Buenos Aires is right to be cited among the most beautiful cities in the world: wide avenues, parks, cafés, book stores, the warm people made of mostly Italian and Spanish immigrants with a peculiar Spanish like the sound of a different melody, the tango clubs, its Parisian architecture, the most delicious steak in the world, lots of cultural activities that are free to visit; it is a city that you can walk for hours and stop at corner side cafés and watch the people, then walk again with a...

In the beginning of the 19th century millions of immigrants came to Argentina to find new job, new home, new country. This building built in Puerto Madero on the port of Buenos aires was used until 1953 as an immigrant hotel where they were given shelter, food, health care during their first months here in this new country until they could find a job. Within the Bienalsur programme we visit it to watch the Brazilian fashion designer Ronaldo Fraga’s show at night and we have the opportunity to...

The best thing to do in Buenos Aires is to walk! The city is made of wide avenues, grid shaped streets, parks, cafés, and it is an endless walking route. Especially at spring time like now at end October, the jacaranda trees with their purple flowers make your head rise to the sky while your feet follow your instincts to get to another corner of this beautiful city.A one and a half kilometre route between San Martin Square and Lavalle Square: at the end of the famous pedestrian street of...

Recoleta is known as the most famous and chic neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires; it is due to the famous cemetery where most of the well-know figures, including the presidents, rest in peace. But it is also home to many museums. We had walked from the Japanese Garden to Recoleta Cemetery.This time we start at the Architecture Museum and walk the opposite direction. The Architecture and Design Museum is a nice rectangular tiny building with brown bricks. Continuing on the right hand side we...

Buenos Aires’ Recoleta is city’s the most chic neighbourhood; it is also home to many museums such as Malba, Museum of Fine Arts, Architecture Museum.The Museum of Fine Arts is right across the Recoleta Cemetery, this elegant pink building is where the richest art collection from the 19th European painting in South America is found: Rodin, Gauguin, Degas, Van Gogh, Made, Modigliani, also the painters from the 20th century such as Picasso, De Chirico. It is open to public and the entrance is...

The city-state of Singapore: futuristic, smart, well planned, safe, clean, perfect, cited as one of the top cities to live and work, wealthy, civilised.The other side of the coin: an economy based merely on shopping, malls and restaurants anywhere you go (even when you walk to the subway), a modernity that erases heritage even in this new country.This island country was founded as a trade port by British at the beginning of the 19th century. During the second World War it was invaded by...

Hong Kong is one of those rare places that make you feel you are at the centre of the world. It has such an energy, like New York City, that is like a living being: alive, dynamic, always changing, vibrant.If you are transit in Hong Kong like me you can reach to the centre without even going outside the airport. Take the Airport Express inside the terminal, it has three stops, Kawloon is another centre of the city at the mainland, I now head to Hong Kong station, which is right at the centre...

The old town of Hong Kong, known as the Central district is not only historically significant for the city as it is founded here as a port trading city in late nineteenth century, but it is also a visiting point for art lovers for its numerous galleries with artists’ works from around the world.It is fun to pop in to check what’s on, go to the next gallery and get inspired from various art worlds from both the East and the West. You can start your walk on the Hollywood Road at the former...

A wonderful exhibition at the Museum of Latin America in Buenos Aires, Recoleta. It is a symbolical account of the art movements and the great transformation that Mexico went through during the first half of the twentieth century. The heritage of indigenous cultures, the violence of the colonial era, the promise of the revolution, all these stories are told through the art works of the most important painters of the country, a general look at Mexico’s unique history. Dr. Atl, Miguel...

As we are coming to the end of our two hours flight from Buenos Aires and prepare to land we are passing by the Andes mountains, the longest continental mountain range in the world. And slowly far ahead appears a city; Santiago de Chile, if it was not hidden behind these mountains it would not give you the sensation that you were arriving to a city at the end of the world. Cities such as Lima or Bogotá that are located at the far West of the South American continent may also be remote cities...

You have a good reason to visit Botanic Gardens, the highlight visit in Singapore, the place declared by Unesco as world heritage. It is the birth place of maybe the most beautiful flower in the world, the orchid. The Botanic Gardens is huge, an area of seventy four hectares it is made of several gardens: the rain forests, the palm valley, the famous orchid garden. You can start your tour at the metro station Botanic Gardens, walk through the park and take the exit to Tanglin where you can...

Welcome to Colombia’a coffee zone where world’s most high quality coffee is grown throughout the year. In Spanish they call it ‘Eje Cafetero’; it is the interior region of Colombia, the State of Armenia made up with mountains and valleys with a suitable climate throughout the year for coffee growing.First let’s have a look at world map: Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, these three countries produce the 56 % of the whole coffee in the world. Yet the Colombian coffee is known as having the best...

