Simferopol - Crimea

Well, I have to admit that I have been cheating on my blog with my new Kindle a lot recently. I have so many books to read which were pretty hard to get before..But I am also willing to show you some of my photos from our recent Crimean trip. So I will start will Simferopol today..

Simferopol is the capital of Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine and you have to stop there as the only airport of the region is located in this city. As it is a rather small country we stayed in a hotel in Simferopol in the first 4 days of our stay and made the daily trips to the different part of the country from there..

I do not know much how it was during the communist period, but I had a strong feeling that not much has changed since then....buildings, cars, roads and even people. Most of the people working in the service sector are quite rude and acting as they are doing you a great favor when you ask something as simple as your room key.And beware of closing hours of the stores..As soon as the clock tics, they are not hesitating you to lock inside the store..It happened to me twice...

All the Tatar population in Crimea deported to Uzbekistan in a single night with the orders of Stalin on May 18, 1944 . After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they mainly returned to Simferopol area and trying to establish a new life at the outskirts of the city. They are struggling hard to establish a new life in their old lands without obtaining any of their previous rights. More on them later...

Champions are back !!!

Yes, we are back from Crimea...Today its all about de-packing and re-packing. Tomorrow we are leaving for our beach house. Photos of our trip are coming soon..

Flying

In a couple hours of time, we are flying to Crimea- the land of my ancestors. They never had the chance to see their beloved country again, that they had forced to emigrate, during their lifetime. I believe they all died with great homesickness...Now I will see that country with my own eyes. Promise to post if I find any internet connection..See you all soon...

photo: from a statue in Tashkent-Uzbekistan

Old and New İstanbul (2) - Historical tram in İstiklal Avenue

İstiklal Avenue on the European side of İstanbul is probably one of the most well known pedestrian street in İstanbul. It is full of old Ottoman buildings and an old tram runs back and fort all day..Lovely place to spend a day. So here are two tram photos from the unpublished National Geographic archives,I mentioned on my last post.

Photos are dated 1928 and taken by Maynard Owen Williams

Trams started to operate in İstanbul at 1871 and the one on İstiklal Avenue became active at 1883. Until 1914 all the trams were pulled by horses. Later they were all electrified..

and today..

Old & New İstanbul (1) / Eminonu Galata Bridge

Last month National Geographic magazine celebrated its 10th year in Turkey with a beautiful exhibition, with the photos taken in Turkey but have not been published before..They also gave a small album of these photos with the April issue. As I am always crazy about old photographs, it was such a big treat for me..

Now I will try to show you some places of İstanbul with the help of these photos..
Photo of Yeni Cami from the Galata bridge. Taken by Maynard Owen Williams in 1928

another one from 1925 by Branson de Cou /Ewing Galloway

and today...

Galata Bridge is the bridge that spans the Golden Horn and the very fist bridge constructed at this place  in 1894. The one in NG photo was the 4th bridge built in 1912. The current and the 5th one opened in 1994.

The Ottoman imperial mosque behind is called the New Mosque, but it was finished in 1665!!!

Championship Night..

We heard on the TV that the Fenerbahce football team has entered the Baghdat Street, so we ran to the street and we started to wait.....

our little one wearing the team's jersey was quiet patient and the team was coming with a bus and they only have to cover about 6 km to reach where we were waiting but nobody was on the horizon and we kept waiting...

 Finally about 3 hours later they came and along with thousand fans we cheered and Hera barked..

There are 3 big football clubs in İstanbul and champion of this year Fenerbahce considered as the football club of Asian side of the city.

Baghdat is the main street in an upper-scale residential area of Asian side of İstanbul . The one-way avenue with old plane trees is full of shopping malls, department stores, fashion garment stores, restaurants of international and local cuisine, pubs and cafés etc. Its an excellent place for walk and window shopping..

Vacation Dreams..

We came back to İstanbul about 10 days ago. Hubby has worked at the F1 race in İstanbul..Not much going on with me nowadays. I am reading and studying about our upcoming vacation in Crimea. Unfortunately I could not find much on the internet..Looks like nobody blogged about it..

Today is May 20th which is suppose to be one of the wonderful spring/summer day but İstanbul is kind of freezing. It looks like a mild winter day with rain...So there is not much to do but to dream about visiting this marvelous place in June..