The time has come. Istanbul is now officially the 2010 European Capital of Culture.
Through various activities and festive celebrations held on 16 January 2010 in 7 different centres of the city, Istanbul celebrated its new title as 2010 ECOC. The celebrations started with a protocol event taking place at the Haliç Congress Centre, with Ministers from Turkey as well as neighbouring countries participated, along with high level statesmen and diplomats, leading members of the business, culture and arts world, local and foreign press members, and went on together with all of Istanbulites in the squares of Taksim, Kadıköy, Sultanahmet, Pendik, Bağcılar and Beylikdüzü.
Whirling dervish
A moment from the show
The opening speeches were followed by the special performance called “The Magic of Istanbul,” choreographed specifically for this special night by Yekta Kara. The performance of 65 minutes presented 303 artists exposing a multi-layered and profound cultural heritage, the sources of energy and inspiration in Istanbul, through the music, dance, poetry and visions peculiar to Istanbul. For the joy of all Istanbul residents different programs were running simultaneously to the ceremony in Haliç. DJ performances, dance and music shows met with Istanbullites in the squares of Taksim, Kadıköy, Pendik, Sultanahmet, Beylikdüzü and Bağcılar until late hours of the night.
Fireworks upon the Golden Horn
Fireworks upon the Golden Horn
One of the biggest surprises of the night was the Fire Theatre realized in Taksim and the Balloon Theatre realized in Kadikoy. In these shows staged by Group F of France, they used the sky as their stage, giving Istanbulites unforgettable joy through their light and music shows. After the sound and light shows in Haliç started, the enthusiasm for 2010 was amplified through concerts taking place in six different squares across Istanbul. Renown Turkish artists who have also successfully represented Turkey in international arenas met with Istanbullites; Tarkan in Taksim, Mor ve Ötesi in Kadıköy, Nil Karaibrahimgil in Beylikdüzü, Mercan Dede in Sultanahmet, Kıraç in Pendik and Zara in Bağcılar.
Taksim Square
Tarkan in concert
For those who are now in Istanbul, you can find all the informations about events, exhibitions and concerts on the official website of Istanbul ECOC. You must know that you’re extremely lucky to be here… if I had the chance to be there this week, I probably wouldn’t stop going ’round for hours, from morning until late night. Expect to visit wonderful exhibitions, to enjoy great concerts and please, don’t waste the opportunity to see how active is the turkish cultural life. Then, of course, if you want share with us your experiences here! We’ll be very pleased to enjoy with you these magic events.
Taksim Square – 16th of January…big big big concert organized by the city hall of Istanbul, for the grand opening of the European Cultural Capital of 2010.
announced time for the Tarkan concert – 21:15.
I’m used to fly with Turkish Airlines when I’ve to go to Turkey.
Every trip starts from here for me. The service on board is perfect, you can ask whatever you want and a kind hostess or steward will come to help you. Nowadays the airline companies are getting worse, trying to save money and penalizing the service on board, but Thy is responding with courtesy and quality. And this is important mostly for frequent flyers, that will choose again this company rather than low cost companies. I often meet lots of white-collar workers on these flights, and not just tourists.
Talking about the food… Even if italians are famous to be like spoiled children about food, I’ve to say that I really like Thyturkish meals. Each time I fly with Thy (Türk Hava Yolları) I find something so tasty that the next time I’d like to find it again… especially the chocolate mousse is fantastic! This time I decided to take with me the menu, so I can illustrate what I mean: good meals, great presentation (next time I promise to take pictures also) and everything is clean and tidy.
Thy Menu
The service on board is really is up to the situation. Once you are on board you’ll hear a pleasant turkish music that brings you to your seat, and some kind crew members giving you newspapers. You’ll find your copy of the Skyline Magazine, a very good magazine including interesting articles about Turkey and columns on several aspects of turkish life, history, tourism, and I discovered a lot of curious things about Turkey here. Sometimes you may find also a bookmark. These are stupid things, ok, but I can’t help noticing them. Everybody loves to feel at home, coddled and waited on hand and foot without paying an excessive amount of money, don’t you think? So, what else can I say… enjoy your Turkish Airlines flight you too!
This is the first part of my last trip to Istanbul last December, and I must say that the beginning augur well. Oh, I must also say that I’m not working for Turkish Airlines, or you may think that I’m just advertising!
