Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

....or that's what they say (I'll be putting this to the test very soon)

Thursday 20th April will be an emotional day for me. It is the day that I depart for Melbourne, a planned visit of approximately one month in duration.

Although I'll miss Birnur crazily, of course, technology will assist us to maintain the bond and keep abreast of daily occurrences whilst we are apart from one another.

I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends and frequenting some of my favourite Melbourne locations. Most of all i'm really looking forward to some familiarity back in my surroundings, and a seemingly endless array of cuisine selections that are simply not available in Istanbul!

I plan on returning to Istanbul in the middle of June to enable the finalization of wedding preparations and then head away with Birnur to Avşa for two weeks holiday in the sun!


My route home on Thursday is: (BA) Istanbul departing 5:25pm -> arriving London 7:30pm;

An overnight stay in London, accommodation yet to be arranged but i'm not too concerned where it will be. I'll hopefully be meeting with a friend there to catch up with as I wont see him again until the wedding in August!

Friday morning I depart London on Qantas for my flight to Melbourne, I suspect a stopover in Singapore (as usual!!!)

I look forward to seeing you all, catching up and exchanging news and happenings!!! See you soon!

A weekend in Ortaköy

I've lived here now for six months and I've finally located one of my favourite areas in Istanbul! For the Australian viewers of my blog, If you can imagine Darling harbor, in Sydney, with perhaps an additional one thousand years of history, and a few more hundred thousand people in the local vicinity then you're pretty close to imagining what Ortaköy is like!

The picture on the left depicts the area of Ortaköy with the Ortaköy Mosque (Camii) in the background. The big guy dominating the foreground of the picture is none other than myself!

If you look close enough, flanked on the right side of the Cami is a tourist boat that takes you on the Bosphrous Sea for one hour tour at a rate of 4YTL (i.e. AUD$4.00). It's fantastic value, enabling you to come to terms with the immense geography of Istanbul both on the European and Asian sides of the country. I can highly recommend the tour! We were lucky enough to see a school of dolphins playing in the bow wave of the ship during the journey.

Both Saturday (Cumartesi) and Sunday (Pazar) host the local markets which you can immerse yourself in for hours at a time. The local produce is fascinating, and very reasonably priced Jewelryery and fashion accessories seem to be the dominating produce with negotiation a must.

My newest pair of Georgio Armani sunglasses set me back a whopping 15YTL (that's only AUD$15). Compared to my originals, you can not detect any difference! Diesel belts ($15.00), earrings (from $1.00), necklaces ($5.00 - $15.00, high quality female dress skirts ($30.00), shirts ($5.00 +) and several coffees and chais later we were exhausted!

With too much shopping to cram into one day, we returned on Sunday to undertake the Bosphorousros tour. Below are a couple of pictures that we took on the trip.

Gunmen Seize Hostages In Istanbul

Hundreds of Istanbul Police overpowered two gunmen after they had taken hostages in Burger King Restaurant in Taksim Istanbul, just two kilometers from my house!

Read the full article here.

The previous bomb blast in Istanbul was Friday 31 March during the early evening in Koçamustafapaşa. Just 9 days ago! I really hope that things settle down soon, it's rather unnerving when it's so close to both my home and the homes of people that I care about!

Istanbul "Bronx"

Check this for high density living. If the weather permits, I walk to Bilgi University through this area to get to class. I call this area, "The Turkish Bornx" I wont name the area in case I offend anybody