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  • Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul

    Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul

    By SUSANNE FOWLER

    perapalasThe Pera Palace first opened in 1892 to serve the well-to-do passengers arriving on the Orient Express. In recent years, as its carpets and upholstery frayed, it developed a sort of aging dowager appeal. But in September, after a two-year, $30 million renovation, the hotel reopened with modern amenities installed and historic touches intact.

    LOCATION

    The Pera Palace is a short walk from the shops on Istiklal Caddesi as well as the bars, cafes and restaurants in the Tunel area. It is also within a few blocks of performance spaces like Babylon and Salon.

    THE ROOM

    I reached my blissfully quiet Deluxe room on the fifth floor via a relic of the hotel’s glamorous past: the first electric elevator in Istanbul. (New ones are also available to the right of the lobby.) The décor, of dark woods and shades of sage, was soothing and tasteful. The supremely comfortable king bed was dressed in fine white linens, monogrammed shams, a feather duvet and an elegantly patterned textile. A dresser contained goodies like Harem-brand pistachio Turkish delight and Pringles. The minibar included Turkish and international beers and liquors (no price list was given). A flat-screen TV offered many channels including news stations in English.

    THE BATHROOM

    This was practically a private hammam. A gray marble shower stall had three water sources: a rain-forest shower head, a hand-held European-style sprayer and a waterfall spout perfect for soothing the neck and shoulders after a long plane — or train — ride. The stall, which held a seating area, was shielded by a patterned glass pane reminiscent of an Ottoman window’s privacy screen. (Some rooms also have bathtubs.) The rest of the bathroom was smallish, with a marble floor and countertop.

    AMENITIES

    The Pera Palace’s newly renovated Orient Bar is on the ground floor. The bar seems more low-key than it probably was when Hemingway drank there, but it’s easy to imagine lively gatherings on the adjacent open-air terrace. The hotel also renovated its French patisserie and Moorish-style tea salon; both are comfortable places to soak up the atmosphere while reading “Murder on the Orient Express.” There’s a spa on the lower level that has a sauna, a steam room, a fitness room, a small tiled swimming pool and a luxurious marble hammam. And the hotel contains a space that is a nod to history: the Ataturk Museum Room, where the founder of modern Turkey first stayed in 1917.

    ROOM SERVICE

    My Turkish Breakfast Plate (46 lira, or about $33 at 1.38 lira to the dollar) came in exactly the 20 minutes I was told it would take. The “plate” was actually two: one white Richard Ginori porcelain platter with the traditional Turkish breakfast of tomato, cucumber, cheeses and smoked meats with jams, honey in the comb and kaymak (a clotted cream), and a second with two perfectly fried eggs kept warm in a special “hot box” on the side of the trolley. The orange juice was freshly squeezed, and the filtered coffee and hot milk were served in silvery pots inscribed with “Pera Palas Oteli,” recalling the splendor of an earlier age.

    BOTTOM LINE

    Restored to its former glory, the Pera Palace bolsters the luxury lodging market in Istanbul. And with features like an elegant lobby and afternoon tea service, it appeals as much to nostalgia buffs as it does to high-end travelers.

    Pera Palace Hotel, Mesrutiyet Caddesi, 52; Beyoglu; (90-212) 377-4000; perapalace.com. Rooms start at $320 with tax.

    A version of this article appeared in print on November 14, 2010, on page TR4 of the New York edition.

    via Hotel Review – Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul – NYTimes.com.

  • London Alive: Istanbul & Cyprus

    London Alive: Istanbul & Cyprus

    underground cisternThis trip was long planed but dateless until a certain day in August I took the executive decision to visit my friend Zoli. I finally booked that flight. That was it, after 7 years, after thinking about it for countess hours over the years, almost to the exact date..

    He was in Istanbul so to Turkey I went.

    Have to say it wasn’t high on my list of places to go..

    Such an unassuming city from the outside. But when one enters these huge grey walls you are greeted by the most dazzling patterns drawn granscale shamelessly showcasing their great ability to embellish in a simple wicked surprisingly psychedelic way. And the cats!! Everywhere, sweetest like no others..there’s alot to be said about that..