One of my favourite Turkish painters: Oktay Bozkurt
Hi followers,
This is just to have a sample of what you’re going to read in the next posts…
I’m writing from Istanbul right now, I’m on the terrace of my hotel looking the Blue Mosque in front of me. Unfortunately this great trip is coming to an end, and these are my last hours here, because tomorrow I’ll fly away, but I’m really happy because I’ve met wonderful people and visited fantastic places, and I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with you all soon. I guarantee it will be very interesting because I’ve a lot of material to show you and many stories to tell you, especially about some of the most interesting personalities of the Istanbul’s artistic and cultural life. I’ve met painters, ceramicists, rug dealers, collectors, travelers, and everyone has a story or more that will fascinating you, I’m sure. Maybe you’re asking yourself why I’d like to talk so much about art and culture right now. Well, first of all because many people doesn’t know how rich is the turkish culture and how fine are their artistic works. Then, obviously, because Istanbul is going to be the Capital of Culture in 2010 so, let’s make sure we’re ready for that!
In a couple of days I’ll be in Istanbul again. In this post I’d like to talk a little bit about something you’ll see many times during your turkish stay: the flag of the Republic of Turkey.
It is a red flag with a white crescent moon and a star in its centre. The flag is called Ay Yıldız (literally, moon star) or Alsancak (red banner) in Turkish, and a lot of shops, apartment balcony, and every boat are draped in the red and white of the Turkish flag. The current design of the Turkish flag is directly derived from the late Ottoman flag, which had acquired its final form in 1844. It is known that the Ottomans used red flags of triangular shape at least since 1383, which came to be rectangular over the course of history. Ottomans used several different designs, most of them featuring one or more crescents, for different purposes, such as the flag with green background signifying the caliphate. During the late imperial period, the distinctive use of the color red for secular and green for religious institutions became an established practice. In 1844, the eight-pointed star was replaced with a five-pointed star and the flag reached the form of the present Turkish flag; Red was the colour of Umar I, the Caliph who ruled from AD 634 to 644 and was known as a great consolidator of the Islamic Empire. In the 14th century red became the colour of the Ottoman Empire. The crescent and star is the symbol of Turks. The origin of the flag is the subject of various legends in the country, some contradicting the historical knowledge about the Ottoman Flag.
The story I’d like to tell you now is the story of the Spoonmaker’s Diamond (Turkish: Kaşıkçı Elması), the pride of the Topkapi Palace Museum. Although the Imperial Treasury is full of ancient daggers, pendants, book covers, chests, rings, and various other ancient artifacts artfully decorated with beautiful stones, the Spoonmaker’s Diamond rests its most valuable single exhibit. It is an 86 carat (17 g) pear-shaped diamond, surrounded by a double row of smaller forty-nine diamonds, giving it the appearance of a full moon lighting a bright and shining sky full of stars.
According to one of the origin myths of the Spoonmaker’s Diamond, a poor fisherman was wandering penniless and empty-handed around Istanbul, when he found a shiny stone among the litter. Unsure of what the stone was, but recognizing it as beautiful, he carried it about in his pocket for a few days, and then stopped by the jewelers’ market, showing it to the jeweler, who recognizes it as an extremely valuable diamond, but feigning disinterest gave it a cursory glance-over, and stated that it was just a hunk of glass. So he’d had give the fisherman three spoons for his trouble, out of sympathy. The fisherman agreed, and walked away from the deal feeling better off.
According to a slightly different version of the story, the person finding the diamond was Rashid, an impoverished man who found the diamond in 1699 while scouring the Istanbul garbage dumps. He haggled with a spoonmaker and managed to get three wooden spoons in exchange for the shiny rock. The spoonmaker, recognizing the gem as valuable but not realizing that it was worth a fortune, sells it to a jeweler for ten silver coins. After changing a number of hands, the diamond was confiscated by Grand Vizier Ahmed Pashaand soon passed into the hands of Sultan Mehmed IV.
According to researchers and historians, was a French officer named Pigot who purchased the diamond in 1774 from Maharajah of Madras and brought it back home with him to France. But during his trip some thieves robbed him, and the diamond ended up in numerous auctions, where it was first bought by Casanova and then by Napoleon’s mother, who had to put it up for sale in order to save her son when Napoleon went into exile. Who bought the diamond from her was a man who worked for Tepedeleni Ali Pasha, who later, during the reign of Mahmud II, was killed under charges of rebellion and treason. His treasury, including the Pigot Diamond, was confiscated by the state.
It is still unsure if the Spoonmaker’s Diamond was cast with the forty nine brilliant cut diamonds by Mahmud II’s men or by Tepedeleni Ali Pasha’s men, but what is true is that they increase its dazzling appearance as well as its market value.
So, whatever happened, now I’m sure you have another good reason to visit Istanbul and the wonderful Topkapi Palace!
You’ll find yourself completely dazzled, and recalling its incredible story, you’ll be able to fantasize about the characters and the misadventures of the marvellous diamond in front of you.
