People who board ferries to travel from ?stanbul to Bursa run into an old ?stanbul veteran on the Güzelyal? shores — the veteran Turan Emeksiz ferryboat.
Looking at the smoke rising from its chimney stacks, this ferryboat appears ready to carry people to various destinations. But in fact, this veteran ferry is anchored on the shoreline and now serves as a hotel-restaurant, the Turan Emeksiz Hotel. Read the rest of this entry »
The Grand Bazaar is said to have more than 4,000 shops, 58 streets and more than 25,000 visitors a day as well as its own private network of mosques, banks and restaurants.
Supermarkets may be making inroads into Turkey’s traditional network of street markets, but for some years to come visitors will still be able to shop from ad hoc stalls no matter where they are in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s hardly a small town in Turkey that doesn’t have its own museum, and most of them follow a standard plan, with one section devoted to archeology, another to ethnography and a collection of miscellaneous bits and pieces outside in the grounds.
Unfortunately, many of these museums are tucked away in places where few visitors are likely to find them, while very few have adequate labeling in Turkish let alone in any other language. Leading the way to a brighter future are a handful of privately owned and run museums in ?stanbul and elsewhere, but there are also some state-run museums which, while not quite up to the standards of their five-star counterparts, are still worth going out of your way to find. Read the rest of this entry »