When they talk of São Paulo imagine a huge metropole, with more than ten million inhabitants, skyscrapers spread out through the whole city, traffic all the time, different neighborhoods with some of them having a great gap where you will see the most expensive restaurants on the one hand, people sleeping on pavements on the other. You will be surprised to see so many graffitis, on undergrounds, on walls of skyscrapers, some of them look like beautiful paintings, others are just tagging...

After a three-hour flight from Buenos Aires it takes another twenty minutes to reach to city centre of el Calafate by car from the airport. It is a small and tranquil city where the main activity is tourism.The main avenue Libertador is lined with hotels, cafés, restaurants, shops where you can find everything necessary for your outdoor activities and souvenirs, a nice book store, chocolate shops. If you look for something typical to eat it is the ‘cordero’, the lamb; indeed Patagonia’s...

The Pre-Colombian Art Museum is one of the most important, maybe the most important, museum in Santiago; it gathers thousands of pieces that are clue to understanding of the native people of Chile.14.000 years before todays modern Chile people were living in these lands. The rich collection of the Museum with ceramic pieces, jewellery, wooden sculptures, musical instruments, the baby mummies, they all are a clue to the cultures, daily lives, beliefs of these people. Even the north of the...

As I leave the Museum of Memory, and am back again on the Matucana Avenue, I cross the street take the Parque Quinta Normal on my right and start walking along the avenue. On my right is the Modern Art Museum Parque Normal, one of the two branches (the other one is the Modern Art Museum Parque Forestal just behind the Fine Arts Museum in the centre close to Plaza de las Armas). The entrance is free; whether you may like contemporary art or not you will find interesting works.A colourful big...

Across the Parque Forestal, you will see a building that looks like taken out from Paris; indeed the Petit Palais in Paris was taken as model in the construction of this museum. Built by French-Chilean architect Emile Jéquier in a neo-classical and art-nouveau styles reminds me more of the Orsay Museum in Paris. The museum itself is known as a copy museum, its collection of 3000 pieces were copies of the most famous art works. Here we visit the 13th Media Arts Biennial ‘Temblor’ which we tell...

Earthquake is not only the movement of earth, it is also a state of living beings. There are earthquakes below the earth and also inside us, catastrophe that make us die and reborn again. The 13th Media Arts Biennial takes the theme ‘temblor’, earthquake as a reflecting point in world’s current situation where big shits of paradigms are taking place; they say ‘In fact nature has no catastrophe, it is the humans that make the catastrophe. There is no natural disaster, there is the human being...

The most memorable moments of my Santiago trip took place here. I am not a citizen of Chile but what is told here is very human; The museum of Memory tells you the history of the ’73 military coup in Chile. The entrance is free, you may pay for the audio guides if you like.At the entrance hall we start by reading about the truth commissions; in which countries, when and for what reasons were founded these commissions. Then we pass to the pictures of the commemoration centres of the coup in...

Thanks to Pablo Neruda Foundation the three houses of the poet in Santiago, Valparaiso and Isla Negro can be visited today. We are now at one of his houses, ‘La Chascona’ that is located at the Bellavista neighbourhood in Santiago. It was built in 1953 by the poet for his lover Matilde, still secret at that time, and was later used by the couple till the death of the poet a couple of days later to the coup in 1973.It is a nice house built on a hill, filled with eccentric objects, you visit...

At both sides of the Mapuche River you will find colourful, lively, touristic neighbourhoods. The one close to the old town and the Plaza de las Armas is the Lastarria neighbourhood. The Cultural Centre of Gabriela Mistral is located here, with one entrance on the Libertador Avenue, other looking at to a back street of Lastarria (Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American poet to win the Nobel price, and just like Pablo Neruda she was born in a poor village in Chile and then her verses...

The centre of the old town of Santiago is Plaza de las Armas. A square surrounded by historical buildings, at one side you will see the Cathedral where the archbishop resides. At one side of the square is the post office in a white neoclassic historical building. At the other side is the Museum of National History.Couple of blocks away from the square you can visit the Museum of Pre-Colombian Art, which is a must (detailed story). Again if you walk couple of blocks from the square, this time...

On the Matucana Avenue where the Memory Museum and Modern Art Museum are located is a contemporary art space. I was lucky to visit Voluspa Jarpa’s work, Chile’s internationally acclaimed prominent artist. It is called ‘Here at this small land of ours’ referring to Latin America, ironically calling it small. Hundreds of documents are hanging from the ceiling, they look like a copy of A4 papers made in plastic, also iron notebooks on tables where you find the files of official correspondence...