    This was at some point the centre of the Roman Empire East. Joining Europe and Asia..it’s easy to imagine the kind of life the Sultan enjoyed when visiting Topkapi Palace, I had never seen until then, such amazing jewels..bling taken to a whole new level!! 86k diamond, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc makes the Queen of England look like a pauper!!!!!!! This palace is twice the size of the Vatican. Half the size of Monaco…sprawling views of the Bosphoros, gardens, fountains… oh so beautiful that all I could think of was I want a party here and in my head started to put the perfect line-up together, shiver at the thought of a 100k Opus sound system bouncing off those domes, broadcast through the speakers from the mosque.. I was really running with it!!

    On another note, found a new painting for The Brain Unravelled..

    And Cyprus…hilarious. Made the front page of the local paper walking out of the airport in the middle of a taxi stick..all I could think of was the sea! I wanted a swim after five days of rain in Istanbul..the Mediterranean? Yes please!

    Chats and walks and swimming, letting the universe carry you…floating and letting the immense sea support you, and feel as part of a much greater thing..

    Getting away from it all.

    Thinking..being, existing.

    via London Alive: Istanbul & Cyprus.

  • Michael Baker: Remember Istanbul

    Michael Baker: Remember Istanbul

    This week marks the seventh anniversary of another gross attack on innocent people at the hands of Al Qaeda but it will go largely unnoticed in the United States or in Europe. On November 15th and then again on November 20th 2003 Al Qaeda detonated four car bombs in Istanbul, Turkey killing 57 people and wounding 700. Turkey is a NATO ally directly attacked by our top enemy, but how often do you hear someone say, “Remember Istanbul” when referring to Al Qaeda and the war on terror?

    We often forget that a number of our partners and allies from the Muslim world have been terrorized by Al Qaeda or its affiliates. Our strategic messages and official statements perpetuate the maligned theory of a “clash of civilizations” by concentrating on attacks against America and Europe, and relegating to the footnotes attacks like those in Amman, Jordan on November 9th 2005 where Al Qaeda killed 60 people and injured dozens more.

    Yet, Al Qaeda’s disregard for the sanctity of human life is universal and is the network’s greatest strategic flaw. We should learn to exploit this vulnerability by highlighting U.S.-Muslim partnerships in fighting terrorism and by honoring the dead in places like Algiers, where an Al Qaeda affiliate killed 33 people on April 11th 2007. Our strategic messages should aim to influence U.S. public opinion to create a more positive discourse with regards to Islam within the United States; as well they should aim to create a more positive image of America as an understanding and trustworthy partner within predominately Muslim societies.

    The brouhaha over the Cordoba center in New York and the plans of a small church in Florida to burn copies of the Koran gained global attention this past year, adding fuel to Al Qaeda’s recruitment propaganda. As the ten-year anniversary of September 11th approaches we can expect these types of fiery manifestations in the United States to increase, possibly provoking more attacks against our homeland (both from the outside and from home-grown terrorists) unless we make a concerted effort to elevate Muslims in our national discourse, recognize the numerous positive impacts they make as individuals and collectively in the United States, and honor the lives and the deaths of Muslims friends and partners abroad. One way to begin that discourse is by remembering Istanbul.

    In November 2003 Al Qaeda struck Jewish and British targets in Turkey in part due to the latter’s alliance with NATO and positive relations with Israel, but also because Turkey played an active role in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. The dual attacks killed mostly Muslims and shocked the Turkish Republic causing many to call the events “Turkey’s September 11th.” To be sure the U.S.-Turkish relationship has charted some rough waters over the last decade, but the values of the strategic alliance remain intact — values highlighted by Al Qaeda’s distaste for both countries: liberty, democracy, justice, and free markets. The U.S.-Turkish relationship is not defined by Al Qaeda; but it can be important for allies to pay their respects to one another on key occasions as the U.S. will surely expect Turkey to do next September. It is equally important and respectful that we remember Turkey’s own “September 11th,” now. Not only is this the right thing to do for our bilateral relationship, but it also shows our solidarity with Muslims around the world signified by President Bush in his address to the U.S. Congress on September 20th 2001: “I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.”

