Freaking Out: Paris

Korkudan 3 Buçuk: Paris
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I have a business trip to Paris in October. It will be my first time and I'm super excited, so I extended the trip for a few more days! However I'm totally freaking out as I have no idea what hotel to stay in. It has to be cheap, it has to be safe, and it has to be somewhat near the major attractions. I'm not after luxuries but bedbugs and rusty tubs are just not ok. I know which sites to pick hotels from but there are hundreds, so I'd rather trust the taste of my beloved readers and pick a tried-and-tested hotel. So help, anyone?
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Ekim'de Paris'e bir iş seyahatim var. İlk gidişim olacak, çok heyecanlıyım. O yüzden de geziyi birkaç gün uzattım. Amma velakin şu an korkudan üç buçuk atmaktayım çünkü bir otel bulamadım. Nispeten ucuz olmalı, merkezi olmalı ve güvenli olmalı. Lüks beklemiyorum ama tahta kuruları ve paslı küvetler de olmamalı yani. Hangi sitelerden otel aranır biliyorum ama yüzlerce otel arasından kısıtlı zamanda seçemiyorum, o yüzden blog arkadaşlarımın zevk ve deneyimlerine güvenmeyi tercih ediyorum. Denenmiş önerileriniz var mı?

Picture from /Resim Design*Sponge Paris city guide.

Update: Thank you everyone, you guys made great suggestions and have been tremendous help. I narrowed it down to 2 hotels and finally made a decision. I'll let you know how it was when I return. If I ever go back to Paris I will definitely try to book ahead though, during my search I came across such beautiful B&B's with such low prices, of course fully booked. They are SO beautiful that I'd put their pictures on my blog! If you're interested, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you a couple of links. Another option would be to take a vacation rental; you get a whole nicely decorated apartment and it's ridiculously cheap if you're a small group. So that's my advice to anyone who wants to go to Paris.

Ekleme: Hepinize teşekkürler, harika öneriler yaptınız ve bana çok yardımcı oldunuz. Otelleri 2 seçeneğe indirdim ve sonunda tercihimi yaptım. Doğru seçim yapıp yapmadığımı döndüğümde birlikte göreceğiz :) Bir daha Paris'e gidersem çok önceden kalacak yer ayarlamalarımı yapardım çünkü arayışım sırasında inanılmaz güzellikte ve çok uygun fiyatlara B&B'lere rastgeldim. O kadar güzeller ki resimleri blog'da yayınlamaya değer! İlginizi çekiyorsa bir e-mail atın, size 1-2 link göndereyim. Bir diğer iyi seçenek de "vacation rental" denilen kısa dönem kiralanabilen evler. Ucuz bir otelle aynı fiyata güzel döşenmiş kocaman bir daireniz olabilir, hele ki birkaç kişilik bir grupsanız yaşadınız. Şu noktada Paris'e gideceklere bu seçenekleri tavsiye ederim.

Liberty of London

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Bad, bad blogger. I must be the only blogger who made an amazing trip to London and didn't blog about it. For all of you out there who are planning Europe trips, move London up to the number one spot you want to see, because trust me you want to see it. I have been to Istanbul, Milan, Venice, Philadelphia, Washington DC, briefly NY and a bunch of cities in Turkey, and London is by far my favorite. Ok apparently I haven't seen that many places but my mom and dad have seen cities all throughout Europe and it's their favorite too.
I was very fortunate to have a collegue who took the time to take me to all the nicest design stores. My favorites were on Kings Road (SW3). There were a couple of antique stores there (that got me head over heels) which I can't remember the names of, but they were near the big Designer's Guild stores(at which I drooled a lot). I suspect one of the stores is After Noah because of the vintage telephones, but I could be wrong. On the same street were Design House Stockholm, which was like a candy shop for an industrial designer, and The Holding Company. Other than these small but striking stores on Kings Road, we went to a lot of larger stores as well, The Conran Shop(where I got to try every lovely design classic there was) was awesome, Heal's was ok. The highlight of Heal's was the Peyton and Bryne in it, which was the cutest bakery ever with the most amazing cupcakes. You must go there if you go to London. We went to a bunch of stores in 2 days, 1 day near Farnborough and the 2nd day in London. Our last stop together was Regent Street, which had an awesome Habitat, but most importantly Liberty of London.
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The store exterior. It is a beautiful Tudor revival building. According to wikipedia, the timbers used in this building were taken from 2 ships. It is the most original and stylish department store in the world.
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The building is actually very large and wide but the street it's located on is kind of narrow so the building never shows up in photographs as a whole!
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The entrance of Liberty is where they sell flowers and make flower arrangements.

