Hidiv Kasri - Home of an Ottoman Pasha

İstanbul is living thru its typical autumn. After rainy days and floods, now we are experiencing sun and beautiful weathers. As we are not able to leave the house for a long time because of the puppy, we choose to spend couple ours at the sun in a lovely house and its gardens.

This house once belongs to one of the last Ottoman Pashas. Abbas Hilmi Pasha was the last Ottoman governor of Egypt and in 1907 he ordered this residence to Italian architect Delfo Seminati. It's style is art nouveau which was the fashion in those days. It's called Hidiv Kasrı. Pavilllion of the governor of Egypt.

It's a very nice and a relaxing place with its beautiful gardens. However there is not much inside the house to see as it is used as a restaurant.Although it is a lovely place in the Asian side of the city, we are rather reluctant to come here. The reason is the owner.. Since 1930 this place belongs to İstanbul Municipality. As some of you might know, Turkey is now ruled by an Islamic party who claims to be democrat and respecting the different lifestyles of its fellow citizens. I wanted to believe them but sometimes they are making it quite hard.

İstanbul's mayor is also belongs to this party and they are using every opportunity to impose their lifestyle. A good example is this place. They dont sell alcohol, but if you want to drink Coca Cola and Pepsi instead of a cold beer, all they can offer you is Cola Turca, a product of a company that is a heavy supporter of the party and if you want to read some of the daily newspapers, dont expect a wide variety. Only the newspapers supporting the government are available here.. As this attitude is also seen in other areas of the daily life where they can reach, I feel quite threatened with this intolarence.

Meet Hera..

So here is a picture of the thing that is taking almost all my time lately.Her name is Hera and she is a 2 months old Elizabeth Beagle..

She is quite mischievous as expected from all puppies and as her human family we are patrolling her toilet habits around the clock. So far she is very succesfull in finding and peeing the most unexpected places. We are constantly on a cleaning mode.. Tell me do you have some miracle tips ???

As you can expect our peaceful times are the ones when she is sleeping, and also they are the ones I can take a couple decent photo of her..

My Love Story..

I am one of those women who married with her ver first love, but with a slight difference...



The year was 1980 and I was 16..I met him in the summer of that year. I was in love and I knew deep down that he was the one.. I was in high school and he was in university and soon we were making plans of getting married after finishing schools. However life had other plans for us. In 1981 I won a scholorship and went to USA for a year. We broke up right before my departure..



The year at the States was a great experience but I was missing him so much. I returned to Turkey with great hopes but found out that he was dating with another girl. The year was 1982 and I saw him for the last time in that summer. Soon we went our separate ways. Then I did not see or hear about him for the next 26 years.



You know what they say ' Be careful what you wish for, It may come true'.. I think it was the beginning of 2008 and I was having a girl talk with a close friend of mine. We were talking about our past relations. I remember very clearly saying that when a relationship is finished its finished but I only wanted to see Behcet once again and have a cup of coffee just to learn what had happened to him' and guess what ?? Couple months later I received a friendship invitation from him on the facebook and soon we met for a cup of coffee.

In that very first meeting we realized that despite many years and many other relations our feelings for each other were as fresh as the summer of 1980. We married on September 13, 2008... So today is our very first anniversary. It could be the 25th but we are still amazed that life gave us a second chance..

İstanbul Photos..

Like some people, some cities are more photogenic than others and I believe İstanbul is one of them. It continuously offers you the colors of the present and the past. It's always a joy to hang around with a camera. You may never now what it will reveal to you. Maybe a forgotton story from the past or a glimpse of the day to day struggle...

Today I am posting some magnificent photos from this beautiful city. My friend Guven İlter kindly accepted to share his photos in Turquoise Diaries.. I have been aware of his musical talents but to find out his photographs on his facebook page was a delightful surprise. His web page will soon be ready and I will post the adress from here..

Thank You, Guven.....

İstanbul Floods..

For today I was planning to post some very nice İstanbul photos, however this morning we woke up with the news of the floods in the European side of the city. We ( Asian side) had some heavy rain during the night but morning was peaceful and sunny and we did not have any rain since then..

I was in front of the TV set whole day, watching some of the roads I passed hundreds of times and couldnt believe my eyes. This photo is from an area very close to İstanbul Ataturk Airport and according to latest news, the death toll reached to 30. Hope the worst is over.

As for our household, we are dealing with another natural disaster. We have a new puppy at home with no training at all..I am sleepless, I am tired but more on that later..

Photo: AP Photo/İbrahim Usta

Farmer's Market in Burma

On Mondays I usually go to Farmer's Market to shop for the week's necessities. Other than shopping with all the colors, smells and the sounds it offers, its one of my favorite places to visit.Whenever I go to a foreign country, to visit a local market is always on top of my list. As I already post about my local market, let me take you to another country for a very colorful one.
I went to Myanmar / Burma in December 2005. It was such a great experince for me to visit this magical but rather sad country. It was obvious that life was quite tough for so many people and I dont think that much changed since then. My saddest memories were from a road construction site where women were carrying big rocks on their backs while their small kids were just playing along side them..



This market place was from a town called Nyaung Oo. I remember visiting it early in the morning.
As you could see from the photos, women in Burma used a type of cosmetics on their faces named tanakha. They are mainly using it to protect their skins from sun, but they said that it is also very good for getting rid of pimples and frecles. Did I try it?? Of course, but not too long as I love my frecles and did not want to loose them.

B&W Sunday

Today I am participating again to the B&W Sunday game of Nada Farm's Anne Marie..

This lonely beach is from Sile, a beach town about 1,5 hours away from İstanbul. I took this picture last April, on a day I was heavily missing summer days....