Before arriving in Valparaiso we stop in Ritoque, an open city by the ocean built in the 1970s by a group of architects and artists aiming to found a collective on a three hundreds hector land. It was actually an experiment to found a city from nowhere; at that time if you think the place without an infrastructure, electricity, water, gas, it must have been quite an adventure. After almost sixty years have passed today it is still a collective place where seven families and forty seven people...

Yes, Santiago is full of museums, cafés, restaurants, vibrant cultural life. But if you want to see the ocean you will need to go to Valparaíso!A port city, it is located about two hours drive from Santiago; with its suburbs it is the second most populated place in Chile. Before the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, at the end of the 19th century, it was an important transit point for ships traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific crossing the Magellan Channel. That was the heydays...

We were at the opening ceremony of the 20th Architecture Biennial held in Valparaiso between 26 Oct and 10 Nov, organised by the faculties of architecture in Chile. The conceptual frame of the Biennial is ‘Inevitable Dialogues’ The current situation of the world: a population of more than seven billion people, almost half of which live in urban places. The city is increasingly unequal, the poverty line is increasing each day, many people feel excluded and they are actually the ones at margins...

Do you want to stay on earth but travel to a different planet? You can go to Japan! From the outside it may look like a technologically advanced, rich, modern but traditional Asian country, but everything is hidden in the details. When you are there pay attention to every thing you see, you will then realise that from the salt on the table to the chestnut package you buy on the street everything is in an aesthetic harmony; from the gate keeper on the subway to the cleaner every one moves with...

Tokyo is hardly a historical city; most of the city was destroyed during the Second World War. It is a miracle of Japanese discipline and hard-work that it thrived into one of the most developed centers of the world in such a short time. Although some historical sites remain, they are limited to the Asakusa region and Chiyoda region that includes the old palace.I am staying in the Asakusa region; to the south of here is Roppongi which has recently become popular, especially with the art...

The National Gallery is situated at the civic district of Singapore. The white elegant building is actually made of two buildings, City Hall and the former Supreme Court and today houses the largest art collection in Southeast Asia.Its largest collection is exhibited on different halls in its four floors, it has also a terrace where you can enjoy Singapore’s skyline. When I’m visiting the Gallery there’s the exhibition of 19th century European impressionists but I prioritise the Asian Art...

The most interesting and inspiring experience in Singapore has been the visit to these two museums. The Arts and Science Museum is the building with the shape of a white lotus flower looking at the sky, it’s situated by the river as an annex to Marina Bay Shopping Complex and can be reached by metro (exit Marina Bay). It houses exhibitions with specific themes: future, technology, science. When I’m visiting the Museum I have the chance to watch ‘Tourists & Spectres’, a short movie made by...

The civic district of Singapore houses not only the famous National Gallery but also two other important museums. One is the Asian Civilisations Museum, it’s aiming to show Singapore’s strategic character being the intersection between China, Southeast Asia and India.Just next to it you will find a space exclusive for contemporary art where Singapore based artist Eng Tow’s ‘Thought Grains’ (taking its shape& name from rice) is exhibited. Right behind the museum there’s another important...

When we talk about Singapore the first thing that comes to mind is its silhouette: the peculiar examples of futuristic architecture: skyscrapers, iron trees looking at the sky… Maybe the first thing you should do when you come to Singapore is to walk the city to enjoy this silhouette.Here is a walking route for your first day to get to know its iconic places: start your day by reaching to the Marina Bays metro station, you will see two exits, take the one to Gardens by the Bay and walk to the...

The colonial heritage of Singapore can best be seen at these streets, lined with one floor wooden houses, today renovated, colourful and all converted into offices. Here are some places where you can enjoy walking, have breakfast, visit book stores and boutique shops. Tiong Bahru has lots of bakeries and cafés, yoga studios, a nice book store (Books Actually; closed after the pandemic)… Another neighbourhood is close to Chinatown; it’s where Club Street and Cross Street are located, also full...

When it comes to eating it can be said that it is almost the centre of life here in Singapore. Any where you go it is for sure that you will find a shopping mall or a restaurant. Along the Singapore River you will find many options. A pleasant walk of about three kilometres: start your walk at the Fullerton Hotel, cross the Cavenagh Bridge across the hotel and take the river on your left. You will see a statue of Sir Raffles, the British figure who turned Singapore from a fishing village to a...

Another museum in Jardins District, one of São Paolo’s most beautiful neighbourhoods is the Sound and Image Museum. I stumbled upon a few great exhibitions here.'Lambe-Lambes’: the street photographers who witnessed São Paolo’s streets. In the early 20th century, a group of photographers who took photographs of São Paolo’s streets immortalized the city’s cobblestones, bearing testimony to the daily life here. This artistic activity which peaked in the 40’s and 50’s declined and became...