Istanbul, which seduces on even a brief stay, is now beginning to emerge as a “capital of tastes“. Its culinary richness is probably due to the role the city played in the time of the Eastern Roman Empire first, when it was the giant cellar and spice depot for Western Rome, and in the Ottoman period then, when it became the meeting-point of all the culinary cultures of Mesopotamia. With these special features, Istanbul today has begun to take its place among world tourism destinations. Visitors to Istanbul can enjoy not only an extremely rich culinary culture with roots going back thousand of years, but at the same time contemporary flavors. Whether you prefer the traditional flavors or are an adventurer seeking new departures in eating and drinking, you can experience a full-scale of tastes in the markets of Istanbul. The rich variety of fruits and vegetables will literally dazzle your eyes, and a wide range of fish, caught in the Black Sea, the Marmara or the Mediterranean Sea, are available at the city’s wholesale fish markets. The Egyptian or Spice Bazaar is my favourite one, a must-see for every tourist who come to Istanbul. You won’t believe your eyes when you see the array of spices, lokoum and dried fruits and nuts at this market, a “temple of taste” and incredible scents, say nothing of the thousands colours! Every tourist comes back home with a picture of the colorful spices and fruits neatly arranged in this typical turkish market. So, enjoy Istanbul’s markets and its tastes, colours and scents!
Today I’d like to suggest you a quick look at the city of Istanbul with this brief video. I’s a good travel guide through some of the most beautiful attractions in Istanbul, providing you with a dive into the history of Haghia Sophia, built as a Byzantine cathedral and then converted in a Mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453;
a visit into the majestic Sultanhamet Mosque, one of the Istanbul’s finest structures also known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior;
and a walk in the Hippodrome area, the center of the social life during the Byzantine period: built following the model of the Circus Maximus in Rome, the Hippodrome had a capacity to accommodate more than 100,000 spectators, so the most important sporting events were held right here!
It’s just a first taste of Istanbul, and there are lots of other fabulous places to see, so enjoy the video and see you at the next post!
Nowadays we’re getting used to short and low budget holidays and the “3 days formula” is becoming the most used to visit a city or take a weekend off. So I decided to start a mini guide collecting useful tips on what to see, where to stay or eat in your 3 days in Istanbul. Let’s start with the “what to see”, the top destinations you can’t miss:
In Sultanahmet: Topkapi Palace – it takes you at least half a day, but it’s amazing! Although many people see the Topkapi as a too commercial and touristic attraction, I think that with the right mood it may let you understand the real culture and way of life of the Ottoman Istanbul. Sultanhamet Mosque and Haghia Sophia – the first one, the Blue Mosque, is my favourite. I’m used to stay at a hotel just in front of it, where I can stay on the terrace and admire that great dome and the minarets. Haghia Sophia has a great story too so it’s another place you can’t miss. Yerebatan Sarnici – I’ve already explained why I love so much this cistern (I was there 3 times), however the beautiful atmosphere you can breath in the red light between the 336 marble columns is unforgettable. The Gran Bazaar – an incredible mixture of colors, scents, languages, tastes will leave you breathless, and after the first minutes you will love the way they have to call you here and there and to haggle offering you an apple tea! Sokollu Mehmet Pasa Mosque – I recently discovered this Mosque, and in spite of my love for the Sultanhamet Mosque, I must say that this one is less crowded, fit to understand the real muslim customs, and it has magnificent Iznik tiles. Here I could see the real Adhan, the islamic call to prayer recited by a muezzin (in Istanbul and in other big cities the Adhan is principally tape-recorded)
Out of Sultanahmet:
- walking on the Galata Bridge up till the Galata Tower, proceeding along Istiklal Cad. having a look at the fish market (Balik Pazar) and the flower market (Cicek Pasaji).
Travel in Istanbul is proud to join the Blog Action Day,the annual event held every October 15 that invites the world’s bloggers in publishing blogs, podcasts, and videocasts on an issue of global importance: last year it was poverty, and the topic for this year it’s climate change.
The reason is a need to reintroduce the discussion about climate change and actions to mitigate its effects. Blog Action Day hopes that blogging will pressure the government to act with a sense of urgency on the problem of climate change, and we must be unite in order to fight the indifference to this global issue. We’ve just this earth, and we must preserve and defend it.
Don’t you think?
