uk/

Accommodation, food and drink, property, shopping, attractions and many other sections included, this website might help you a lot.

Take a look!

English Countryside: RYE

2013-09-04T00:26:00.001+03:00

I want to start this post with a quote from Samuel Jeake (an English writer who lived in Rye) dating back to 1678:

"This ancient town is compact as a little City, stored with buildings,
The town is of beautiful Prospect to look upon any way."

Just as the writer says, Rye is a very small, compact city in the East Sussex region full of beautiful ancient buildings. Rye has some of the most charming houses of England, and if you go out in Rye at late night when noone is around, you could feel as if you are in the medieval times, with all the stone-made tiny houses and old pavements, lovely little teashops and many others you can see around.

It is very clear to me now, but before I saw every part of Rye, I was not that sure about tourists going there and spending some days in this very little town as my friend (she's currently living in Rye) told me. But it's a true fact; people visit this ancient town more often than we can imagine.

the entrance of Ypres Tower

The town was conquered by the Normans in the past and the architectural details show us a bit about it, although a big part of the town was destroyed as a result of wars (mostly with France) and the English had to rebuild the town all over again. At the times of the Norman Conquest, Rye was surrounded by the sea, but today, the coast side is miles away and you can see sheep grazing on the lawns, where once the waves broke. You can go to the coast side anyway (it is not that far), perhaps only for the tide that is happening on this coast line every day (as I know, twice in a day).

Historical Places in Rye:
If you are to visit the town, there are some places that could attract you as a tourist. Ypres Tower (Baddings Tower) is one of those fascinating buildings in Rye, which was ordered by King Henry III. There you can also visit the Rye Castle Museum, the one that can give you the best information about the town's history and the town itself.

the Church of St Mary the Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is one of the few churches in this little town and can be seen on the Lion Street, located in the heart of Rye. This building was built up in the 12th century when the town was owned by the Abbey of Fecamp in Normandy. The church stands on the highest part of Rye, and its tower is open to visitors, so you might prefer going up to see a great view of the town from there. It is worth climbing! There, on the tower of the church, you will see an old blue clock. The mechanism of this clock can be seen by the visitors from the tower (from the inside) - the clock mechanism dates back to 1561, and its face dates from about 1760! On the clock, a sentence is written: For our time is a very shadow that passeth away...

the Land Gate

What is left from the town walls? Well, there were four gates located on different parts of the town walls earlier, but only one of them survived until today. The four are, The Strand Gate, Postern Gate, Land Gate and Baddings Gate, and the one surviving is the Land Gate. Besides, you might want to take a closer look at the walls, so I offer you to visit the Rye Town Model in the Heritage; it shows the walls well.

Streets of Rye:

At the back is Swan Cottage Tea Rooms

Mermaid Street is a street I would offer you to see; a street which was described in the 1770s as being 'near as steep as the ridge of house' by Reverend John Wesley. The Watchbell Street is also worth seeing, as there was a bell hung in the street to give warning of any approach of French people. Thomas House is known as the oldest houses in West Street, and is all white and brown, as most of the houses used to be in the earlier centuries in this area. For those who like royal things, the house where Queen Elizabeth I stayed during her 3-day visit to Rye can be seen at the corner of Church Square and West Street (the house is known today as the Old Custom House, the house with the crooked chimney). The High Street is another one worth seeing, which runs the whole length of Rye, from the Land Gate to the Mint. The Mint is a very narrow but lovely street where you can see black and white buildings, and Swan Cottage Tea Rooms is where I had a tea after lunch (I do have tea after breakfast, lunch and dinners!).

the Mermaid Inn

The Mermaid Inn is also one thing worth seeing, not because of its appearance but its historical importance. This Inn was used by the Hawkhurst gang of smugglers as a meeting place. Another place they used to meet in, to carouse and smoke pipes, was the Red Lion. The Mermaid Inn is open to everyone so that you can go in and have lunch or just some drinks - unfortunately when we asked for lunch, they were closing the kitchen, I don't remember why. So we chose another place around to eat.

Inside an antique shop

You might see antique shops everywhere in Rye, and I am very satisfied with some pieces I bought in several places. The antique framed Marilyn Monroe picture is my favourite and is now hanged on my wall in my bedroom! Old fashioned bags, clothes, second hand books, mirrors, some little pieces of home decoration and many more! I was all fascinated - hated that I could not carry them all to my own house as it would cost me a fortune!

A very sad story:
The story of Cantator and Amanda is a well-known story about Rye - Even I knew this story before I learnt that this legend happened in Rye. In 1845, when a new railway was built from Ashford to Rye and Hastings, a discovery was made. Two skeletons, clasped together, was found unearthed. The old legend of these two skeletons says that two young lovers, named Cantator (a monk) and Amanda (a beautiful young girl) were forbidden to see each other, so they ran away but were caught and their punishment was to be buried alive. This story dates from the 14th century and is shuddery...

The town's reputation & the rivers:

the Strand Quay and me on the bridge

The town was well known for shipbuilding, fishing and trading in the old times, and it is told that even King Henry VIII asked Rye to send fish to Dover in time for the arrival of famous Anne of Cleves, his bride-to-be. The River Rother is a very famous one in the history and the most well-known river of Rye but now it is not as wide as it was earlier. River Brede is another river where you can see loads of fishing boats around. Strand Quay, where now many private boats moor on the River Tillingham, was one of the centres of Rye's shipbuilding in the past, and there are many teashops and cafes on the quay now - it was lovely!

What else to do in Rye:

the Camber Sands Beach

Around Rye, apart from walking down the streets, the most I enjoyed was a long walk on the coast line - on Camber Sands Beach. There, with the remains of the tide, you can see little boys and girls playing on the wet sands (mostly semi-naked IN WINTER!), dogs running with their owners and youngsters climbing up to the small hills to jump down as a traditional game. It was very windy when I was there and cold, but I survived that one hour we spent there!

If you visit this side of England, I would definitely offer you to ride a horse in a farm or if you know someone in Rye, in their houses. Most people in Rye still own horses and they use them a
means of transportation in the town. As someone who adore horses and ride anytime I have a chance, I wanted to ride one of the horses of my friend's family that I am staying with, but very unfortunately, they were too old to ride, so I had to give up. But they had two lovely horses, Fred and Darcy, and they still keep them and feed them as some members of their family.

Fred and Darcy and me

What else can I suggest? If you like the nature, go and have a walk in the woods - it is very quiet and empty but you will never want to leave this place and will go everyday if you are staying in Rye more than a few days! Don't forget to take some pictures there!

a view from the woods in Rye

Where to stay in Rye?

Me in the garden of the Corner House

There are not many choices as this is a very traditional town - I won't be able to recommend you very high standard hotel rooms but I can recommend you a very lovely and warm cottage house: the Corner House

The owners, Yvonne and Richard Turner, who are the parents-in-law of a very close friend of mine, are very nice people; very hospitable and helpful, and the house is quite bright, clean, comfortable and best of all, the breakfast is free! I stayed there 3 days and 2 nights and did not want to leave! You can reach the heart of Rye from there by a short walk, so I would definitely recommend you to stay at this lovely old brick house which was built more than 100 years ago as the owners told me.

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PRAGUE

2013-07-01T15:08:00.000+03:00

Whenever I hear the word "Prague", people used to say similar things like magical, impressive, lovely, a beautiful city and such. I went there with very high expectations - God knows why!? - and found less than I imagined. That does NOT mean I did not like the city, I liked it a lot and enjoyed two days and nights in the city, but surely this would be enough as more than two days in Prague will be just wasting your time - if you are not someone who has plenty of time and money of course! If you are so, then enjoy the city from another angle; shop from the little stores, buy gifts for your family and friends, eat in little traditional restaurants, try different tastes in the traditional cafes of Prague and enjoy the weather - summer or winter, doesn't matter, the city will look more magical in winter I suppose, and will be easier to wander around in summer for sure.

Me in the Old Town

Just to let you know; Prague is a small city, especially for those who have been living in bigger cities such as London, Paris, New York or Istanbul (Considering the entire Czech Republic population is half of the population in Istanbul only...!!!) - and this is a good thing, because you do not need to be travelling around the city - no cost of transportation - no wasting your time - not going to miss anything while travelling underground - will walk all the streets to see the beauty inside... But here I must warn you, you will be wasted at the end of the day; the roads look short enough on maps, but not that short in reality. It's always same for maps anyway...

Me on the Charles Bridge

I want to mention the currency of the country by the way - this is very important: The currency of Czech Republic has been Czech Koruna (or Czech crown) (sign: Kč; code: CZK) since 1993 so this is what you will need. You will probably be using Euro for change, or Dollars, or Pounds... I had used Euros. There are some change points where you can easily change your money to spend BUTTT be careful about NO COMMISSION signs - they all are just a lie, if you are not changing more than €100, €250 or even €500 sometimes. They might say they will not take any commission at all, but this is only for some amounts. Here is an example: When I was there, 1 Euro was about 25 CZK, and when I gave 10 Euros, I had to take 250 €500 - ask this to the officer - but if you change, let's say 50 Euros, then you will lose 5 CZK with every 1 Euro (!). It may not look much first, but it may mean losing your meal in the evening and taxi paying at night... When I was there, I asked how much I would get back for my change in every change office; most of them said they would give me 200 CZK for €10. One change point said they would change €10 with 250 CZK and I changed all my money there, but it is not that easy to find such points, especially in the centre of the city, so try to find some change offices that are located far from the main centre.
CZK in return - if there is really no commission at all. But believe me, it's not working that way... The labels of NO COMMISSION mean only no commission if you change big amounts; like

The gate of Charles Bridge on the Staré Město side

Here is a useful link for the currencies in Czech Republic. Check this before going there to know their currency.