This mansion, which was built in 1940’s and housed the ex-mayors of São Paulo and their wives is now a museum open to public that holds architecture and design exhibitions. Its restaurant and garden are the main reasons you may be inclined to spend extra hours here after seeing an exhibition.When I visited the museum I also had the chance to get familiar with an episode of the history of Brazil I did not previously know about: ‘Carandiru Prison, sobrevivencieas' (survival). In 1992 an...

São Paulo is a gigantic city and although I have been there several times, I have difficulty locating its center, this is because the city is like a monolith of skyscrapers with multiple centers that cannot be kept from sprawling. I may say that Avenida Paulista is one of those centers; along a narrow and long street, headquarters of big companies are lined up. The financial center of all Brazil, even of all Latin America is São Paulo and São Paulo’s trade and finance center is Paulista.There...

One of the features of São Paulo that would interest you the most is that its streets are all covered in graffiti; Underpasses, roads, streets, even buildings.There is one more thing on top of the graffiti in this city: scribbles on buildings that look like coded cryptic writings. They are called ‘pichação.’ They are not colourful paintings like graffiti and many people do not think they add an aesthetic value to the city, nor they are adored by the city’s inhabitants. Actually they are not...

Good news: there is a huge space to breath in the middle of this giant metropole called São Paulo, it is the Ibirapuera Park. Often compared to Central Park of New York City in its size it is a metropolitan park opened at the beginning of twentieth century to celebrate the four hundred years of the foundation of Sao Paulo.Trees of hundred years, banks made of different shapes, an auditorium, a modern art museum, roller skaters, music, graffiti walls, lake, you may spend the entire day here...

Yes, São Paulo has an old town! It is where the city was founded five hundred years ago. Neo classical and baroque buildings, art centers, theatres, patisseries, walls with graffitis, it has this air that you may not notice at other parts of the city, let’s say it has a character. At nigh time it may look a little empty and you may need to take care of your belongings but during the day it is quite lively.We start our walk at the Municipal Theatre. A beautiful Opera House with all the glamour...

Here is the most entertaining, colourful, bohemian, arty and hippest and coolest neighbourhood of São Paulo. Come to watch a soccer game in one of the bars, or take pictures in Batman’s Alley as every tourist does, but come to Vila Madalena to enjoy some time for yourself. Long before the area was made of farms and one of the daughters of the farmer called Madalena gave name to today’s hip neighborhood. At the 70s students started to live here due its location by the University. Later came...

The CCBB is the cultural centre of the Bank of Brazil, one of four centres in four cities: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and the capital Brasilia. The one in Sao Paulo is one of the oldest buildings in the city, built at the beginning of twentieth century it is located right at the centre of the old town, at the corner of two streets, Rua Álvares Penteado and Rua da Quitanda. It was the building of the bank for almost seventy years, was then converted to a public cultural center....

There are the National Art Center, Mori Museum and Suntory Museum in the district called Roppongi Art Triangle.National Art Museum is a place mostly devoted to traditional art. We came across two Japanese calligraphy exhibitions here. Japanese calligraphy is an art we are familiar with: writings in ink, on long and narrow pieces of cloth, in the Japanese alphabet, similar to hat, the Turkish calligraphy art. They are very aesthetic visually and not knowing the meaning of writings does not...

Our next stop is Mori Art Museum which is in walking distance from the National Art Center. This museum is in an upscale district and located on the top floor of Mori Tower.The person after which it is named, Mori Minoru, was apparently a real estate tycoon and one of the wealthiest businessmen of the world, who played an important part in the construction and development of the Rappongi district into its present state. We visited a very interesting exhibition here: the exhibition of the...

Taking the Ginza line from Akasaka Mitsuke station, I am heading to north, and getting off at Ryogoku stop. My destination is Edo Tokyo Museum. Lucky that there are signs starting at the stop which point to it; otherwise it would be a problem to find the way around here.As soon as you enter the museum a childish cheerfulness takes over you, as if you entered into an ancient Tokyo made with toys. A wooden bridge, wooden houses, palaces, and toy figures which are the replicas of the old town in...

Asakusa District is one of the few remaining historical sites of Tokyo. It is hard to see a historical building in Tokyo because the city was re-built after the end of the Second World War. Asakusa is a historical neighbourhood and its main attraction is Senso-ji Temple. The road to the temple is abundant in shops; gift shops, ice cream parlours, candy shops, walnut shops…It feels like a fair here with hundreds of people who came to visit the temple even on a working day. The temple looks...

I am taking a tourist ferry departing from Asakusa and travelling down the river. It is a sunny day and I like getting some sea air. But it is not a sea but a river, Sumida River which connects the two sides of Tokyo through many bridges. The silhouette of the city is composed by skyscrapers. Tokyo may not have a geography or city silhouette you would admire looking up like Istanbul or Rio de Janeiro, but the things which may pique your curiosity are the details; the shops you enter, its...