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So this is the sight that welcomes you into Liberty.

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If you think they left the exterior original but modernized the interior, you are wrong. The interior is just as striking with the richest, warmest timbers, beautiful wooden beams, and exquisite fireplaces all throughout the building.
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There is a large open space in the center, with a glass roof.

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Look, the beams are visible in this picture. They do a pretty good job with dressing up this building into a luxury store.
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I was very fortunate to be there during the exhibition titled ‘Liberty celebrates 70 years of Knoll Past, Present and Future’ . I got to see so many design classics in such a beautiful atmosphere. The modern furniture contrasted so nicely with the old features of the building that it created a beautiful harmony of colors and textures. The pictures are not doing this exhibition any justice, I walked around the area 3-4 times, each time appreciating the beauty of each object. We see these pieces of furniture on the internet all the time, but seeing them for real made me realise that they are absolutely worth the high prices they are sold for. Amazing details, seriously.
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More of familiar design classics...
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The fashion area had such great pieces that I was drooling all over the place. I was literally in agony when I entered the bag lounge. I was cuddling a Marc Jacobs bag when I realised my collegue was gone. Everything, including Liberty's own brand was extremely expensive, luxurious, buttery and beautiful.
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As you can see from the pictures, they have great lighting in the store, some parts are even dark with only blue/purple light. This definitely adds to the experience and you feel like you're in another world.
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The shoe lounge. I could live there.

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There was a large collection of art as well. When I was there they had more modern art than the ones in this picture though.
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There was a whole floor filled with this type of small, gift-worthy stuff.
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Another quirk of Liberty is their fabrics. There was an area of light, soft, vintage looking fabric, and another area of classic shirts made from those fabrics.
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Most fabrics had this type of teeny-tiny floral prints in the sweetest colors.
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Portraits made with Liberty of London fabrics. See more about this project here and here.

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Please note that I didn't take any of these pictures as I didn't know it was allowed inside, and also because I'm too shy to act like a tourist. In fact, despite the consequences I'm glad I had ditched the unprepared tourist uniform of sneakers and raincoat for a much classier ensemble that day: BCBG dress, sheer tights, peep-toe platform oxfords. What a day it was, starting at 9 am, walking the streets of London until 10 pm. When I finally arrived at my hotel room I thought my feet had been mutilated for life, they don't look like troll-feet anymore but 2 months later they aren't completely healed either! {}
Oh by the way, by collegue turned out to be quite the gourmet. All the restaurants she recommended turned out to be delicious. Her recommendation of that day was Villandry. It is a foodstore, bakery, restaurant and bar. I am still having dreams about the french onion soup I had there. Highly recommended.

PS: I am completely in love with every place I went in Britain. Oh how I wish I could move there now! Say hello to a new Anglophile. I already adored their language, literature, music, cinema and fashion. Now I adore their weather too! Random fact about me: my mom was in her last year of college, majoring in English Literature when she was pregnant with me. I was born on her week of finals!
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Sources of pictures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7-9-10, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14-15-16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Honey & Spice

Bal ve Baharat
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Today I have a lovely link for my French-speaking readers. There is a lovely French girl out there, traveling all around Turkey, and she is writing about it on her blog. A Canadian reader recently asked me about what to do in a short trip to Istanbul, and I'm sorry to say I didn't have the chance to answer her questions in time as I didn't have access to my personal e-mail. I really hope she speaks French and can read this before she leaves, because this blog, Du miel aux épices d'Istanbul, has a perfect guide to travel around Istanbul. Too bad I can't understand all her great experiences but the pictures on the blog are enough to prove this lovely blogger has seen every interesting corner of Istanbul that I haven't seen. Here is the Istanbul guide.
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"Kahve Keyfi" (Coffee Pleasure), painting from the Pera Museum.