  • A Counterpoint to the Ubiquitous Turk-bashing in Germany

    A Counterpoint to the Ubiquitous Turk-bashing in Germany

    Cancelling clichés: Alexandra Klobouk says that if you grow up in Germany, you know next to nothing about Turkey. Now, with her book, the young graphic designer has created a counterpoint to Germany’s current debate on immigrants. A portrait by Nina Apin


    A humorous book “for everyone who has no idea either”: Cover of Alexandra Klobouk’s Istanbul, mit scharfe Soße?She meant to make a real Turkish breakfast, Alexandra Klobouk apologises as soon as she opens the front door. In the kitchen of her shared flat on Berlin’s hip Kastanienallee – mix ‘n’ match furniture, cleaning rota on the wall – there are fruit and biscuits on the table. The only Turkish thing in the room is a blue glass ornament on the fridge, warding off the “evil eye”.

    She didn’t have enough time, Klobouk calls over her shoulder on the way to make coffee, and time is the main ingredient for proper “menemen”. The 27-year-old graphic designer reaches for a book on the kitchen table, using one of the illustrations to show me the many variations on Turkish scrambled eggs: with chopped peppers, garlic sausage, sheep’s milk cheese, and tea on the side… Her hands skip across the pages, following the arrows, demonstrating how to make Turkish tea.

    Total ignorance concerning Turkish people


    A typical stereotype of Turkish culture: women who want to lead independent lives get murdered in honour killingsThe illustrations are Klobouk’s own work, the chapter on breakfast and tea culture is from her book “Istanbul, mit scharfe Soße?” (“Istanbul, with hot sauce?”) The title illustration shows a young woman riding across the Bosporus on a kebab spit. “If you grow up in Germany,” Klobouk explains the picture, “you know next to nothing about Turkey.” Kebab chefs, women in headscarves and footballers – that’s about the extent of it. The rest, she says, is secondary knowledge – media reports on “honour killings”, forced marriages and under-educated parallel societies.

    The slim volume brought out by the tiny independent publishers Onkel & Onkel is the result of an irritation. Alexandra Klobouk had seen Fatih Akin’s film Crossing the Bridge, a documentary about the music scene in Istanbul. “I was really impressed. And horrified by how little the images on the screen had in common with the ones in my head,” she says. She’d always thought of herself as a cosmopolitan – “but after seeing the film, I had to admit how much the clichés of Turkish people from the German detective series had influenced my perception.”

    Subtle strokes

    You can still tell how shocked Klobouk was about herself, even now. She devotes the first chapter of her bilingual book to common prejudices: women in veils lugging heavy shopping bags behind their moustachio’d husbands, a concrete monstrosity by the name of “Antalya Beach Paradise” awaiting German holiday-makers. Her reduced illustrations hint at a great deal with subtle strokes, while the rest takes place inside the reader’s head.


    Time is the main ingredient for a proper Turkish repast… Graphic designer and author Alexandra Klobouk moved to Istanbul for seven months, knowing nothing about the Turkish language, the country or the city itselfKlobouk grew up in Regensburg, Bavaria; her parents are artists. None of the students at her grammar school came from Turkish families. And even when Klobouk moved to Berlin seven years ago to study communication design, her contact to the city’s large ethnic Turkish population remained at a minimum: the unfriendly greengrocer on the corner, loud young men on the train. And of course the media reports.

    Her eyes opened by Akin’s film, Klobouk decided to get an impression of her own, flying to Istanbul for three weeks. Her original goal was to establish an exchange programme between her art school and a Turkish university. “Looking back, my approach was probably rather naïve,” laughs Klobouk. “I didn’t speak a word of Turkish and I’d underestimated the bureaucracy.” In the end, however, she managed to exchange universities with a graphic design student in Istanbul.

    Getting used to Turkish hospitality

    She then spent seven months in the city. She attended Marmara University in the Asian part of Istanbul and moved in with another student, who spoke about as little English as Klobouk spoke Turkish. “I didn’t understand a thing,” says Klobouk, miming absolute helplessness, “but I got help from all over from the very first day.”


    Scanning the veil: According to Alexandra Klobouk, first impressions can be deceivingKlobouk soon found herself integrated into a network of young women, all of whom studied and partied together, and celebrated long drawn-out breakfasts every Sunday in their flat. “Everyone talked and I just listened – and every quarter of an hour someone gave me a summary of the conversation.”