I am getting off the ferry at this spot and walking at Hamarikyu Gardens. Originally the private residence of the Shogun and his family in the 17th century, the Hamarikyu Gardens are today open to the public. It is a green spot for some fresh air in the massive city of Tokyo. There is a tea house over its lake: you enter taking off your shoes, they serve you fluorescent green macha tea in ceramic cups and you start watching the ducks on the lake, ordering one more cup of tea. The several cups...

Ginza is one of the most posh neighbourhoods of Tokyo which offers internationally renowned brands and shopping centres. Tokyo is a quiet expensive city and this place is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods. Though funny enough, you can have an amazing meal at a reasonable price at one of the kiosk-like eateries which are located in every corner here. I am coming across a tempura place: noodles boiling in water, with fried prawns on top, which is very cheap. It tastes better with one of...

Most of you must have heard of the famous speed trains of Japan, those which approach the station like space ships. They are called Shinkansen, the speed trains which travel the around 450 kilometres between Tokyo and Kyoto in 2 to 2.5 hours. These trains which actually operate between Tokyo and Osaka stop in Kyoto. The tickets are hardly cheap, and you pay a lot more if you book a seat but if you don’t just as I didn’t, you can easily find a seat because they depart in every ten minutes....

Kyoto is a city of rivers, bicycles and most importantly temples. I rented a bicycle and explored first the east side and then the west side of the city for two days. It is a flat city except for a few sloped roads. There are so many cyclists that they have bicycle roads and bicycle parking slots here. I am riding on one of the bridges over the river and heading east. The first attraction I stop at is obviously a temple. I am parking my bicycle, buying a ticket and walking in the temple. I...

This attraction located in the Higashiyama region of Kyoto is on the UNESCO heritage list: its construction goes as far back as the 8th century and it is a building rising on a wooden platform on the outskirts of a mountain. Its interior is packed with people. Although it is the second week of December, the surrounding mountains are dressed in a thousand hues of red and yellow. Local Japanese tourists in their kimonos are striking a pose many times perhaps to capture both the colours of the...

I am riding my bicycle up Kiyomizudera and somewhat towards the west. My destination is Ginkakuji, but I cannot help stopping on my way because there is a temple or a park in every corner on my route. I am arriving at a park: all autumn colours here deserve admiration. This is Maruyama Park, with a pond in the centre and red trees around it. I am coming across a temple at the exit of the park. Again I am parking my bicycle and entering it at once. This is Chion-in, the centre of Jodo-Shu, a...

Today’s last stop is Ginkaku-ji located to the north of the east side of Higashiyama District of Kyoto. It is getting dark and I know that the place closes at five p.m. It takes longer to get there by bicycle than I expected. I am passing over the main roads, stopping to ask people for directions and somehow managing to get there before it closes. This is another temple on the UNESCO heritage list: the Silver Pavilion Temple. It was originally built as a mountain house and was later on...

This is one of the oldest Shinto temples in Japan, built in a forest in the 6th century. I am passing through a park and then the red Shinto doors to enter the temple. Like other Shinto temples, it consists of a few halls where you can make a wish and pray. My curiosity is piqued by families with babies, and groups of brides, grooms and their families who came here to have their pictures taken, probably because it is Sunday. I am watching them for a while. All smart and perfect in their...

My last stop on the west side of The Hiroshiyama region of Kyoto is Kinkakuji Temple: just like Ginkakuji, this place too was originally built as a Shogun residence and altered into a temple. Its name is taken from the villa facing the west which is covered in gold. The reason why they used gold is, apart from being a precious metal, gold symbolises purging the mind of negative thoughts about death and creates a nice effect with its reflection on the water. There are ten isles in the pond in...

I devoted one of the days I spent in Kyoto to Nara. You can travel to Nara in about 40 minutes, taking a train from Kyoto Station. Just as Kyoto seemed peaceful and quiet compared to Tokyo, even a quieter atmosphere welcomed me in Nara: this small city which has historical importance as the first capitol city is located on the outskirts of a mountain. You can walk to most of the attractions. The park, the deer strolling around and mountain air will do good to you.When you exit the station and...

Another example, illustrating how Shintoism and Buddhism coexisted as two major religions, is in Nara: After passing by Todai-ji, you would walk through a park and arrive at a Shinto temple. The deer may surround you while walking through the forest: because they are considered to be holy animals, they move around freely in this area. After visiting many Shinto temples, I look around for and spot the big red door at the entrance following the big wooden sign with an up-to-down writing in...