It is still good to know they change your money in restaurants if you need to. With less loss of course. (23 CZK for 1 Euro it was when I was there).

In Prague, you will see very pretty old cars that you can hire for one hour and have a special city-sightseeing, and you will hear and see a lot about Franz Kafka who hated Prague but lived and died in this city. My passion, horses, are also very popular in the old town and you might have a short ride with these carriages.

Besides all, I must warn you Czech people are not very smiling people; they still have the marks of the communist days on their faces, so don't get offended by unsmiling and annoying waiters or officers that behave like you have done something wrong. That's usual.

So here, now I will start to write about the city itself.

WHERE TO GO IN PRAGUE

Me in front of St. Vitus Cathedral

Prague is a city located on both sides of Vltava River and consists of six main regions:
Hradčany (Castle District), Malá Strana (Little Quarter), Josefov (Jewish quarter), Staré Město (Old Town), Nové Město (New Town), and Vyšehrad.

The first you must see is the castle district, Hradčany I think, because both the castle and the famous St. Vitus Cathedral are there. The St. George's Square is also right next to the cathedral (and there you will see a No Commission Change Office!). This area is right on the left top of the city, so you can check it on the map.

The second thing I would suggest is walking directly through the Charles Bridge that starts on Malá Strana and ends at the beginning of Staré Město. The bridge is famous with its countless sculptures and its live atmosphere. My favourite part was the artists drawing pictures of people within 5 minutes (I still don't believe a beautifully drawn picture can be finished in 5 minutes, but that is what's written on the labels!). The bridge is crowded most of the time since the tourists come there as the first thing they do in Prague.

An artist on Charles, drawing a girl

The Old Town, which is Staré Město, has been my favourite of course; with its Gothic Church of Our Lady of Týn (in Czech, Kostel Matky Boží před Týnem), and the medieval astronomical clock located nearby. Never leave the city without seeing these two. Every hour, people gather around the astronomical clock to see its show with the figures on it that represent vanity, greed, death and lust. The show doesn't last for even 1 minute maybe, but it is worth seeing both the figures dancing and the crowd gathered around - only waiting for the clock to start the show. There are a few more historical buildings in this area but as they are not that famous and there are many of them, I will be mentioning them in another blog post. Church of St. Nicholas is also another one worth seeing in Staré Město. Aaand another favourite of mine, the Powder Tower (Prašná brána) is another piece that you MUST see. The Municipal House is also located right next to it.

the astronomical clock

I sadly have not spent much time in Josefov as I was quite fascinated by the Gothic buildings of catholic days, and don't really know a lot about the Jewish quarter, but what I know is that you can see a few beautifully built synagogues such as the Old-New Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, the Klaus Synagogue, the High Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery if you spend some time in Josefov.

All up to your priorities of course.

In Malá Strana, I strongly recommend you to step up onto the Petřín Tower, the 62.5m high steel framework, from where you can see the city and its best buildings like the castle, the cathedrals and the river as well. For that, you must get to the hill by a funicular railway which costs about 1 or 2 Euros, and from there, you must go to where the tower lies and climb the 299 steps to the top (You will have to pay a very little amount to see the view from the tower). I hated the steps - especially when I looked down! - but it is definitely well worth the effort. Click here for more information about the tower.

the Petřín Tower

In Nové Město, which is literally the new town with all its surroundings, the Dancing House, the National Theatre, the National Museum and of course the Wenceslas Square are the ones you must see. Unfortunately the National Museum (the main building) is closed for reconstruction since July 2011, and you will have no chance of entering the museum until 2015 presumably.

These are the MUST-SEEs in Prague, and you might be able to see them all within only one day by walking around if you start early and don't get tired until you finish the plan. No need for public transportation in the city, UNLESS your hotel is out of the centre. If so, you better use the tram which is the most common means of transportation in Prague.

Here is a very useful guide for Prague, Prague Experience that you might want to use to plan your trip, and Prague Welcome, Prague's official tourist portal.

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A Long Journey and I'm Back!

2013-06-19T17:14:00.001+03:00

I spent more than one week in Europe lately, so I haven't had time to write here at all, but now here I am, with lots of photos and a huge background information that I can share with you.

The cities I saw last week are Prague in Czech Republic, Dresden in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Bratislava in Slovakia and Budapest in Hungary. I can easily say that this one was the journey of my life (before that, it was Paris!) - 5 countries, 5 different historical background, and 5 different cultures in one week - like a dream to me!

Every one of them had different beauties; Prague is a magical city, while Vienna is the centre of arts and music with its well-organised streets and Germanic architectural richness, Bratislava is more than you can expect, Dresden is fascinating with its Gothic cathedrals, and Budapest is an adorable city with its Fisherman's Bastion where I fell in love with...

I have loads to tell and will share all the information I've got with you soon - for now, only the pictures...

Note: The flood is not that strong anymore, although some parts of bridges are still under water - so you don't have to delay your journey because of the flood. You may not be able to have a boat tour perhaps, but the last day I was in Budapest, I had a chance to see the city from the boat - so you will probably be able to do the same!

MORE POSTS ABOUT PRAGUE, VIENNA, BUDAPEST, BRATISLAVA AND DRESDEN WILL BE COMING SOON! KEEP FOLLOWING!

More info coming for budget travel, where to go in vienna, where to go in prague, where to go in budapest...

ISTANBUL: Topkapı Palace and Kaşıkçı Elması, the 4th biggest diamond in the world

2013-05-30T23:25:00.000+03:00

The entrance of Topkapı Palace

Tourists visit Istanbul mostly in April and May, as it will be too hot later in June, July and August. I can understand that because even I, as a local, don’t like going into the city centre in summer. So the best time to visit Istanbul is already over (People generally start thinking about south parts where they can enjoy the sun after spring – these three months will be the busiest time in south – Antalya, Marmaris, Kuşadası, Fethiye, Bodrum are the most popular ones). But if you’re planning to visit Istanbul, you still have the September – which will be a bit darker than April or May, but still there will be sunny days but with lower temperatures! And in Istanbul, there is a tradition for visitors from outside the city or the country – seeing Topkapı Palace...

Topkapı Palace was where Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, the ruler of that times, who is known as being a padishah (a name given to Ottoman rulers) who depended on laws all the time, and was the most humanistic of all, the rightful one who believed in forgiveness (even in an empire where people are not to be forgiven), had lived with his famous Russian cariye (a kind of female slave who had to do whatever the sultan asks for), and wife later on, named Hürrem (meaning “a woman who smiles all the time” in Ottoman Turkish). This name was given her by Sultan when she was his new bed partner, right at the beginning. Her name was Alexandra before she was captured by the Ottomans in a war.

According to some sources, Hürrem was kept in Topkapı Palace from the first day, but as my friend told me, Hürrem and their family lived in another palace near Beyazıt beforehand, and Sultan came to Topkapı Palaceevery day for the state affairs, and as a result of Hürrem’s endless love and longing for Sultan, she wanted to move the entire palace to where her lover, the Sultan worked during the day, to Topkapı. The entire Harem (where the sultan’s and other palace men’s women, Cariyes used to live and serve for their men and where no man could enter except for the Sultan himself) and Selamlık (in where the males lived) was moved to this new palace. For that reason, of course, the entire palace had to be re-designed for the needs of palace people.

the second garden

Basically, the Palace has 3 gardens, and countless buildings inside, which are linked to each other. The first garden was used for celebrations and such other things when people from outside the palace were accepted as guests. The second garden belonged to those who lived in the palace, servants, cariyes, sultan’s assistants and many more. Legends say that there had been love stories going on inside this garden, cariyes meeting with their new lovers, sultan’s wives meeting with people from Selamlık to make plans in order to make sure that their sons will be the next sultan, and the most popular one is that Kanuni’s daughter from Hürrem, Mihrimah Sultan used to meet with the famous architect Mimar Sinan in this garden on that days – the girl was about 17 years old when the architect was over 40 according to the sources, and he was just an architect, not someone who could get married with a sultan’s daughter! Finally, the third garden behind the walls - A part of this biggest garden, which belonged to only Sultan then, is now used as a road in the city, but a little part of it still remains inside the palace borders.

Sultan's private garden with a pool

the Bosphorus view from sultan's private garden

The church

When you get in, you will see a museum (an old church) in the first garden. This was built by Constantine when he had the city Constantinopleinside his hands. You can see all the Protestant signs on this church’s facade. The palace was decided to be built on that area by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who was the last conqueror of Constantinople, but the church remained still and no one touched it since then. The church had started to be used as a kind of stocking area (Only the basement). Church still remains as it was built there, and can be visited - it is a museum now, but I couldn’t see the interior design, because there was a construction going on inside the building, which will not be finished for a long while at least.