    Thanks to this effective language-learning method, she was soon able to go shopping at the market, “and to tell a Turkish mother how wonderful her cooking was.” There were plenty of opportunities to do so. It took Klobouk a while to get used to Turkish hospitality, which forbids guests from lifting a finger. And there was more to get accustomed to: the group taxis, the street children, the bureaucracy, the ever-present police. During her stay, major terrorist attacks shook the city, the worst of them killing 17 people. The book shows a woman on an underground train pressing her backpack to her body as protection from nail bombs.

    No, Alexandra Klobouk doesn’t want to live in Istanbul for good. “You see too much in seven months to be 100% enthusiastic,” is her sober comment. Klobouk talks about her best friend Duygu. Wearing short trousers was perfectly normal in her hometown of Izmir – but in Istanbul they incensed the rural population originally from Anatolia, which has been bringing conservative influences into the previously very Western city for some years now.

    Self-appointed “guardians of virtue”


    Not one to boast: the young graphic designer Alexandra KloboukIs Istanbul becoming a Muslim city? Klobouk shrugs: “I only got to know a very small section of Turkish society. Nobody I know wears a headscarf or goes to mosque.” Yet her female friends felt they had to justify their way of life, smuggling male visitors past self-appointed “guardians of virtue” in their buildings.

    Our kitchen-table conversation is approaching Germany’s current debate on integration. Alexandra Klobouk sighs. She came across the former politician who launched the debate, Thilo Sarrazin, at the Frankfurt Book Fair. “I really ought to thank him; my book is suddenly highly topical thanks to his insulting comments on immigrants.” But she has no wish to engage with the arguments of the likes of Sarrazin and the Bavarian conservative Horst Seehofer. Klobouk, not one to boast, tells me she is a little proud to have created a counterpoint to the ubiquitous Turk-bashing in Germany right now.

    Nina Apin

    © Tageszeitung/Qantara.de 2010

    Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

    Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de

  • Istanbul: Two Minutes in Maslak

    Istanbul: Two Minutes in Maslak

    ist

    Often I dread the thought of going through Maslak in Istanbul ,most of the time I am stuck in a car on the way home from a two hour journey from Hadimkoy . So for once I looked up and around instead of the mayhem in front of me for some photography.

    via Istanbul: Two Minutes in Maslak | Istanbulblogger.

  • [EXPAT VOICE] A city with so much to discover

    [EXPAT VOICE] A city with so much to discover

    The only things I knew about Turkey before I came here were that it was once home to a great empire that ruled on three continents and how the country was transformed into a republic under the leadership of the great Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
    I started searching for information and read a lot about Turkey in order to understand the country before I would begin living there. I was captivated by its great history and couldn’t wait to explore İstanbul. There was already a huge “to do” list I had noted in my mind — I had to watch the whirling dervishes, visit the Blue Mosque, spend some money in the Grand Bazaar, visit numerous historic sites in İstanbul, enjoy a Bosporus cruise and get a chance to experience a hamam.I arrived in İstanbul one day before the holy month of Ramadan began. I had been living in Malaysia for 23 years, and now I had to be independent and cherish every moment I would spend in İstanbul. I had to fast and experience the holy month the way Turks do, rejoice it and celebrate Eid al-Fitr on what was once Ottoman soil. The first night of Ramadan I was awakened by a loud sound from the street. When I looked out the window, there was a man pounding on a drum, which was, as I later found out, to wake people up for sahur. It made me remember the many villages in Malaysia in which the people were awakened by the sound of tabuh — a log hit by a drummer at surau or a mosque.

    I loved the way Turkish people gathered with their families around the mosque to wait for the adhan for iftar. It showed how they appreciate their family and the mosque itself. My friends and I did not want to miss the chance to be part of the Turkish tradition of waiting for the mahya to be illuminated at the Blue Mosque, which is lit up as a sign for iftar. Apart from that we also took advantage of the opportunity to perform our prayers at the Blue Mosque. One of the items on my “must do” list was accomplished when I watched the whirling dervish ceremony; my housemate took me and my friends to a restaurant near Sultanhamet after iftar, and we were lucky because the show was just about to begin. I was incredibly excited and blown away with the semah show, which is also known as the sufi dance. Check! I had crossed off an item on my list.

    When it came to day-to-day living in İstanbul there were some similarities between Turkey and Malaysia. The first thing I noticed is how Turkish people are so hooked on their çay, while in Malaysia most Malaysians are addicted to teh tarik (tea mix with milk prepared in two mugs). It never crossed my mind that two countries separated by thousand miles with different languages, culture, lifestyle and backgrounds could still share a few similarities.

