Destination: Turkey

A Cup of Coffee and a Soft Chair

A Cup of Coffee and a Soft Chair Photo by visualpanic via Flickr (Creative Commons)

After 14 months traveling overland from Beijing to Istanbul, Joel Carillet faced a gingerbread latte -- and a series of unexpected fears

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The Art of Digital Travel Panorama Photography

The Art of Digital Travel Panorama Photography Jeff Pflueger

Like many places, Istanbul chuckles at efforts to capture it in a photo. Here's one way to get the last laugh.

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Talking Truth in Turkey

Claire Berlinski offers a provocative take on Turkish culture in World Affairs:

As the First General Law of Travel tells us, every nation is its stereotype. Americans are indeed fat and overbearing, Mexicans lazy and pilfering, Germans disciplined and perverted. The Turks, as everyone knows, are insane and deceitful. I say this affectionately. I live in Turkey. On good days, I love Turkey. But I have long since learned that its people are apt to go berserk on you for no reason whatsoever, and you just can’t trust a word they say. As one Turkish friend put it (a man who has spent many years in America, and thus grasps the depth of the cultural chasm), “It’s not that they’re bad. They don’t even know they’re lying.” 

(Via AL Daily)


World Travel Watch: Flesh Fines in France, Medical Tourism Risks in South Asia and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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World Travel Watch: Dress Code in Vatican City, Taxi Kidnappings in Nicaragua and More

Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news

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Why Tourism is Not a Four-Letter Word

Why Tourism is Not a Four-Letter Word iStockPhoto

On travel snobbery -- and why paying 30 bucks to get pummeled by a guy named Mustafa isn't such a bad thing

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Slate Takes a Ramadan World Tour

Slate Takes a Ramadan World Tour Photo by tinou bao via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Photo by tinou bao via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Writer Jason Rezaian has spent time in five different Muslim-majority countries—Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Iran and Turkey—during the annual month of fasting, and in a short essay he reflects on the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in the ways each one celebrates their shared holy month.


Skip the Colosseum? Give Prague a Pass?

Skip the Colosseum? Give Prague a Pass? Photo by tinou bao via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Eva Holland sees an emerging trend in the world of travel advice, and she's not happy about it

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Photo We Love: Black and Blue in Istanbul

Photo We Love: Black and Blue in Istanbul REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly

Muslim women look out on the Golden Horn in Istanbul.

 


Eight Great Travel Stories of Serendipity and Kindness

Eight Great Travel Stories of Serendipity and Kindness Photo illustration by Jim Benning

To mark our eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that show how one person, or one small act of kindness, can alter our sense of the world

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Saving ‘Cleopatra’s Beach’ and a Jewel of the Aegean

Saving ‘Cleopatra’s Beach’ and a Jewel of the Aegean Photo by haruncagan via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Photo by haruncagan via Flickr (Creative Commons)

I’m not surprised that the beautiful Gulf of Gökova off the southwestern coast of Turkey has practically been loved to death. The Aegean blue water and soft beach sand (which Mark Antony allegedly imported to Gökova from Egypt for Cleopatra) is the stuff of sea-loving tourists’ dreams.

Over the years, yacht tours polluted the bay, illegal fishing depleted its marine life, and all those sunbathers started eroding that queenly beach sand. The European-funded Gökova Integrated Coastal Management program banned the sunbathers from the beach in 2007 and is now working to support sustainable fishing, protect the bay’s natural flora and fauna, and keep the Gökova waters clean. (Via Treehugger)


Istanbul, Turkey: Life Along the Bosporus

The Bosporus serves as a crossroads of the world. Jerry V. Haines captures life on the strait.

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Where are the Elegies to the World’s Troubled Landscapes?

Where are the Elegies to the World’s Troubled Landscapes? Photo by macnolete via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Photo by macnolete via Flickr (Creative Commons).

The Eagles were on to something in 1976, when they lamented the pillaging of the western American landscape in “The Last Resort.” As eco-awareness of global warming makes major headlines, and movie stars and scientists link hands to march against coal-fired power plants, I wonder: Where are the music videos? The equivalent of “We Are The World,” climate-change edition? Or at least a few elegies to the troubled landscapes of our world?

Then I came across “Uyan (Wake Up),” a song about the ravages of environmental irresponsibility released late last year by hunky Turkish pop star Tarkan and baglama viruoso Orhan Gencebay. It’s a fabulous tune, brimming with eastern Mediterranean soul and accompanied by a video (see below) featuring the sexier-than-thou Tarkan and the comfortably weathered Gencebay jamming in a cracked and desiccated land—likely a reference to the fact that great swathes of Turkey are in danger of desertification.

So, inspired by Tarkan and Orhan Gencebay, I compiled a short list of place-evoking environmental songs. I’d love to hear your picks—and if you think eco-songs can save fragile lands, or at least get people thinking that they should stop abusing them.

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A Traveler’s 10 Best Musical Discoveries

Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel

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Leave Home Without It

Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel

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