We had to spend more than 2 hours inside the palace as there were loads loads to see – and time was not enough to see them all!!!! Long queues can make you depressed while waiting, because some are really really long and I’d recommend you to see the ones with no long queues first, because an hour later, you might see another long queue there! Tourists visit the rooms with the directions of their guides; this is why there are long queues in front of some doors. You choose the others beforehand, and if you have time left, go and see the other rooms – hopefully this time with not long queues...

What else you can see in the palace is clothes left from that era, even skirts when men used to wear long dresses and cardigans, but no trousers. A sultan had started to wear trousers later in the history, and that caused the others follow him; this trousers can also be seen in the exhibition part. Keep that in mind that most of the clothes in that exhibition are the ones used on special days like celebrations. Daily clothes were much less pretentious.

Kaşıkçı Elması

And of course the most important part of the palace: the Jewelries Exhibition. As most of visitors already know, Kaşıkçı Elması (Kaşıkçı Diamond) lays under the roofs of that palace. Kaşıkçı Elması is known as the 4th biggest diamond in the world, consisting of one big piece only. The first two belong to the queen, and are in England at the moment, the third biggest one is in somewhere in east, and the fourth biggest one is this one. Here you can see a picture of it – I had to google it to find the picture because taking photos are not allowed in this part of the palace. Don’t leave the palace without seeing this beautiful diamond; it’s kept with the other jewelries in a room behind a glass.

Another exhibition going on is a collection of ancient clocks, from the years between 1400 and 1700; French, German and English made clocks, all reflecting their country of origins. So sad it was not allowed to take photos of the clocks inside but I took a photo of an interesting one secretly (!!!) – the one you can see on the left.

In another exhibition, you can see the official portraits of sultans, Padishahs and their sons, also named “sultans” like their fathers are, with their long beards, and traditional turbans on their heads, long dress-like clothes and the similar looks on their faces…

The kitchens has been in construction for the last 2 years, so it is a shame that visitors cannot see this huge part of the palace, because Ottomans were also famous with their cuisine – mostly used fruits instead of oil in their cooking – which was not usual in other parts of the world then. And Ottoman cuisine had the most interesting desserts you cannot ever taste in somewhere else – well, you can still try them in Turkish restaurants if you wish!

You can see a few examples of tablets written in Ottoman Turkish

In Dolmabahçe Palace (another popular attraction), you can mostly see the rooms inside the palace, see where people had lived, where they had slept. But in contrast to that, in Topkapı Palace, you can hardly see any rooms, just a few small ones where people used to come and go, mostly for meetings, but not bedrooms at all. I’ve always wanted to see where the sultans and their wives or lovers slept – but this is not possible for now at least. It is said that soon these rooms will be open to visitors!

Dîvân-ı Hümâyûn

Interior design of Dîvân-ı Hümâyûn

Another building you can see is Dîvân-ı Hümâyûn, where the state affairs were discussed without the Sultan’s attendance. Sultan wanted it to be that way because he knew that if he was in that room during the meetings, no one would be able to declare their own opinions as they are afraid to make the sultan angry – making the sultan angry meant to be killed immediately (the sultan would command his hangman to cut your throat!), and no one would say a word about it. Therefore, the meetings were held without him, but the sultan wanted to make sure that everything is alright inside the room and nothing useless is discussed, so he asked his architecture to build a window inside, on the wall so that he could secretly watch what’s going on in the room behind that window. As no one could have a clear vision of who is behind that window, sometimes the sultan sent his assistants to listen to what’s going on inside, but no one knew if it was him or someone else - so had to be careful about what they say anyway.

A few other sultans had also lived in Topkapı Palace after Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, but later on, the royal Ottoman family and all the people living in the palace moved to Dolmabahçe Palace, where Atatürk, the leader of Turkish Republic had died.

The useful info is below:

How to get there: There are a few ways you can use. From airport, you can use the metro to arrive at Aksaray, and from Aksaray take the tram to go to Sultanahmet or Gülhane. Sultanahmet is closer to the palace, so I’d recommend you this – and you will see the signs to the palace from there, it is 10-minute walk from Sultanahmet.

Most tourists use Taksim as a start point to go everywhere, so if you are starting your journey from Taksim, take the T4 bus which directly goes to Sultanahmet, and then walk towards the palace.

I don’t think any of you will be travelling from the Asian part of Istanbul anyway but if that is the case, then go to Sirkeci by boat (or use one of the bridges on Bosphorus, which is not recommended at all!!!! It will take more than 2 hours to get there by this way!), and from Sirkeci take the tram again to Sultanahmet, or Gülhane if you miss the Sultanahmet stop.

What else around: The tourist attractions around are Sultanahmet Mosque (a very famous one, even can be seen in some Hollywood movies) and Hagia Sophia Museum, once a mosque and a cathedral later on, now just a museum which looks like a mosque – no praying inside.

Pricing: As I know, one ticket to the palace is 25 liras, but there are a few other options like museum cards which you can buy once and can use in lots of other museums. For local people Müze Kart can be a good choice, pay 30 liras and you will be able to enter almost all the museums around Turkey twice without paying an extra money. I think foreigners must be also able to buy these cards – so ask to a man inside the little bus in front of the palace – you will see the Museum Card label on that bus.
Museum Card costs 30 liras only.

And thank you all - My travel blog had 13.953 visits so far - almost 14.000! I'm glad to see the USA is enjoying my posts!

Rural Weekend Options in Istanbul: Horse Riding

2013-05-25T15:02:00.001+03:00

A new passion of mine is this: Rural Areas. Spending most of my life in a busy city, and seeing rural areas only once or twice in a year (when we, with the whole family, leave the city for some air), I long for places such as farms, woods, and little towns (even villages).

In my last trip, I spent some quality time within woods and a little town in England, where I adored much - and when I'm back to my country, I tried to keep it that way, too.

A few years ago, I had started horse riding, taking professional lessons in the farms nearby, and spending my Sundays in that farms, watching the professional riders while they practise their riding, but after a while I reduced the days I go to the farms and preferred meeting up with friends in the city.

Which I don't prefer these days.

There are a few rural areas even in the middle of city Istanbul, especially some good quality Riding Clubs where you can go and see horse riding or even practise your riding - or just have breakfast while watching the nature; trees, dogs, cats, ducks, sheeps, cows and many others.

I prefer the ones that are closer to where I live, and started going for riding a few days in a week, taking professional lessons, learning how to sit on a horse during walk, trot and full speed, using my feet and legs to balance my body, and even ride the horse when I am on my feet only! (That's why my right leg and back are in pain right now...) Well, it's one of the most expensive hobbies probably, and hardest to process - but easier with a trainer like mine; forcing you to complete an action, though you look like in pain while trying and failing it...

Witnessing there are more foreigners on these farms than in the city, I thought it might be helpful to the foreigners living in Istanbul to write about the riding clubs I've been to.

The ones outside the city are much much better, good looking, wider and have more facilities - because they have space. Most of them have 4 maneges with different sizes. Generally two are closed, two are open area maneges. If you are a good rider and can ride on your own, you will be able to take the courses on the open ones - using any style, walking, trotting or riding full speed. If you are still taking direction from your trainer, then you will probably practise in the closed ones.

Gürman Horse Farm (Gürman At Çiftliği)

My Favourite Riding Club: The one I will recommend is Gürman Horse Farm (Gürman At Çiftliği), or Gürman Riding Club (Gürman Binicilik Klübü), located between Istanbul and Edirne. If you are going there to make friends, talk about horses or just spend your weekend there, then go on Sunday. It is busier then. But in weekdays, you will be in a very quiet environment, will watch the horses running alone in the open manege, will relax listening to the sounds of nature and smell the nature itself. The farm is located right next to a lake named Büyükçekmece Gölü, so your view will be a mix of all these: The manege, horses, woods around and a blue lake; especially on sunny days. The picture above is a view from the cafe where everyone sits and watches the competitors riding on Sundays. I took it yesterday, it was Friday and very quiet then.

The best trainer you can find in all farms in Istanbul is there, and without him, I wouldn't dare to stand on my feet on a horse at all! He gives great support and asks for the things you think you cannot do... At the end, you have to do - because if not, he shouts like a crazy. Even the horses are afraid of him!

Pricing: The price is 80 TL for one lesson, which lasts half an hour - and after this lesson, you will look wasted, because the trainer makes you practise too hard. 10 tickets that you can spend in a month is 700 TL, so one lesson will be 70 TL if you choose that option.

How to go there: By car, if you are coming from the city centre, choose the E6 road (TEM as we know it), leave the E6 when you see the sign for Hadımköy, and follow the direction to Hezarfen Airport. You must pass the airport and follow the road again to go to the Karaağaç Village (Karaağaç Köyü). You can either look up for this address on your navigation tool or ask someone around; most of them will know about Gürman.

For those who come from the other direction, same rules apply. Leave the E6 road when you see the sign for Hadımköy, and follow the rest. As it is surrounded by villages, unfortunately there is no way you can go to the farm without a car.