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Küçüksu Pavilion. A "tiny" house for short length getaways from the palace of the Ottoman royalty and burjuvazi. When I was little, we used to go there with my family a lot. There used to be a floating tea house on the sea, overlooking this pavilion. They had the tastiest grilled cheese sandvich ever, and wafer halva sellers used to walk around, yum.

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Yeniköy district.

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Kanyon shopping center, shaped like a canyon. It's an open space with corridors and glass bridges. Very windy too.


Bugünkü yazım Fransızca bilenlere. Kanadalı bir okurum İstanbul'a geliyormuş, bana birkaç soru sordu. Cevaplayabildiğim kadarını cevapladım ama ikinci parti gelen sorularına cevap yazmaya fırsat bulamadım. Umarım Fransızca biliyordur ve hala bunu okumaya vakti vardır, çünkü Fransız bir kızın yazdığı bu Türkiye rehberi bir harika. Okuyamıyorum ama resimler ne maceralara atıldığını, İstanbul'u nasıl karış karış gezdiğini anlatıyor. Bütün Türkiye'yi kapsayan maceraları burada, İstanbul gezileri ise burada.

Middle two images from Du miel aux épices.

Istanbul From The Eyes of Juergen Frank

Juergen Frank'in Gözlerinden İstanbul

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Topkapi Palace

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Juergen Frank harika bir fotoğraf sanatçısı. Bizim şansımız ise İstanbul'a gelip Cornucopia dergisi (Türkiye ve Türk kültürü üzerine kalburüstü, ödüllü, uluslararası bir dergi) için şehrin fotoğraflarını çekmesi. İstanbul öyle bir yer ki bazen insanı kendine hayran bırakıyor, bazen nefret ettiriyor. Bu fotoğraflarda İstanbul'un hayranlık uyandıran yanını yakalamış Juergen Frank. Farkına varmadan içinde yaşayıp gittiğim şehre başka gözlerle bakmamı sağladı. Hani yabancı bir diyarın resimlerine bakar da oraya gitmeyi düşleriz ya, aynen öyle...

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My dear dear readers, I have neglected my blog terribly for the past week or so, but that is only because I'm buried up to my throat with projects that have very close deadlines: A school project, and also some other work for a design competition. I will definitely post my competition entry if my partner is OK with it. Anyways, my heart is still here at my blog, and I'm very happy that I came by a great photographer whose work I think might be interesting for my readers outside of Turkey. You know I live in Istanbul, and like any metropol this city is a combination of beautiful and ugly. Juergen Frank is a great photographer who managed to capture the beautiful, historical side of this city. Most of these picture here were taken for Cornucopia, an international magazine on Turkey and Turkish culture. Do take a look at their site, because there are more beautiful pictures where these came from.

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Çukurcuma'daki A La Turca dükkanından bir köşe.

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A corner from a shop called "A La Turca" at Cukurcuma, Istanbul's antiques district.

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A La Turca'dan başka bir köşe.

Again, "A La Turca".

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Sanırım bu resim iç mimar Aslı Tunca'nın showroom'unda çekilmiş.

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I'm not sure where this is, Juergen Frank's site only says "Aslı Tunca, Istanbul". Aslı Tunca is a tasteful Turkish interior designer, so I'm guessing this photo must be taken at her showroom.

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Ortakoy. When I think of Ortakoy I think of baked potatoes and gozleme (Turkish street food, made by folding a very thin sheet of dough and cheese/mince/spinach-whatever you like).

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Beylerbeyi Sarayı / Beylerbeyi Palace
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İstinye'den boğaza bakış.

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The bosphorus, a view from Istinye.

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Kapalıçarşı'ya tepeden bakış. Uzakta seçilen cami de Sultanahmet Camii.

The grand bazaar. I really didn't know it was this big. It is a shame to admit that I haven't been to the grand bazaar many times, and those times I went there I felt like I was in a foreign country. It is amazing, crazy, scary, majestic, magnificent... The mosque you can see in the distance is the Blue Mosque.

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Tünel'den bir görünüş.