This is what I found going down in the The Yerebatan sarnıcı (or Basilica Cistern) in Istanbul, just in front of the Hagia Sophia. I’m sorry for the quality of this image, it’s the best I could with that darkness…I love photography but I’m not a professionist! Anyway, I think it gives you the impression of what is the Yerebatan sarnıcı in Istanbul: it’s the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul, built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. After paying the ticket, you’ll discover an underground chamber of 143 by 65 m (470 ft x 210 ft), capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water. The most incredible things is the forest of 336 marble columns each 9 metres (30 ft) high, arranged in 12 rows and with Ionic and Corinthian capitals. A fabulous red light spreads in the chamber giving the impression of being shrouded in mystery… In the northwest corner of the cistern crowds of tourists cram together to take picture of the bases of two columns reuse blocks carved with the visage of Medusa. It’s a great sight, and I recommended the Yerebatan sarnıcı to each friend of mine going to Istanbul, each time with the same result: they are astonished at the majesty of Istanbul!
Yerebatan sarnıcı
Yerebatan Caddesi 13,
Sultanhamet, Istanbul
Last time I went to Istanbul I was with my father, and I had the chance to go with him at an exhibition. It was something concerning transilvanian textiles, I don’t remember. But what caught my eye is the location: the Sakip Sabanci Museum, on a hill in Istanbul’s Emirgan Park, overlooking the Bosphorus, was built at the beginning of the 20th century in the Italian architectural style, and it’s not just a simple museum in Istanbul. Today it is the modern Sabanci Univerisy’s Museum, equipped with the most advanced museum technology, and a lot of important exhibitions came here: “Picasso in Istanbul“, “An Ottoman Collection in Portugal” from the Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation (which I recommend to everybody, it’s wonderful!), or the “Genghis Khan” exhibition. So, if you want to experience world cultures, just head for the Sakip Sabanci Museum, when you always find incredible surprise!
Personally I love Istanbul so much that nothing will change to me. I’ll keep on visiting this magic city and its many surprises the same as always. But from 2010 on, there will be another fantastic reason to visit Istanbul: the most spectacular ocean views on the planet. On the ruins of a historical 1930s tobacco factory there will soon be a seven stars hotel…underwater! It will hosts exhibition halls, restaurants, and sea view rooms. You will be able to sea the Istanbul Bosphorus Strait directly from your bed… Priceless!
As the Poseidon Hotel in Fiji, and Hydropolis in Dubai, Istanbul also will have its underwater attraction. The hotel’s inauguration is set in 2010, when Istanbul will be the Cultural Capital of Europe. It will be a luxurious hotel, so not for any budget… This is one of the reason why I wanted to give this information, but I’ll keep on admiring the Bosphorus and the Istanbul sights from another point of view! And also I think that won’t be this underwater hotel the key element in the tourism of Istanbul, don’t you think?
The Topkapi Palace of Istanbul is one of the most interesting place to visit, maybe the first one between the many Istanbulattractions. A complete visit may takes the whole day if you’re eager to see the entire compound, but as Istanbulhas a lot of monuments and attractions to see, I suggest you to feel the ottoman fascination of the Topkapi Palacein half a day. The most beautiful and interesting place in the Topkapi is the Harem, where you can feel the history, touch and breath theOttoman Empire, pretending to be the Sultan of Istanbul in his rooms or a concubin in the courtyard. Visit also the Baghdad Pavillion and the Library of Ahmed III.
Have you ever asked yourself why tourists adore Istanbul? Definitely one of the reason is the position, with the Golden Horn on the one hand and the Bosphorus on the other, and a guaranteed sunset every evening. This is what you’re going to see from the Hamdi Restaurant in Istanbul. From the terrace on the last floor of this restaurant you’ll have the whole Istanbul at your feet, the Golden Horn, the Galata Tower and the Eminonu Mosque… Don’t you feel like a Sultan?
Joking apart, a lot of turkish people suggested me this place to taste the best kebap of the city, and since the best thing you can do while you’re travelling is to follow the local inhabitants advice, I tried many times to go there. ButHamdi Restaurantis so well-known and appreciated, that it’s difficult to find a table. Finally last year I booked a table directly from my hotel and I understood why turkish people speak so well of this restaurant of Istanbul: really tasty kebaps and baklava, 5 stars service, the most romantic view I’ve ever had, and all for a reasonable price! This is what I love inIstanbul: you can live as a Sultan!
So, this is my first advice for you, Istanbultravellers:
Hi! I'm Alessandra, and I'd like to make you discovering the culture and the way of life of Istanbul through pictures, tales, etc... and I hope this blog will soon become your favorite guide through the streets, the colors, the scents and the people of this wonderful city. Have a nice reading!
if I had the chance to be there this week, I probably wouldn’t stop going ’round for hours, from morning until late night. Expect to visit wonderful exhibitions, to enjoy great concerts and please, don’t waste the opportunity to see how active is the turkish cultural life. Then, of course, if you want share with us your experiences here! We’ll be very pleased to enjoy with you these magic events.
So, what else can I say… enjoy your 