International K9 & Horse Club

The other options: Another option is a club near to Gürman, named International K9 & Horse Club. It is internationally approved by the European Riding Associations, and looks more professional, but doesn't look like a farm and the food is more expensive. People in Gürman are more friendly, and Sundays are much more fun in my own opinion. What makes International K9 & Horse Club more appealing is the fake lake inside the area, orange fish swimming and the dogs of course. There you can see loads loads of dogs with different types, even buy one of them if that's what you are planning to... Breakfast is tasty (I've never eaten in Gürman, so I can't compare these two), but not too cheap: 25 TL per person. They do it the traditional way and put all the dishes on your table; you take whatever you want, cheese, olive, salami, sausage, börek, bread, tea and etc. - The food is limitless.

Pricing: If you are planning to take a riding course, one single lesson here is a bit more expensive. 90 TL for one lesson, which will take half an hour, but if you buy 25 tickets that you can use any time in a year, it will be 67 TL per lesson. A friend of mine who has been a professional rider for the last 4 years recommended me the other club, so I started taking my lessons in Gürman. However, if you love rural areas as I do, I'd definitely recommend you the K9 Club as it has a different kind of natural beauty you can enjoy on your weekend.

The last club I can offer is a bit out of the city, located in a place named Silivri. Here, as I noticed, the trainers are younger and less experienced - but their closed manege is my favourite (The open one is not any interesting at all.)

Erkanlı Country offers you lovely rooms and a great environment where you can go with your children . Training is cheaper, 75 TL per lesson, 675 TL for 10 horse riding lessons, but this is not a farm you can go every week if you live in the central city, so cheap doesn't mean the best...

Below you can see a picture of mine taken in Erkanlı Country, about 3-4 years ago, when I visited the farm for the first time. This one was taken inside the closed manege I like :)

How to get there: This time following the E5 road will be a better way as the farm is linked to it somehow. From the centre, get on to the E5 road, drive about 1 hour and after passing Selimpaşa, follow the sign for Silivri; the road will direct you right to the farm. When you see the signs showing Erkanlı At Çiftliği, turn right. This is a long way to go, but just for once, you might want to do it anyway.

The KAPUTAS BEACH in TURKEY

2013-05-01T16:00:00.000+03:00

Me on the beach

Summer is about to come! It's already more than 25C degrees in Istanbul. Time to go for a holiday!

If you are planning a trip to Turkey, which is one of the most famous summer places around Europe for the last few years, I have loads of places to recommend. One of them is the Kaputaş Beach where I visited 2 summers ago, and found fascinating!

The beach is between two cities, Kaş and Kalkan, so if you are visiting any of these cities, you will surely have a chance to go and see the beach. Bring your bikinis with you and spend a whole day there!

The Kaputaş Beach is a bit different compared to other popular beaches in Turkey as it is actually located on a lower point when you look from the road, and there is nothing else around the bay except some local & foreign people having sunbaths on the beach!

If you are with a car - and I really don't know what else could get you there! - you must leave your car near the stairways in a little park lot, and start going downstairs. There you will have to handle 180 steps of a stairway both as going down and going up back to your car. So 360 steps in total! But never tiring! The view is so adorable! You will enjoy all the steps up!

The water looks turquoise all year (particularly in the brightest summer days) because it directly comes from under the ground, all fresh and icy! Explore what's behind the rocks to see more!

You'd better bring your own food to the beach because there is nothing around; no shops, no restaurants, no houses... Only the blue water and yellow sand, and people.

What else are you looking for anyway! ;)

Kaputaş Beach from my camera (taken on the stairways)

How to get there: If you are looking for a place like Kaputaş, then you must choose a place around Antalya to stay. Both Kaş and Kalkan are linked to Antalya, which is one of the hottest summer cities in Turkey. I remember crying because of the hot weather when I was a kid, because I was literally unable to sleep as it was impossible to breath!

There is an airport in Antalya where you can fly to, and in Antalya you might rent a car to drive up to the north side to get to the beach.

Must-Sees in Paris - Vol. 1

2013-04-29T22:56:00.000+03:00

I've had a few other posts about Paris previously and this post is more likely to be "my favourite places in Paris".

To be honest, there are a lot more to do in the city - you shouldn't be limiting your journey with only these following, but the ones here are the ones I recommend MOST. You can find very brief info next to every place written here, but I will write more detailed posts about most of them in the meantime.

Every destination has useful details like how to get there and opening hours and days - but I included only the métro lines that you can use as this is the best way to travel around the city (you will see the busses are all empty anyway!). If you are looking for any other means of transportation, then I would recommend you to check the web sites I wrote under every destination.

Eiffel Tower from my camera

Eiffel Tower:

The masterpiece of Gustave Eiffel - known by almost everyone - the signature of Paris (and even of France) - been the world's tallest building before it was eclipsed by Manhattan's Crysler Building - worth seeing - worth going up (you can see one of the best views of Paris from the toppest point) - the MUST-SEE piece of Paris... The legend says that noone believed it would be popular at all, before it was built, but there it is! Now one of the most popular buildings in the world. If you ask me, I would say it is mostly because its design is unique (considering the building itself is actually useless without its restaurant on the roof floor, and the design is the only thing that makes it so famous) - I should warn you about the long queues you may have to wait at some times. I had to wait for 2 hours to get in to the tower!!! But was definitely worth it.
The line is for the lifts by the way, so if you believe you can get to the top by the stairways, then good luck! Some people were doing it when I was there, but not sure if some one can easily climb them up!

Hours: Open every single day of the year. 9AM-midnight from 15th of June to 1st of September / 9.30 AM-11PM during the rest of the year.
Tickets: Depends on where you want to go; to the first floor, second floor or to the top. To check online: http://ticket.toureiffel.fr/index-css5-sete-pg1-lgen.html

How to get there by metro:
Line 6, Bir-Hakeim - if you take this line which runs above ground, you'll get a view of the tower as you approach the station. Was an exciting moment indeed!
Line 9, Trocadéro

Web site: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

the view from the top of Eiffel

Museé du Louvre:

The museum was a royal residence built in 12th century, so has most of the beautiful sides of that time's art. Buildings in Paris look so similar most of the time, all Gothic or Art Noueveau or Baroque... The main facade looks magical, especially for those who love very detailed designs like I do, and the famous Louvre Pyramid is an interesting contrast of the main building. There you can find some of the unique pieces of art - like Mona Lisa, as most of you might already know. I was actually quite disappointed when I first saw the Mona Lisa portrait, which seemed smaller than I always imagined - but every one in the museum was so keen to see the masterpiece that I had to open some little space for myself to get closer to the portrait (But I've seen it in the end!) I'd definitely recommend you to bring a book about the traditional art (like a guide that tells you most of the art movements and the most popular pieces of Louvre), since there will be loads loads of famous paintings that you might regret if you don't see later on.
And the good news is, Institutions like the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Musée Rodin are free every first Sunday of the month! I preferred seeing Louvre on a first Saturday - so I was able to enter the museum for FREE.

Hours: Open every day except Tuesday. Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: 9 AM- 6 PM/Wednesday, Friday: 9 PM - 9:45 PM/Closed on Tuesdays.

Tickets:Tickets for the permanent collection, €11
Tickets for Exhibitions in the Hall Napoléon: €12
Combined Ticket: €15
Free admission for people under the age of 18 - and FREE on the first Sunday of every month.
How to get there by métro: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre station.

Web site: http://www.louvre.fr/

Museé d'Orsay:

I like this one as it is the home of France's national collection (I like the national collections, there I can find everything I'm looking for!) - pieces from the Impressionist, Postimpressionist, and Art Nouveau movements - Van Goghs, Manets and Cézannes... The greatest pieces althogether - aaand the building itself is an Art Nouveau showpiece, worth seeing. Never say "I've been to Paris, but haven't seen the Museé d'Orsay...
Hours: Open every day except Monday - 9 AM-6 PM in the summer, 10 AM-6PM in the winter.
Tickets: €7; the fee is €5 for 18–25 year-olds. Free entry for children under the afe of 18. Entrance free the first Sunday of the month.
A good web page: http://goparis.about.com/od/sightsattractions/tp/OrsayVisTips.htm
How to get there by métro: Line 12, Solferino

Web site: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/

Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris:

the Notre Dame Cathedral from my camera

Notre Dame, meaning Our Woman... I could go there again and again and again without any symptom of getting bored! The fame it has comes from the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is one of the most popular works of Victor Hugo - and before that, no one knew about the cathedral at all. When you look on the map of Paris, you will see the cathedral is located on a little island (kind of) and the island is connected to the other parts of the city by various different bridges.
The cathedral was beyond the words - I can only say it is magnificent! The Gothic facade and interior design had captured me - I couldn't help myself taking countless pictures of the cathedral. And it definitely is much much bigger than it looks from the outside (and on the photos). Inside, there was a service going on, with music on the background. I will give you more details about the cathedral in another post, so now I'm not going to make it long.

the service

To get there by métro, you can take the following lines:

Line 4, Station Cité or Saint-Michel
Lines 1, 11, Station Hôtel de Ville
Line 10, Station Maubert-Mutualité or Cluny – La Sorbonne
Lines 7, 11 and 14, Station Châtelet

Web site: http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-

More about SICILY!