    Besides çay, I also found Turkish people welcome their guest as their relatives, a common practice in Malaysia. Even though we were barely knew each other, my friends and I were invited to our housemate’s aunt’s home for iftar. Aunt Fatma’s home was facing the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, and we enjoyed a savory Turkish meal for our iftar. Then we took a long walk to the Pierre Loti hill. On our way we saw a carnival grounds alongside the road. There were stalls selling kebap, sweets, drawings, corn, dolma and much much more. My housemate explained to us that it was only during Ramadan that the municipality held these kinds of activities. Upon arriving at Pierre Loti we found ourselves elevated above the marvelous Golden Horn and, even though it was late at night, the scenery from the top was absolutely breathtaking. We sat for a while at the Pierre Loti cafe, sipping our Turkish coffee down to the last drop.

    To prove that were able to be independent living in İstanbul, my friends and I decided to go to the Grand Bazaar on our own — without a Turkish guide. We just followed the İstanbul map we had, which we picked up at Atatürk Airport and which featured the city’s public transport lines. However, we still we asked our housemate how to get there because the map didn’t provide enough information. And yes… we did take the wrong train from Zeytinburnu. But we managed to change trains and reach the Grand Bazaar. Here I was welcomed by some merchants who could speak my language! They said “Apa Khabar?” (nasılsın, or how are you) and “Murah-murah” (ucuz, or cheap). Despite their insistence, I didn’t spend much because it was pricey and without a doubt we were begging to be ripped off with the curious and eager looks on our faces. Afterwards we continued exploring İstanbul, guided by the map.

    We were told that Eid al-Fitr (Ramazan Bayramı) was not celebrated for as long as Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayramı) here in Turkey, which is different than in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Eid al-Fitris celebrated for an entire month, the month of Syawal. Before the end of Ramadan, Muslims in Malaysia begin preparing for the day with new attire: a baju kurung for ladies and baju melayu for men; both are traditional Malay costumes. My friends and I decided to wear our traditional costumes and, of course, we caught the attention of countless eyes on our way to a celebration at a Malaysian house in Etiler. We took a photo together as our memento of our first and perhaps only Eid al-Fitr in İstanbul at the Kabataş-Üsküdar ferry jetty with the beautiful Bosporus as our background.

    As Ramadan is long over, the time had come for me and my friends to taste Turkish cuisine. Our housemate once gave us lahmacun, and ever since then we began eating it every day until we were acquainted with new foods such as iskender, tavuk kanat, beyti, tavuk şiş and much more. I also tried dolma on the street, çay on the ferry and İzmir lokma at Eminönü, the last of which is similar to “kuih keria” in Malaysia. Every day we would pass by a row of shops selling baklava, but we didn’t know which one was the best and we’d end up buying all the flavors to taste. I enjoyed baklava so much, in addition to künefe — a delight I seemed to be alone in as my friends found it intolerably sweet. There are desserts in Malaysia, but they are not nearly as sweet as baklava, künefe and lokum. I wonder if the percentage of people suffering from diabetes in Turkey is really high?

    Seeing Turks spend their summer evenings with families around the Sultanhamet garden made me and my friends eager to join them. We planned picnics every weekend during summer in a different part of İstanbul. We were so fortunate that we got a free ticket from the tourist guide to enter Topkapı Palace and found the chance to picnic in the palace garden. We cooked our own meals — Malaysian food, of course — and enjoyed weekend evenings in İstanbul. Picnicking is unquestionably rarely done in the center of Kuala Lumpur as the heat will burn your skin. Usually Malaysians picnic at the beach as there are plenty of beautiful beaches in Malaysia, plus the wind from the sea cools down the warmth of the sun. But, the funny thing is we continued to picnic until the fall season came in, and we were the only people who spent our evenings in freezing weather in a garden facing Hagia Sophia. And of course people were staring at us, but it is still one of my most vivid memories of İstanbul.

    İstanbul definitely holds a special place in my heart as a part of me fell in love with this city. Almost all of the items on my “to do” list were checked off, except for the hamam, and oh yes, how would I get my hands on a Cola Turka once I got home? My next Eid in the upcoming days is going to have such a big void.

    Syahidah Ismail , İstanbul

    ZAMAN