We are still in Arashiyama. If you walk up from the northern exit of Tenryu-ji temple you will end up at a path with a canopy of bamboo trees overhead. Long and thin bamboos shoot upward to the sky sporting leaves and form a roof over your head. It is like another planet here. So chilly like a fairy tale land. As I finish the path of bamboos I am coming across another garden at the end of the road surrounded by bamboos to the left. This place was built as the private residence of Denjiro...

When you arrive Bogotá you’ll see those similar aspects of every metropole: traffic, a huge urban space with constructions spread throughout the city, endless avenues, endless blocks of buildings.If you are accustomed to living in a city on sea level like me, you will be affected at first from the altitude: 2600 metres above sea level, a capital city founded between the mountains. You will need to walk slowly and drink more water.The city is built in grid plan and it’s divided into Zones (G,...

Long before the Spanish came here, today’s Colombia was a land where many clans, with their own culture and social structure used to live: Muiscas in today’s Bogota metropolitan area, Tayronas in the north, many others like Sunis, Quimbayas, San Augustines, Zunus, people whom were later called ‘indians’ by the White Man.The museum has a rich collection of thousands of pieces which give us clues of the daily lives, spiritual practices, social conditions of these people; so it is a real gem!...

The Shaman, an important figure in pre-Columbian cultures.The power of the shaman comes from his ability to transform into other beings such as birds, jaguars, and to possess their qualities: ability to fly, sharp eye view, power, courage. Of course they would not be acting exactly like these animals, they would be entering in a state of trance and passing into an other dimension. One of these animals was the bat. When we see these pieces, the accessories they used to put on their faces and...

Right in front of the Gold Museum is the Santander Square. It takes its name from the statue in the middle of it, Santander, a prominent figure of the independence movement. Across the street we see the St Francis Church, a brown, rectangular shape wide church, the oldest one in Bogota, built in the 16th century. It witnessed the fight for independence, starting from the 18th century, against the Spanish colonialism. The independence was declared in 1881 in Cartagena, under the leadership of...

A less discovered place in the old town. There was a scene in a novel I read that took place here, which made me curious about it. This red coloured one store house is the house of a famous Colombian poet, Asunción Silva lived for a couple of years before he committed suicide at the age of 30. It is never crowded, a silent place with a ‘patio’, a book store, a room where you find the cassettes of several writers and poets who read their own books with their own voice. We ask for Gabriel...

It is cited as one of the most beautiful concert halls of the world. When we went there it was a Sunday and it was closed but we could get a sense of its elegance from the exterior. Colombia’s National Theatre was built by the Italian architect Pietro Cantini in a neo-classical style who took the Palais Garnier in Paris as a model. Right in front of it is Simon Bolivar’s residence. According to the story, during a siege he escaped from one of the windows of this building, the house of his...

We are at the centre of the old town of La Candelaria. This is the Bolivar Square. Right across us is the Cathedral, at the north side stands the Palace of Justice, at the south is the Capitolium, the Parliament. We read the words at the façade of the Palace of Justice: “Colombians, the arms gave you your independence, the laws will give you your freedom". At this Palace one of the most bloody events of Colombian guerrilla history took place. 06 November 1985, a group of guerillas called 19...

As you walk down the Colon Theatre, before you reach the Bolivar Square, you will find this little place at the right hand side of the street. Always a queue on its door, it’s so tiny you’ll need to wait a bit to taste some of the traditional foods of Colombia. The menu is quite brief: tamal is a rice-chicken meal inside the banana leaves, ajiaco is a big soup with chicken, and finally the full chocolate menu which is hot chocolate served with two butter breads and a slice of cheese, you put...

The Botero Museums, both in Bogota and in Medellin, are some of the top tourist attractions due to artist’s worldwide fame. His sculptures, from the Park Avenue in New York to Champs Elysée in Paris, are worth millions of dollars. This collection of more than hundred Botero paintings and a hand sculpture at the entrance of the museum, along with some of his personal collection of Picasso, Chagall, Miro, are all donations of the artist to this public museum, which you can visit free of charge...

A little wall painting in the old town between the two buildings, the head of a man shouting, or calling people, and looking hopeful for the future. This political figure is an important one in the history of Colombia, he is Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, after starting to work as Mayor he became Minister. When he became a candidate for presidency they started to see him as a threat and he became the victim of a political assassination. A travel story, a man leaves Cuba to travel till Colombia in...

Its full name is Cartagena de Indias, but everyone calls it Cartagena. Long before it became a post card city Spanish came to this place and decided to found a port city surrounded with walls: year 1533. It reminds me Havana’s Malecón, ocean waves breaking on the shore, the gentle breeze coming from the Caribbean sea gives an air of freedom to this place. These walls, maybe, give me that sensation of ‘being in a movie set’, as if I am inside a story with a beginning and an end; it is like the...