2013-04-16T17:03:00.001+03:00

Being in a new country - even for a few days - means learning new things about that culture - and the country itself of course! Sicily has a few cultural & archaeological things I noticed and I think these were worth writing here at least in one post!
These important points are going to be the points that should be kept in mind when you are in Sicily.
Because people will talk about them anyway...

One of the Largest Theatres in Europe: Teatro Massimo

Teatro Massimo di Palermo

Designed by Giovan Battista Basile, Teatro Massimo di Palermo is known as one of the largest and most prestigious theatres in Europe. The theatre has a surface area of almost 8.000 square metres, and its magnificent Neoclassical facade is definitely worth seeing! In the picture on the left, you can see me standing right in front of the theatre. I wish I could have entered the theatre to see its inside, because most of the sources I read later on mention how beautifully it is decorated inside the building.

Europe's Largest Volcano is in Sicily: Mount Etna

Mount Etna in Sicily

Etna is known as the largest volcano in Europe (3350 m high). The volcano is still active (I don't know how people can go and see it then considering it is active and can blow out any time; but there surely are people who visit the mountain as some of my tour members went there to see it!) and Etna's height is also -like most of others- subject to variation. The mountain has a surface area of 1570 km2 and its perimeter is almost 200 km long. The area has been designated a National Park. It is strange to say that but the highest part of the volcano has been used for snow sports. In total, there have been 135 violent eruptions recorded in the history, and in the last three, the magma even flowed as far as the sea. Etna is subject to some mythological stories at the same time: According to the legend, the Greek god of fire (Hephaestus) lived in the winding ravines of Mount Etna, and long stories are told about other mythological gods as well.

Hot Climate Most of the Time: Get a Hand Fan

A traditional-look hand fan

Even when I was back home after my journey to Sicily, I kept checking its weather condition - The country was hotter than my home country (which is too hot in summers, especially in August, which we call Hot like Hell!) and even I hated that hot weather! Walking under the sun during the day, not knowing where to sit, when to have a break, being unable to find a way to avoid the hot weather made us all exhausted indeed. Considering the country stays warm even in autumn, the best way to avoid sweating like hell would use a fan while walking around! Probably this is one of the reasons why they sell traditional hand fans in the centre - in the picture you can see the one I bought (Mostly because it looks vintage but also it helped a lot during my journey!) And then I realised suddenly - It's a fact, in Sicily, people use hand fans. Everywhere!

Food: They say PIZZA is good. I reckon not.

Italian pizza

People might be saying the best pizza can be found in Italy - I don't know anything about pizzas in Northern Italy, but there is one thing I'm sure of: Sicilian pizza is not even close to "good". It is OK, to be honest; especially when you're too hungry, a pizza would help you a lot! But they use too much dough and the quality of the materials on the pizza are not well enough. I felt like I'd been eating a bread with some tomato sauce on it. I'm not an expert of food anyway, but I've eaten loads of good-quality pizzas in several countries - and to be honest, I was expecting very tasty pizzas from Sicilian cooks.

You can see a picture from Fratelli la Bufala, which is the best-located and best-known restaurant in Palermo. Drinks, spaghettis, and other stuff were real good -but again, not the pizza!

So try Carbonara...

Carriages Still a Good Means of Transport!

Yes! You can travel with a carriage - either you want to get to somewhere or just want to have a city sight-seeing... They are great! Not many people use them as taxis play a good role on transportation in Sicily, but if you want to hire a carriage, you could easily find one on the streets. Every corner had one or two carriages waiting for us - very silly that I never thought of trying one of them!

In the picture, you can see the lovely girls I captured - I was just walking among the tiny streets, watching all the beautiful buildings and taking pictures of them - then I came across with these two lovely girls - suddenly they smiled and waved their hands, and here it is! We have a real nature photo of real life in Palermo!

Espresso 3 times in a day!

A full cup of Espresso

Growing up in a culture where coffee plays a big role, I am accustomed to the hard taste of Turkish coffee (still prefer it with sugar anyway!). And Espresso has never been something I preferred in my life... Neither the usual Nescafe we all know. But in Sicily, they have Espresso and Espresso-kind-of-coffees everywhere! Every menu had them!

So after breakfast, lunch and dinner; basically after all meals, we had to have a very very little cup of Espresso. As a big fan of black tea, for a change, I enjoyed drinking the hard Espresso after every meal, too. And I can say that, the Espresso you will drink in Sicily is real Espresso. It's too hard-like double Turkish-Greek-Arabic coffee or something.

The funny thing is, when I was back home, all my veins were begging me for more of it!

Sicilian Ice-Cream with Bread!

Ice-cream with Bread

It's everywhere! Literally everywhere! I had never seen it before, but in Sicily, they put the whole ice-cream into a special bread, and sell it that way. I have found it quite creative and loved the idea! Having more than 3 ice-creams in a day prevented me to have more of this ice-cream-with-bread thing (Sorry for not knowing its actual name!), but it is definitely worth trying! You can see the picture above, where my sister eats one of them - seems happy enough!

It's all in the food stores, cafes, little restaurants on the streets; even if you are not looking for it, you will surely come across with it! Another Sicilian thing it is!

Besides, there were a few more different types of desserts that are special to Sicily, but as I'm not a dessert type of person, I haven't noticed any of them at all.

A Day in Canterbury, KENT - ENGLAND

2013-04-10T15:22:00.000+03:00

Canterbury Cathedral, Kent

Where is Canterbury? Canterbury is right on the northeast side of Kent in England, which lies on the east side of London. Kent is basically an area where you can see traditional houses and lovely bridges, city gates and too much green around. If you are someone like me, you could easily spend a whole day in this little city Canterbury, but if you generally prefer having a walk around and seeing some of the popular places from the outside, then Canterbury might look a bit small to you and you may finish the Canterbury trip in a few hours.

What to do in Canterbury: Although the city looks quite small, there are actually a few things which could keep you busy more than you can imagine while you are there. I want to start with the Canterbury Cathedral as this was the one which I could call as "impressive" at the end. - (Thank you to my friend Sam's dad Richard from the Corner House, as he's taught me how to pronounce the word cathedral perfectly!)

Founded in 597 AD, being Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, this cathedral is a place where you can see a Romanesque crypt, 12th century quire and some of the oldest and most beautiful stained glass windows in England. The city might be small itself, but the cathedral is a massive masterpiece for sure. I spent about an hour or even more inside, exploring the other parts of the cathedral, examining the walls, windows and the detailed architecture - discovering the history of the cathedral, enjoying its silence and quietness, which you cannot find in any other popular churches at all. - You have to pay £8 for an adult to enter the cathedral.

Royal Museum and Free Library of Canterbury

For those who love arts and archaeology, another place is on the list: Royal Museum and Free Library. The museum is known as Beaney Institute or just The Beaney as well - the central museum, art gallery and library of Canterbury. The building has a great traditional architectural design outside and looks like a completing part of the city somehow. I had never expected so much to see inside, but now I am glad that I entered and gave the museum a chance instead of just looking and passing by.

Loads to see in the museum; unique archaeological pieces from very early ages, reaching from very very far distances; Egypt, Iran, Turkey and further - real dinosaur skeletons, butterflies, bronze age pieces, antique papers written in Hebrew and many more - we were speechless! I would never expect so many precious piece altogether! We could not help ourselves at all, and were almost missing the train we need to take back home while exploring the museum.

Moreover, there you can see the real life paintings that reveal the old Canterbury times, which are painted by the local artists of the city. The country lives of the local people in that times and the gardens, houses, daily routines going on in the city - definitely worth seeing!

Me on the main street of the shopping area

There are more museums and churches that you could go and see, but we preferred spending a few hours on the streets, buying second hand books from charity stores and looking for vintage pieces that we both adore, and having a lovely tea break where we can cover the London tiredness we had the day before.

A sample of the lovely vintage-look stuff

It is impossible for me to put here all the photos I took in Canterbury; the lovely vintage cups, glasses, table clothes, postcards, baby stuff, bags, shoes, dresses and many others, but I liked the pinks, blues, yellows - dots, vintage lines, laces, sweet pictures on the materials... My friend as a wedding planner enjoyed them all a lot - and I suddenly realised my old addiction to vintage was just about to be waken up by all those - so sad that with no chance I could carry any of them back to my home... So we left them all behind, preferred looking for some second-hand books that I will be able to carry in my luggage easily (Not easily actually, more than 8 kilos was only books in my luggage!)

Travel books, history books, language books (I'm afraid I bought a book which teaches Latin - God knows what I will do with it, but just couldn't help myself - I love the Latin language a lot and want to learn it somehow!), cook books, fiction books, crime books, and many many more that I cannot remember of...

While walking around the streets, you may come across with a couple of street musicians - the ones we saw were literally incredible; very talented in music and quite fast while using the instruments - they left everyone speechless on the street, and we stopped to watch them twice!

A tea room in Canterbury

Where to eat - what to eat: For the lunch, I could recommend you the little place in where we ate a muffin and drank tea when we first arrived - it was a lovely place, but I totally forgot its name!

