National Geographic on Istanbul

by Adrienne Wilson on

My travel agent is doing his best to convince to me to stay and play in Istanbul on my way into Dushanbe, but I’m on a mission. I have to get in and out of Tajikistan in a reasonable amount of time. Yet, this Nat Geo guide to spending 48 hrs in the city is making it much more tempting than I thought. My layover will permit me to feast on Turkish fare onto of a roof or soak in a Turkish bath, but the Grand Bazaar I will have to miss. Fooey! Next time around I suppose.

Those of you with a lot more hours to kill than myself should look into Nat Geo’s selection of Istanbul blogs, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, maps, movies, and books that will all help you in creating the most whirling fun-filled Turkish time. Afterwards we can compare notes – your 48 hrs to my 10 or so.

Word for the Travel Wise (06/23/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

On my way into Dushanbe this fall I have a day to kill in Istanbul and I’m trying to decide the best way to use it as far in advance as possible so I’m prepared to rush out and back into the airport. I should be getting a guide book soon in addition to the out-dated Central Asia guide. If anyone has any ideas for a day in Istanbul please feel free to share.

Today’s word is a Turkish word used in Turkey:

sabirsiz – impatient

Prepare ahead of time by visiting this Turkish Class site. Membership is free and you’ll get a lot more than some of the basics they already have listed. Online Turkish is good too, but you’ll have to register and pay to get anything more than hello, how are you and I love you. Stick to the first site and check out this Turkish vocabulary list of body parts. Wiki has an excellent starters piece on background, history and a short list of words. Scope out phrasebooks from Rough Guides, Lonely Planet or grab both.

Past Turkish words: merhaba, iyi volculuklar

Pology – June Issue

by Adrienne Wilson on

Should you be having an easy going kind of Saturday evening with nothing on your agenda except doing the laundry and viewing a few World Cup games you may also wish to swing by Pology online. We’ve mentioned it before here at Gadling, but the June issue is so darn good I felt the need to give it a plug once more. I usually head over to get the latest in culture topics around the planet, but today I was only there for the eye candy. Start with Thailand in pictures where you’ll find women in hill tribes playing on laptops and a smiling toothless Thai woman. It may sound odd here, but you’ll need to see it for yourself. I haven’t seen such a beautiful well-rounded batch of photos from the area in a long while. That alone makes it worth the visit.

Turkish Fishing Village

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve always been intrigued by “quiet fishing villages.”  Any time I run across this phrase in a guidebook or travel article I always take a moment to educate myself about yet another location to wile away the hours in a place where time creeps to a halt and life plods on much as it has for the last 200 years.

Today’s “quiet fishing village” comes to us complements of Linda Cookson writing for The Belfast Telegram.  She recently flew down to south-west Turkey where she spent time hanging with the locales in the “quiet fishing village” of Sogut and Saranda Cove.

Located on the Bozburun peninsula, this cove and village are in a special region of Turkey protected by strong environmental laws that aim to keep the area undeveloped and pure.  This means no major hotels, docking cruise ships, or Turkish factories.  Instead, the coast retains the charm of the “quiet fishing village” it has always been. 

Word for the Travel Wise (04/21/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Earlier today I gave a brief mention to Rough Guides phrasebooks which I just
stumbled upon and still strikes me as odd when I’ve been to their site so many times in the past. Were my eyes not
open? Did I not care? In any event I decided to bring them up again for this evening’s travel word session. If you took
note I said the publishers offer a tasty piece of language audio to feast your ears upon in their online catalog. FREE
language learning audio is like finding treasure folks, so when you discover a resource to learn even one or two words
for FREE you must and I do mean must jump on the opportunity to enhance your multi-lingual dictionaries.

Today’s word is a Turkish phrase used in Turkey:

iyi yolculuklar – have a good
trip

Prepare ahead of time by visiting this Turkish
Class site. Membership is free and you’ll get a lot more than some of the basics they already have listed. Online Turkish is good too, but you’ll have to register and pay to get
anything more than hello, how are you and I love you. Stick to the first site and check out this Turkish vocabulary list of body parts. Wiki has an excellent
starters piece on background, history and a short list of words. Scope out phrasebooks from Rough Guides, Lonely Planet or grab both.

Past Turkish words: merhaba