BOZCAADA DOORS

Doors from Bozcaada (Tenedos), a small, wine maker Turkish island in Aegean Sea…

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Bağlarla dolu, 2500 nüfuslu küçük adamızdan kapılar…

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RELAXING TIME IN BOZCAADA

On one side upcoming elections and unbelievable scandals we are hearing about the government, on the other side banned Twitter, Youtube and other crazy stuff. Turkey is little bit busy but not boring at all in these days.

Despite this traffic of events, we left Istanbul for few weeks behind and headed to Bozcaada (Tenedos Island) to have some relaxing time in our stone house. Half empty island, silent vineyards, warming sun, cats in every corner…

Just perfect.

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Bir yanda yaklaşan seçimler ve hükümetle ilgili duyduğumuz inanılmaz skandallar, diğer yanda Twitter, YouTube yasakları ve diğer akıl uçuran olaylar. Memleket bugünlerde çok yoğun, insanın sıkılmaya vakti olmuyor.

Biz de bu arada, bütün bu olayları ve İstanbul’u arkamızda bırakıp rahatlamak için birkaç haftalığına Bozcaada’daki evimize kaçtık. Neredeyse bomboş, bize kalmış ada (artık sadece sezonda üç ay adada çalışıp, yılın gerisini Çanakkale’de aldıkları evlerinde geçiriyorlar adalılar, gerisini siz anlayın gari), ıssız bağlar, insanın içini ısıtan güneş, her köşebaşında kediler…

Daha ne olsun?

 

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MEANWHILE IN TURKEY …

Since yesterday, Turkey has a new internet law. Are you aware?

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Dün nurtopu gibi yeni bir internet yasamız oldu. Farkında mısın?

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VINTAGE STYLE NOTEBOOKS

Since almost two months we are in Istanbul but we couldn’t settled yet. There are long lists of things to do, also books to buy, exhibitions to visit…etc. And best way to begin to all this, is having few new notebooks. Last year during a visit to Turkey, we saw a small paper shop in a divided corner of a café in Karaköy, a neighborhood in Istanbul and we loved their nostalgic notebook series.

Yesterday we headed to Kâğıthane (House of Paper) to buy some notebooks. When we arrived there we saw that they moved to another shop at the same passage: Fransız Geçidi (Passage Français), an old Istanbul passage restored very cruelly with an addition of ugly modern building.

Karaköy becomes one of the popular destinations of Istanbul with its cafés, galleries since few years and is not anymore a very attractive destination for us with its new visitors profile. But if you are interested with vintage style notebooks, Kâğıthane is worth a visit.

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İstanbul’a döneli neredeyse iki ay olacak ama hâlâ düzenimizi tam oturtamadık. Uzun bir yapılacak işler listesine ek olarak, bir de alınacak kitaplar, gezilecek sergiler vs diye listeler uzayıp gidiyor. Bu listelerle başa çıkmaya başlamanın en iyi yolu da önce birkaç güzel defter edinmek. Geçen yıl Türkiye’ye geldiğimizde, Karaköy’de bir kafenin köşesine açılmış küçücük bir defterci görmüştük ve en son çocukluğumuzda gördüğümüz gibi, eski tarz defter serilerini çok sevmiştik.

Dün de defterlerimizi almak için Kâğıthane’ye yollandık. Kafenin içindeki yerlerinden yine aynı pasajın, beter restorasyonuyla insanı acılara gark eden Fransız Geçidi’nin içinde başka bir dükkâna taşınmışlar. Daha büyük alana geçince de ürün yelpazelerine seramik objeler, kumaş çantalar gibi şeyler eklemişler. Kendimize bakkal defteri, elişi defteri ve telefon defterini seçtik. Defterlerden birinin arkasında çarpım tablosu bile unutulmamış.

Karaköy birkaç yıldır birbiri ardına açılan kafeleri, galerileri ile İstanbul’un popüler semtlerinden olma yolunda hızla ilerliyor ama yeni ziyaretçi kitlesi ile bizim için daha gidilmeyesi, işimizi halledip ufaktan uzayalım dedirten bir yer hâline geldi. Ama yolunuz düşerse, Kâğıthane defterleri ve kedili gümüş takıları için ziyarete değer.

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ALAÇATI BLUES

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SMELLS LIKE SPRING …

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AT THE SAME TIME IN ISTANBUL…

The sun was warming our bodies while the smell of the sea and the voice of the seagulls warming our hearths.

And something was happening…

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HEADING TO SUN

Our three years stay in our little kingdom comes to an end and we are heading back to sun, turquoise blue Aegean and Mediterranean waters, fluffy street cats, variety of juicy and tasty fruits and vegetables, amazing smell of the bakeries, adventurous motorcycle rides and Mediterranean style slow living.

There is a long list of the things we won’t miss like rain, unbeatable British summers, health and safety craziness, tea with milk but we gonna miss our home, the pubs, antiques shops and markets, city foxes, first class football, film quality British dramas, the smell of the fireplaces in the middle of the city, Guinness, canal walks, small theatres, delicious Indian food, our friends in London and also in a very special little pub in Edinburgh.

But,

at the end,

the question still is:

What’s the meaning of Stoneheeeeeenge?

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WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2014 PHOTO CONTEST JURY MEMBER: KERIM OKTEN

Today I’m (Aybige) writing the post because I’m proud of Kerim one more time. During his twenty years carrier he always succeed on the assignments he covered. It’s impossible to write here all of them but with few exemples; one of the photos he took during 2011 London riots, was one of the symbol photos of the riots printed in world’s most big newspaper’s covers, also cover photo in all editions worldwide of Time magazine same week. Another photo he took during Istanbul Gezi Park Resistance this summer became another  significative photo and published as cover photo in world’s 25 big newspapers in one day. Do you remember the photoreporters running faster then Usain Bolt after the finish line on 2012 London Olympic Games and taking his photo? Yes, he was one of them.

Today, one of the most prestigious press photo organisations of the world, World Press Photo announced next year’s contest’s jury members and Kerim Okten is the Sports Jury Chair and Final Jury Member of 2014 World Press Photo Contest!

Congratulations Kerim! I’m proud of you, again!

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WHEN THE MILK SLEEPS

When the milk sleeps, becomes a beautiful homemade yogurt, best mate of bite size stuffed vine leaves (yaprak sarma).

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