As you enter the old town from the main gate of Clock Tower, you turn left and walk straight and arrive to this square which is called the Customs Square or the Royal Square. This was the place where the goods arriving at the port were checked. The Chamber of Commerce and Customs were also located here, as well as the houses of the Mayor and the Marquis. In the 16th century commerce meant both the commerce of the goods and the commerce of the slaves. Slavery and inquisition (we will visit the...

We left the Customs Square behind. We pass the Modern Art Museum on our left and we arrive to another square: this Plaza is dedicated to a Saint. San Pedro Claver’s bones are inside the Convent. The church next to it has such an elegant door I can’t stop myself taking a picture in front of it. The sculpture of San Pedro in front of the Convent shows him with his Slave, probably teaching him the new religion. Other sculptures at the plaza belong to more ‘ordinary people’: a group of people...

We left behind the San Pedro Square and started to walk towards the centre of the old town. As we arrive to another square we see on our right the Gold Museum which we will visit soon. At the other side of the square is located the Inquisition Palace (details in the next story). The Square is also a park, with a horse sculpture in the middle and there is always a dance show and percussion music going on. It’s always live and full of people. As we passed through the Customs Square, the Square...

This Museum is dedicated to the culture and people of Zenu. Around 200 to 1600 B.C. the area of the north of today’s Colombia, at the interior lands of the Caribbean shores, developed the culture of the people of Zenu. The people were farmers, hunters, with an advanced level of civilisation: they built water channels, developed the gold craft and left us many pieces, clue to their life, that are now exhibited in this museum. Unfortunately with the arrival of the Spanish it came to an end. The...

This Palace is situated at the Plaza de Bolivar, its doors is maybe one of the most beautiful doors of Cartagena and one cannot stop and think how come such an elegant building was used as a place of tortures and executions; it is a real irony!The Inquisition Tribunal was founded in Cartagena in 1610 as the third Tribunal following the ones in Mexico City and Lima. Some numbers: the Tribunal lasted some 211 years, more than 800 people were arrested, 56 of them were executed (some of them...

This part of the Place of Inquisition is dedicated to the history of Cartagena. How did this place called Cartagena de Indias was founded, how did it become this port city? Long before the European white man arrived at this land there was a different life; several tribes with thousands of people, with its own social structure, a belief system, an agricultural organisation, used to live here. Around 3500 yeas B.C., the Tainos and the Karibs are some of them. We actually have a lot of...

This part of the Place of Inquisition is dedicated to the history of Cartagena. How did this place called Cartagena de Indias was founded, how did it become this port city?Long before the European white man arrived at this land there was a different life; several tribes with thousands of people, with its own social structure, a belief system, an agricultural organisation, used to live here. Around 3500 yeas B.C., the Tainos and the Karibs are some of them. We actually have a lot of...

I am walking from the Customs Square to the Square of San Pedro and I see this museum on my left, a one store rock stone building with a high ceiling. I go inside, at the entrance the photographs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with a note on the wall signed by himself. He is telling the story of this building, with that style of him, as if he’s telling the destiny of a person. When he was a young journalist spending his nights in a state of ‘insomnia’, they used to come here late at night early in...

He is also the founders of this Museum of Modern Art. I am so happy to know him and see these extraordinary sculptures. He was born in Panama (1920-2004), yet he is accepted as an artist from Cartagena. Both in his sculptures and in his paintings you can see the women of Cartagena: strong, yet emotional. A girl listening to gramophone, a woman with her ‘robe de chambre’ holding a phone, a couple dancing valse, a fortune teller holding a tarot card; all real characters and real moments. His...

It takes its name from the church that covers one side of the square. Most of the visitors will remember the Botero sculpture in front of the church, a naked lady in horizontal position with one arm behind her head. The church has a beautiful soft yellow-orange colour that reminds me the churches of Mexican colonial cities, they look as if less darker than the ones in Europe. I go inside and spend some time to enjoy the details of this beautiful architecture. The yellow white corridors, the...

Indeed, a city walk in this little old town can be made in one day, but I recommend you to walk slowly and enjoy every detail and take your time. As you leave behind the Santo Domingo Square and take the street Calle de la Factoria and walk towards the sea you, and turn right at the end of the street you fill see a beautiful building. This elegant building which looks like a pink-white pearl here at the corner of Cartagena’s walls was once a church; it was the Church of La Merced. Built in...

Every one calls this place Plaza de Madrid. If you read the sign on the corner you learn that it is called Plaza Fernandez de Madrid. Long before it was called the wells square, the women slaves used to come here carrying jugs on their shoulders to take water. It is a big square, a park-square actually, like Plaza de Bolivar. It is surrounded by cafés, restaurants, houses, bars. You need to take the right as you enter the old town from the Clock Tower to reach here. My purpose is to find...

