For years I’ve quietly harboured a simple, secret dream – to find a small, peaceful village somewhere in the milder, sunnier southern regions of Turkey where I might live a healthy, outdoors life, planting and growing green things in the earth. A simple life, surrounded by nature and the warmth and camaraderie of friendly, warm-hearted […]
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Travel
Turkish village – paradise or ‘pipe-dream’?
Arriving in Izmir – Getting to Basmane
The process for exiting Izmir’s Adnan Menderes (ADB) airport and finding your way to the central Basmane railway station is fairly straightforward. On exiting the airport building go straight across the road and follow the signs for the Izban railway station. A descending escalator will take you to the Izban platforms and ticket booth where […]
Green Bursa – a very Turkish experience
One week is such a short time to explore a new city. This was the challenging assignment as I stepped off the Kamil Koc bus from Istanbul. Bursa had been recommended to me as a classically Turkish city with less of the Western influence and attitudes which I’d encountered in Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya. An […]
Kuzguncuk – a slice of leafy, London village
Sitting in the shade of a leafy plane tree, sipping iced coffee from a tiny sidewalk café stool and chatting with local Uni students, you could easily forget you were in Istanbul. If felt instead, like Hampstead Village, or Notting Hill, or any other trendy, bohemian, inner London café culture enclave. I’m so glad that […]
Culture
Turkish Tea – Friends for Life
To share tea and bright conversation with a Turkish friend is one of life’s great joys. The simple act of its preparation brings the sense of calm and familiarity upon which great friendships are built, stories shared, and occasions celebrated. All the elements of this familiar and reassuring ritual – the preparation, the aroma, the […]
Building bridges – Naturally
A few years ago I was chatting with a Turkish teacher friend in London about her trip home to her family’s tiny village in central Turkey. She told me how she’d taken her parents the usual sack-load of mainstream souvenirs from her global travels. Her Mum’s response “Thanks…but please just bring me some foreign flower […]
Food & Drink
Lockdown Yoghurt
Lockdown Yoghurt Since returning to Melbourne in somewhat dramatic fashion earlier this year, the feeling is like being stuck a time warp. On one hand my life in Turkey seems like a distant dream that never really happened. Yet on the other hand my new reality, a life of virtual Covid-19 seclusion in a small […]
Turkish coffee: 40 years of friendship
My first impressions of the Turkish coffee drinking experience were not so great. Tiny cup, tinier handle, bitter coffee, thick sludge at the bottom. First adaptation was to ditch the sugar-free diet and go for the çok şeker (very sweet) version of my kahve to combat the bitterness. Second adaptation was to slow down, savour […]