In Canterbury, you might like to try eating the traditional Toasted Teacake that English people prefer eating at tea time - an English Breakfast Tea or Earl Grey could accompany them either.

I personally don't like such tastes like Toasted Teacake or Earl Grey - but if you like trying new things and prefer the local food, then these are exactly your cup of tea!

Later on, when we felt a bit hungry, we went to the Tiny Tim's Tea Room - a lovely place; good food, good service, beautiful decoration, nice people around... Spending an hour in there and eating the delicious (and quite interesting) food with a cup of black tea was all I wanted!

Our little lunch at Tiny Tim's Tea Room

After the LATE lunch, we headed to a small bazaar where you can buy some clothes and accessories (especially earrings, necklaces, rings with special colourful stones - my favourites!)... Quite expensive, but really very good stuff that you may not be able to find somewhere else - If you are willing to pay more than £50 for a ring with a special stone, then it is exactly a good place you may want to visit. - The same pieces, the same prices in my country, so I bought nothing anyway - though I helplessly fell in love with most of them!

Very sad that we had no time for a canal tour with the tiny cruises, and I am not sure even if the tours were available then - because the weather was terrible; windy and snowy later on - colder than ever - and we haven't seen a clue about any of that cruises during our walk around the canal. The view of the canal was beautiful enough to keep us busy taking photos and watching the surroundings before catching our train back to Rye.

The canal in Canterbury

How to get there: by train, from Ashford International

My friend and I basically got on the train from Rye, changed the train in Ashford International, and got on another one heading to Canterbury.

A map of Kent and where Rye, Ashford and Canterbury lie

If you are travelling from London, then you must take the train that directly passes by Ashford International, and change there for the train going to Canterbury as we did. (Or maybe there is a better way of it, but I don't know it!) But I'm sure of that, Ashford International is a station which links you to most of the other destinations...

Please feel free to comment if you have any questions about Canterbury or if you want to share your own ideas, experiences and other things about your journey to Canterbury!

Discover England!

2013-04-09T01:01:00.003+03:00

Me in Canterbury, Kent

Maybe this is not the same for everywhere, but here when you say "England", only one thing comes to people's minds: London!
It's not like Italy, which has Florence, Rome and Venice as its popular cities. People go to these three cities at one journey, but when it comes to England, they generally prefer seeing London and nothing else - which I didn't like at all.
For the last 5 years -or even more- I kept begging my family to buy a holiday package which includes only the Lake District in England. Even before seeing London, I wanted to see the country life over there.

Well, now LUCKILY as one of my friends from the secondary school with whom I used to study together lives in Rye, East Sussex this year. She's met an English guy 5 years ago, and been married to him for the last 3 years, but until the last months of the last year, they preferred living in Istanbul as they both love the warm weather more.

Now they're in England for career development, and that's been a great chance for me to see both my friend and the lovely country life of England!

As she wants to see more of London -of which I'm fed up with really-, we made a plan: 3 days in London, 3 days in the rural area (which are Rye, Canterbury and Tenterden).
So that's how it started!
Very unluckily the terrible weather had us frozen the first days of the trip and we eventually found ourselves running between the attractions we wanted to see in London! And veeery luckily, the last three days of our holiday was much much better, so we had plenty of time to explore the rural areas.

To start with, I will summarise what we've done in London and what we'done in other parts of the country.

First day, Tuesday - We met in our hotel, which was Best Western Paddington, that I would definitely recommend! Good service, quite luxurious rooms (a bit tiny though), clean, quiet and everything we were looking for! After leaving our luggages, basically followed the programme: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, lunch at Hyde Park, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Kensington High Street, Holland Park, Notting Hill and back to hotel - Dinner at Leicester Square.

The second day, Wednesday - Sherlock Holmes Museum (for which we were a bit late, so bought the tickets and visited again the next day), Oxford Street for shopping, lunch in Oxford Street, picking up our London Pass cards from Leicester and then National Gallery - shopping again (English books this time, from Waterstones) and back to the hotel - dinner at Leicester with a friend from London.

The third day, Thursday - Sherlock Holmes Museum-Baker Street, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, sandwiches for lunch(take away), London Cruise Tour, Tower of London(Inside the castle), Tower Bridge(Tower Bridge Exhibition), run to the hotel, take the luggages, check out and go to Sevenoaks - my friend's husband picked us up from there and we headed to East Sussex... That night we're staying at the Corner House, where actually my friend lives. The Corner House was a very very lovely place with 5-6 rooms, 2 horses, a big big garden and a little lovely lake - the Turner family owns it and has been running it as a Bed&Breakfast for the last 30 years. They are a very lovely family and I loved to spend time with them a lot - their rooms are very nice, yellow, pink, blue, colourful and clean - you have everything you need inside... and more. So I would definitely recommend you to stay there when you visit the town Rye!

The fourth day, Friday - Canterbury, Kent - we had to use the train to go there, spent a few hours around, but didn't have time for another cruise tour on the river. Dinner at home with the Turner family (Their traditional Fish&Chips Friday).

The fifth day, Saturday - Tenterden, Kent, and back to Rye, explore the little town. (Nice weather, tourists around, everything was perfect on that day!) Dinner in Rye, and a night out in Rye (Go to the George Pub/and another pub later on) - Drunk at the end of the night!

The sixth day, Sunday, go to the woods in Rye and to the Camber Sands Beach later on (when the water is not up!), lunch at home, get ready for the train which goes to Heathrow Airport.

Busy holiday it was! And I enjoyed the last three days more to be honest! London was exhausting for sure, but Rye and the others were great as we had too many chances to just chill out, long hours of eating, drinking tea and exploring the environment with no rush!

When my friend asked me which one I liked the best, my answer was Canterbury for some reason. But I think now it is Rye, with it's woods, beach and shopping area - little, traditional and warm - just as I like it!

VIENNA, BUDAPEST AND PRAGUE ON THE LIST

2013-04-01T22:03:00.000+03:00

Good news! We'll have a trip to Vienna soon! City of music and art... Exactly my cup of tea!!!
I've already started begging for the things to be O.K. so that the trip won't be delayed! Vienna, Budapest and Prag for 7 days is like a dream to me. So many exhibitions, so many galleries, Gothic buildings and many more... I know most of the people want to see Prag, but I've always wanted to go to Vienna - it's all because of my art love (or addiction...)

Considering I'll probably be there in June (but this may be delayed to July as well), I'll have looads loads to write here soon. I'll start with Vienna for sure, and go on with Budapest and Prag later on.

Tomorrow I'll be in England as I mentioned before, and right after I come back to my hometown, I surely will be able to write more about the previous travels of mine.

Just can't wait for this summer!

Aufwiedersehen Leute!

ANOTHER TRIP TO LONDON

2013-03-28T16:51:00.000+02:00

Thames River, Big Ben

A friend of mine and I will be in London for 3 days next week and I've prepared a very detailed program for both of us as 3 days are not enough for the places we want to see and we should dedicate ourselves to a plan somehow.

Here is a plan which may be helpful to you too - but surely this is not a plan for a first-timer - there are loads more to see first in London and this might be a plan for only to those who had been in London a few times more....

Here is the plan we have. I will share another post soon, which will have detailed information for most of these places.

PS: This plan had to change according to our London Pass planning which required us to gather all the London Pass attractions on one day only.

Istanbul, Turkey: Dolmabahçe Palace

2013-03-24T22:36:00.000+02:00

Me in the garden of Dolmabahçe Palace

This is an answer to the question "where to go in Istanbul..."

I've lived in Istanbul more than 20 years; seen many places, been to many palaces, churches, mosques, parks, and many further, but the only favourite of mine has always been the Dolmabahçe Palace (Dolmabahçe Sarayı). - (If you want to get into the palace and see it, you will have to wait for probably an hour or more in the queue, but I assure you, it's worth it!)

Its unique architecture, and its location make it one of the best places in Istanbul and make it worth seeing for the tourists. I have been to the palace more than 4 or 5 times; accompanying my tourist friends most of the time, and I never get bored of it. - It's main importance comes from being our leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's home for his last years, although it had been used by a couple of other leaders the Ottoman Empire had.

Dolmabahçe Palace

It is right on the coast line of Bosphorus (on the European side of Istanbul), between Kabataş and Beşiktaş, located just by the sea. This part of the city is one of the most expensive places to live in, the apartment rents are higher - mostly because it is right where the centre is and people living in those apartments can see the Bosphorus from their houses. So where the Dolmabahçe Palace stands is like a gold...

the entrance of the palace

The Palace was first built by Sultan Abdülmecid, who was the only ruler of that time in the Ottoman Empire. The sultan preferred it to be done in the baroque style as a result of westernisation experienced in the city at that times. He liked the western music and loved to live in the modern western way during his life. After long years of the changing rulers in the Ottoman Empire, almost all of them had spent a little time in this palace, though none of them had been able to live longer than 1 year as a result of the complicated events they had to face. Right after the Ottoman Empire became the Turkish Republic, the last sultan had to leave the palace (and the country as well) with all his belongings, including his family.