This is the "Tunnel Square" at Beyoglu. This paragraph from Cornucopia explains very well what Beyoglu is about, so I will just quote it without touching it:

"Beyoglu is Istanbul’s Latin Quarter. Built by European bankers, diplomats and merchants in the nineteenth century, it has now been recolonised by a new tribe dedicated to urban pleasures. Its imposing embassies and crumbling palazzos make it the ideal setting for the arts, and for a club-and-café scene that never sleeps. Beyoglu’s labyrinthine streets spill down the hill to Cukurcuma, where bargain hunters stalk antiques. At one end of Beyoglu is the medieval Galata Tower; at the other is Taksim Square and the monument to the new Republic which marks the start of modern Istanbul. Beyond is Nisantasi, the super-smart district for fashion, design and expense-account lunches."

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Büyükada.

Buyukada; the largest island of the Princes' Isles. That house probably has 360 degrees of sea view if you're wondering.
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Eyüp'te mezar taşları.

Gravestones at Eyup.

Haliç.

Picture says it, a view from the Golden Horn.

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I hope you enjoy!

Sleddog Adventure

Kızak Köpekleri Macerası

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Geçen gün pencereden yağan karı izler ve içten içe bembeyaz bir manzaranın özlemini çekerken annemin yolladığı bir link benim evde heyecandan bir oraya bir buraya zıplamama sebep oldu. Karlar altındaki İsveç'teki bir köye gidilen bir turla ilgiliydi bu link. 1 haftalık seyahatte ufak bir "lodge"da kalınıyor, husky cinsi köpeklerden oluşan ekibin çektiği kızakla dağlara geziler yapılıyor, tenis raketine benzeyen kar ayakkabılarıyla yürüyüşler, buzdan balık tutma gibi aktiviteler yapılıyor. Beni bu kadar heyecanlandıran ise "Husky Macerası" adlı turları oldu, bu turda kendi kızağınız ve sizin sorumluluğunuzda olan köpek ekibiniz oluyor, kızakla dağlara gitmekle kalmıyor, bir geceyi orada çadırda veya bir klübede geçiriyorsunuz. Arzu ederseniz kızaklarla dağdaki bir köye gidiyor, orada Fin hamamına giriyor, kamptakilerle beraber yemek yiyip onların hikayelerini dinliyorsunuz. Dünyada şu an olmak istediğim yer orası!
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I was watching it barely snow the other day and was wishing for a bit more snow just so it would cover the city with that cottony feeling, and I suddenly started jumping up and down with excitement because of a link my mom sent me. It was about a trip to a village in Sweden, which is obviously under a thick cover of snow right now. The one week tour consists of staying at a husky lodge, trips to the mountains with a sled and a team of dogs, icefishing, snowshoe hiking... What really got me excited was the tour called "Husky Adventure", in which you get your own sled, your own husky team which you are responsible of caring, and you not only go for a sledding trip to the mountains but you get to spend a night there in a tent or cabin. Additionally you can choose to be taken to a "Sami village" in the mountains where you will be taken by your sleddogs, have an outdoor woodfired bath, meet the Sami people, have a nice dinner. That's where I want to be right now!
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Mükemmel!

Amazing!
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Bir macera yaşamak istiyorum!

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I want that thrill of adventure!

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Bu seyahatin en güzel yanlarından biri bu güzel köpeklerle bağ kurmak herhalde. "Eight Below" adlı filmi izlediyseniz köpeklerin bir sürü halindeyken ne kadar ilginç davrandıkları, hiyerarşik düzenleri, birbirlerini kollayışları hakkında bir fikriniz vardır. Kurt sürülerinin inanılmaz doğası çok ilgimi çekiyor, husky sürüleri de ona benzeyen en evcil seçenek!
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I imagine one of the best parts of this tour must be bonding with the dogs. If you have seen the movie "Eight Below" you probably already have an idea how interesting these animals behave when in a pack, their hierarchical order, how they look out for each other. I'm really into wolf packs, and a sleddog pack is the next best thing.
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Şu manzaraya bakın!

Just look at this amazing view!

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Bütün resimler ve tur hakkında bilgi Sleddog Tours İsveç ve onların linklerinden alınmıştır.

All pictures and tour info from Sleddog Tours Sweden and their links.