Me right before leaving the palace, in the garden

The next three years, the palace had been used only for the visitors from abroad; the kings, queens, imperials and many more. After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's election as the President, he started living in this palace during the days he spent in Istanbul, and that was where he died on the 10th of November in 1938. - There you can see the room where he died with a bed covered with the Turkish flag.

As some of the readers may know, in the history, the palaces in the Ottoman Empire had a few parts like Selamlık and Haremlik. The apartments of Harem were belonging to the sultan's wives; only the sultan himself was able to get into these apartments and no other men (Except the man who is desexualised for the job of managing the Harem). Haremlik is a bit more plain, has a very simple decoration inside - this is because not everyone gets into this part of the palace - especially not the outsiders - so it was not necessary to decorate the interior part with a splendid design. But the other parts of the palace, particularly the main parts where the visitors are accepted are way too splendid - exactly the way how an Ottoman palace would be. But I should warn you it's strictly forbidden to take photos in the palace - never try that! The palace officials will hate you!

An example of the symmetrical room design

The palace has a mixture of the old architectural styles; the French Baroque, the German Rococo, the English Neo-Classicism, and the Italian Renaissance... It has extremely high ceilings and 3 floors, and its best-known feature is its symmetrical perfectness. Everything in the palace is symmetrical! Two sofas in a room, facing each other, exactly the same two tables in a hall room, two lamps on the ceiling... Every little thing has a pair; a great detail about the design!

The crystal chandelier

Another important thing you need to know about the palace is its crystal chandelier that was done in England by the English. The chandelier is 4,5 tones and is the most popular thing in the palace. This chandelier is hanged in the ballroom which is know as the biggest ballroom in THE WORLD - it's 36 metres at height, and this crystal chandelier is right in the middle of its ceiling.

None of the furnitures or the accessories in the palace have been replaced since the first day the palace was built, so everything you will see is going to be an original piece. The decorations on the walls are done by using genuine gold and the pictures painted are all done by countless European artists of that time. Most of the rooms are named according to their colours; such as the Blue Room, the Red Room, the Yellow Room to indicate which colour is the main colour in these rooms. - The Blue Room(s), been my favourite!

The Turkish carpets, mostly done by silk and wool are all around, and accessories from Europe and Far East are worth seeing! Not to mention that you will see a few Turkish Hamams as well, since that was the only bathroom they had in the Ottoman Empire in very old times... But consider them as the small hamams, not like the public ones which have bigger areas.

The material used for its construction (for the façade let's say), is a kind of blue marble coming from the Islands of Marmara. The palace, as you may guess, costed a lot of money in that times - 5 million golds. All the foreign architectures, painters, materials used for the decoration and more...

The Clock Tower

More than that, the palace has a few other buildings as well. One of them is the famous Clock Tower, where you can enter only if you buy another additional ticket. The gardens of the palace is also worth seeing - especially right after you have a touristic tour service by the palace management (Definitely do that, they will tell you a lot more than this!) When you are about to leave the palace, you are led to the gardens anyway, so spend some time in the gardens, feel the blue sea of Marmara and remember that in the history, there have been many many events and some of them had happened in this gardens - lovers meeting secretly between the trees, sultans' wives and favourite girls taking walks thinking how to manage their sultans, secret love affairs that would cause the lovers to die if ever known, and many more...

To sum up, Dolmabahçe Palace is one of the must-sees of the big city Istanbul. The others that I would recommend you to visit are Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı) and the Topkapı Palace (Topkapı Sarayı), and I will surely write about them, too.

- My friend Koray Süren knows a lot more than I do about the palace, and he's been guiding the foreign tourists for years, so if you ever come to Istanbul and need someone to help you see the city (with all the historical details including), he'd be more than happy to assist you. Too see his website, please click here.

My favourite in Palermo - MONDELLO BEACH!

2013-03-23T13:34:00.000+02:00

Me on Mondello Beach, Palermo, SICILY

One of the best places in Palermo...

Mondello Beach is a bit far from the town - you definitely need to hire a taxi, preferably a good one, because otherwise they'll ask you to pay more than it actually takes - the distance is not comparable to the distance you'd have in the town - you're going a bit far - 15 minutes in total maybe, but Palermo is a small town, so 15 minutes is a long time there.

The beach itself is a great place! I don't only mean the sea, but the environment as well. The sea is a very beautiful turqoise, and the beach is very busy (probably because I was there on a Sunday!) There is a highway, a very busy one, people are walking, driving, even dancing... These are people from town, coming down there on Sundays as I've heard from a local, and they generally spend the whole day on the beach. Swimming, relaxing, playing cards (mostly the elders), hanging out with girls and boys, eating, drinking... The usual lazy Italians...

In Mondello, you can do whatever you want; there you can find everything you're looking for. There is a little snack bar where you can buy loads of stuff, Italian spaghettis, burgers, ice-cream and many more - they all are very cheap but very tasty! Besides that, there are big cabinets that you can rent for the day and leave all your stuff in - you can even sleep there, it's big enough for that! It's the best choice for a local who'll spend the whole day on the beach anyway, but we preferred sitting on a table, enjoying the sun on our seats, leaving the table only when we wanted to swim.

Mondello Beach, Palermo, SICILY

I liked the place a lot, probably because it was too crowded and noisy - a beach is a beach when it's busy and noisy for me. I surely wouldn't like that in my country; here if it's busy as it was in Mondello, it's annoying at the same time. (We even have a word for that: "Where loads, there troubles"). But in Mondello, (actually in anywhere in Sicily) it's not annoying at all. No one is disturbing you - even the guys around, who are looking for ladies to hang out with, are not that annoying. When you say No, they just gently kiss your hands and leave you with a good bye. (That must be the spirit of true lovely Italians guys who are known by their kindness and romance!!!)

The only worst thing was... the sea was a bit warm for us - we have high temperatures in Turkey, but the sea water is usually cold most of the time. There the temperature was higher than that, so probably because of that, the water was too warm to swim. For me, swimming in a sea is to freshen up and running away from the heat of the sun - but it's impossible in Mondello (This may be because I was there in July, mostly the hottest month of a year!) The colour of the water is fantastic - in Turkey we have darker seas all around the country, only in some places we have light blue seas, so this was a big thing for me - I couldn't stop swimming in that warm but turqoise water of Mondello.

Having sunbath on Mondello Beach

Mondello was a great harmony of the Mediterranean sea with a Miami spirit - Mediterranean people and food but in a Miamian style - motor cycles and luxury cars around, people semi-naked, music is on, a very beautiful sea... I honestly wish I had a few more days to spend on Mondello. When I was in Sicily, I swam in Catania and Syracuse beaches as well, but none of them was so much enjoyable. - Maybe that's only me, but if you like crowded beaches where you can meet new people, do sports, and eat good food, I definitely recommend you the Mondello Beach. If you're looking for a quiet place, then you better go to Syracuse (Siracusa) to sleep by the sea...

And the best thing about Mondello, with the Italians of Palermo around, you feel like a true lazy Italian, too.

At least for the day...

PALERMO - City centre: The Porta Nuova and Cattedrale di Palermo

2013-03-20T22:01:00.001+02:00

In Sicily, I've been to three different cities - Catania, Palermo and Siracusa. These three cities have very different characteristics. Catania is a bit smaller compared to Palermo, and looks more traditional than Palermo does. Palermo is the biggest and busiest city of all and mostly the wealthy people live in it, while Catania could be explained as a place for the poor. You could spend a whole day in Palermo (but surely that would be enough to see every important thing in the city; palaces, theatres, squares and etc.) Catania had a street going down, which is the only famous one in the city, and there are loads loads loads of cute small shopping stores from where you can buy Italian-made products. (I would like to mention something I've learned when I was there: Catanians and Palermo citizens don't like each other at all; they're like two different football teams who hate each other - When I asked "why?", noone had an answer to that.)

Cattedrale di Palermo

And Siracusa is way too different from these two, because it's just some kind of holiday place where you can find very quiet beaches and Mediterranean restaurants where you can eat some Carbonara or Mediterranean salads.

To start with Palermo - one day would be well enough for the whole city, because there are not much to see. One cathedral, one palace (where you have to wait in a long queue), one theatre, one city centre, two popular boulevards and a huge seaport. That's all! I was lucky enough to meet an Australian while waiting in the queue for the palace, so we went around to see all these within only a few hours.

Porta Nuova

The Porta Nuova (the New Door in English) is where we started our journey. This entrance stands at the beginning of Corso Calatafimi, and is as small as only one or two cars can get through it. The beautiful sculptures on it look very old as if marking the fact that this door is actually from the second half of sixteenth century. They call this as an "entrance to the city", as this is actually where the central city begins.

Following that way, you can be directly linked to the Palermo Cathedral (Cattedrale di Palermo); the biggest and most well-known cathedral in Palermo. It's beaaautiful inside, but the outside of the cathedral has more than its inside to be honest, and I liked the pictures we had in front of the building very much.

I know a lot about the cathedral, but don't really want to be boring to those who are only in an attempt of knowing a little information about the city. The cathedral is located right at the end of the square named Piazza della Cattedrale. This square, or Piazza as they call it, is a masterpiece itself: It's all surroundered by sculptures from different eras - sculptures created in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries... The façade is framed by two belltowers with very interesting Islamic motifs. Some other parts are decorated in Gothic style - which is my favourite all the time.

Cattedrale di Palermo

Inside the building, long ago, as they tell, the decoration was completely different, but with the new appearance, it is all Neo-Classical with a very high altar. I would recommend you to go and see every corner of the cathedral, because the small chapels are mostly hided to those corners - one of them are Chapel of Santa Rosalia, who is the city's patron saint. Besides all, there are very interesting objects from the old times, such as the 18th century liturgical vestment and the famous golden tiara set with pearls and precious stones (This tiara belonged to Constance of Aragon).

Inside the cathedral

You can't enter the cathedral every day and every hour, but there are some specific times in a day that you can enter as a tourist and see the inside of it. The atmosphere inside is great, although it's a bit busy during the day - when the tourists are allowed to enter. It's not that big and different but definitely worth seeing with the paintings on the walls and its high altar which helps the cathedral look very bright through the day.

There are loads more to tell about the cathedral but as I told you I don't want you to get bored - Go and see it! It's one of the best parts of the city - apart from the palace and the theatre of course!

Right next to the cathedral, you will see the Regional Archaeological Museum - of which I had no time to visit (I mostly prefer seeing the outsides first, which is not a good thing anyway...)

What's more about Palermo? It's a city of art and history BUT, that doesn't mean that you cannot swim! Palermo has a huge, and a very busy beach, to where I accidentally went on a weekend - never do that.

That's enough for the cathedral I think. I will also write about the beach and the other must-see places of Palermo soon - so keep following!

SICILY for those who love History and Mediterranean combined with each other

2013-03-17T23:31:00.001+02:00

I love the historical places more than anything else, so I would never compare such place with a modern city for sure - and when the Mediterranean is included, too, it's like a heaven to me.
I went to Sicily last summer - a place way too hot throughout the summer, and never so cold in winters. The worst thing about my journey, it was so hot that I hated sun for the first time in my life! The best thing, I've seen a beach like Mondello - and an environment more than sincere we could call it.
People in Sicily are strange - even more than that.
As a Turkish, living in a very strange culture with strange people, who yell at each other all the time, who love speaking loud as most of the Italians, and with more low class people than the high class people living in the country, I wasn't expecting to see something different in Sicily anyway.
Well I sure did.

Sicilians are hard to handle - driving like a crazy on the roads, no respect for any rules at all, caring about sleep more than worrying about work, and no sense of fashion. I'm sorry for mixing all these up, but I do believe there are more to tell about them - just loved the way they are.
They have a special kind of cultural uniqueness for sure.

I had no chance to shop to be honest, because whenever I went to the shops, all the stores were closed up! In the noon, afternoon, in the evening... They work a few hours in a day, and I was definitely unable to catch these hours anyway. I - very later - figured out that they are open right when I have my dinner, so some evenings I tried to leave my dinner before I finish and went to the stores. After a while, I started choosing the bags and shoes I want to buy in the mornings, and went to the stores after my dinner to buy all these bags and shoes. It never worked out, because I've never been able to find the same places I checked before.

Anyway, this is more than a text about where to go in Sicily... Sicily is a lovely place - but I need to warn you about the taxi drivers in the cities. They don't have a standard payment rule or something. They just say whatever price they have in their minds for you. From my hotel to the city centre (in Palermo), it normally costs less than 5 euros. Well I had to pay 10 euros once, and 20 pounds the other times. Even some asked for 40 euros as we were 4 people in the car! We used two taxis to go back to the hotel, and our friends paid 10 euros more than us! The same road, the same time of the day!
So keep all these in your mind, and enjoy the lovely country as much as you can!
I will be filling you with the details of 3 cities I've been to in Sicily! Catania, Palermo and Syracuse... In Palermo, my favourites are Cattedrale di Palermo, Palazzi dei Normanni and Mondello Beach, but surely I will write about more places you can see in Palermo.

Where to go in Sicily, the most popular cities in Sicily, Sicilian food, transportation in Sicily, the must-sees in Sicily, and many more - these are going to be the next posts I will publish here.

Have a problem about speaking foreign languages of different countries? Here we go then!

2013-03-14T22:57:00.000+02:00

Today I've found a great mobile application - Voice Translator Free (Well, there are loads with the same name, so choose the purple looking one!)

One of my colleagues showed us this app today - which is absolutely great!

Working really well. We tried to use the English-Turkish one - and the outcome was perfect.

Considering the Siri we all have in our iPhones (sorry for the others, I only know iPhone as I have one), this new app is way too better. Whenever I try to type a text message using my voice, the Siri has always but always been a useless feature, since probably I cannot pronounce the English words properly (All lie, I actually do pronounce them OK. I'll show you how.)

But today, when I used this app and built up sentences which were in English, the app has been able to translate them to Turkish PERFECTLY. No mistake at all. So it doesn't really matter how I pronounce the words, an app like this can easily translate it to another language - even to Turkish, which is not a very common language and has very complicated grammar rules - which makes it harder for a translator!

Good app - very helpful - a saviour for those who travel a lot and can't speak English well...

Personally, I've directly sent the app to my dad so that he won't keep using me as a translator when we're abroad!!!

London for me - Again!

2013-03-14T22:34:00.000+02:00

2 years ago - or more - I had completed a post grad degree in London, where I had the best year of my whole life. Considering all the freedom, away from the parents, and the availability of reaching any kinds of cultural stuff, like operas, exhibitions, galleries and etc. BESIDES the pubs, nightclubs, even only the streets at nights, it's been a great experience for me. (Almost same for all the foreign students!)

Apart from the opportunities you have, the city itself is beautiful - very beautiful. Well, not the way Paris is, or let's say Amsterdam (the beeeaaautiful channels looking like landscape posters...) But the old buildings, which look very traditional and old fashioned - I love the oldfashioned! - they are just a great way of describing the city's history visually.

As I will be there again SOON - God knows how many times I've been to there - it'll be a great pleasure to see some exhibitions, new galleries and take new pictures at the same time!

Long time, I know - I've never been able to write here PROPERLY - every week, every day or so.
But after London and Rye; the little touristic and historical town I will be visiting after my London trip, I'll have loads loads more to write.
Very sad though, I still don't have anything about the beautiful country Sicily in my blog, and its amazing cities Siracusa, Catania and Palermo - which are known as where the spaghetti first invented. (Or am I being wrong here?)

Just keep following the blog - I'll have loads to write soon!

A Piece of Turkey - KALKAN, ANTALYA

2012-07-10T17:45:00.001+03:00

the Kalkan Bay and the sea

Hello once again! It's been long indeed, and never had a chance to write more, but here I am with a new location I want to share with you all.

While they all are still fresh, I would like to write my experiences before they get blurred, so that's my hurry. I so wish I had a bigger space to share all the pictures with you, because it is definitely hard to make you feel the atmosphere of the location without showing you how beautiful it looks!

Kalkan is one of the summer holiday locations in Turkey and famous among British people. To be honest, I never felt as if I was actually in Turkey during my holiday since almost all of the people around me spoke English. Even waiters come and tell you how delicious their food are in English and I had to stop them to tell that I'm not British and can understand if they speak Turkish.

Kalkan, Antalya

Kalkan is one of the summer holiday locations in Turkey and famous among British people. To be honest, I never felt as if I was actually in Turkey during my holiday since almost all of the people around me spoke English. Even waiters come and tell you how delicious their food are in English and I had to stop them to tell that I'm not British and can understand if they speak Turkish.

Aubergine Restaurant

Kalkan can be explained as a beauty located right on a huge hill, which is named as Kalkan Koyu. And two more words: Steak & Sea. Go swim all day long, because the water looks incredibly pure and clean. No need to tell that its colour is light blue when you're close to the seaside. What's more is their food! Kalkan's nightlife is not convenient for those who are too young to seek peace and silence, but great for those who loves quality in music and steak! Chill-out style music is the preferable one, and steaks are way too delicious! I'd recommend you two exclusive restaurants; Aubergine Restaurant and Mussakka. However, I should warn you Aubergine's service and food quality cannot be compared to Mussakka's. And one more restaurant I went to, but so sad that I never noticed its name! This place is smaller than the rest and has a seaview from a distance, not right by the sea as Aubergine, but it has super-delicious steaks and fish. All I can give out is that it was located right in the entrance of the seaside, on a hill, and next to it was a well-known nightclub, which is probably one of the two clubs. (A waiter had told us that there were only two nightclubs in Kalkan, which is hard to believe indeed!)

Antiques bazaar

A little cafe among the streets

Apparently Kalkan is popular only in summer and has not too many villagers inside, most of the people are tourists there. It has only one health centre which consists of only a few rooms and nothing else. (I know this, because I had been very ill during two full days of my holiday and had to go there to get medicines and treatment!)

At nights, you can go and have your dinner, stay a bit longer to drink up your wine bottle and leave the place for some shopping. Loads of fake products of big brands are there and many tourists are keen to buy these cheap imitations with good quality. Other lovely stuffs, like antiques and little cute accessories, are waiting for your notice during the night.

If you are seeking a small town full of British people and good quality food you cannot find easily in elsewhere, then Kalkan is definitely a place you need to see.