I just left behind the white-pink Theatre of Heredia and walk through the street of Carrera 4, without knowing where I am going to; that’s good! Because I arrive at this corner and see a café looking right at the crossroad, with a little terrace where I see two tables. As I go inside I realise that it’s also a bookstore, with books climbing to the ceiling. A heaven! Before I go inside I start having a talk with another traveler, so I sit and have a coffee with him, then a lady next to us...

So tells Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his note at the entrance of the Modern Art Museum of Cartagena. The doors, in this little Caribbean town, have a destiny like people do. You see one of them as a gate of a house, a year later, it is the from door of a hair dresser. The one which opens the most elegant palace in Cartagena, for example, the Palace of Inquisition, never tells you that you are going inside a building where people were brutally killed. The doors of the Church, exceptionally...

The first place I saw when I arrived Cartagena, I’m staying in a little street by the square. You’ll always find a row of people sitting in front of the church, maybe a music band playing, or some workers cleaning the streets at 5 a.m. in the morning if you are waiting for your car to Santa Marta like me. Any time of the day the light and the shadow of the palm trees on the façade will get your attention.Plaza de la Trinidad, the Square of Trinity, in Getsemani had a major importance in...

I have counted days in Cartagena, and have no idea that I will go to the national park of Tayrona. But if something’s going to happen you cannot stop it! I arrive late at night in Cartagena and take a cab to the hotel, as we go along the coast we come close to the old town and turn left towards Getsemani, the streets are lively and though the clock shows 11 p.m. the Trinidad Square is full of people. The cab driver stops and shows me the narrow street on the left, ‘I cannot go into that road,...

Yes, it’s worth going to Machu Picchu! Once a place becomes iconic we may start to loose our interest, however, Peru is one of the richest countries in the world with its archeological heritage and you will learn many things both in an archeological site like Machu Picchu or in the corridors of a museum like Larco Museum in Lima or Pre-Colombus Art Museum in Cusco. Peru is one of the seven places in the world where ‘civilisation’ emerged (like Meso-America, Mesopotamia, Indus, China, etc.)....

When the Spanish arrived in Peru in pursuit of the gold they dreamed of, they hoped for two things: that the city named Biru, which was mentioned in the stories told by the first discoverers, actually existed and that they could find gold there. They arrived in this land on the northern shores of the continent and they did not encounter the Inca Empire they did not know about it then. That is because the Incas chose Cuzco as their capital city: The Inca Empire was a vast one, extending from...

The Incas had lost the war and Pizarro started to build his new city on the shores of the Pacific. The administrative policy at that time was to colonise the new lands by naming them a Viceroyalty of the Kingdom of Spain. According to official history in 1535 a city with a new name ‘Ciudad de los Reyes’, meaning the city of kings was founded. The name did not survive though. Lima comes from the indigenous word ‘rimaq’ that was the name of the river called by indigenous, meaning ‘that talks’....

If you are not in Miraflores, the city’s most chic, biggest and wealthiest and most touristic region of Lima on the shore, the city may seem to you like a place you would not spend time at except for business, an over-industrialized town which is aesthetically not very pleasing with its labyrinthine streets and commonplace buildings along the roads. However, there are areas which stand in contrast with the general look of the city and Barranca is one of them. I don’t quite remember how I got...

Peru is one of the seven places in the world where the first civilisations were founded. Most of us are only familiar with the Incas, the great civilisation the Spanish encountered when they came here. Actually the Inca Empire survived in the last 100-150 years of the 10,000 years-long civilisation history in this land. Countless other civilisations had existed here before they reigned, and they left behind perfect examples of pottery which have been preserved in perfect condition until today...

If you are used to living in a city at sea level like me, you will be stunned when you arrive in Cuzco. Having difficulty walking, breathing and moving at an elevation of 3500 meters, you will realise everything changes when living conditions change…Cuzco was the capitol city of the Inca civilisation. The Spanish did not know about this city because they shored to the northern beaches of the contemporary Peru; in the course of the invasion, the Spanish travelled to the south and settled in...

If you really want to learn things, you need to walk into side alleys. This museum is hidden like a treasure in the side alleys of the old town of Cuzco. It is similar to the Larco Museum in Lima. The ceramic works which tell the story of thousand years are exhibited in the halls devoted to the Nascas, the Mochicas, the Huaris, the Chancay, and the Incas. Could the mystery of old times be hidden inside these ceramic vessels? The jugs with animal heads, bottles in the form of human figurines,...

Two important temples in Cuzco, the first one is the temple built by Incas, the Quri Kancha Temple, the second one is the cathedral right at the square.Quri Kancha temple, or the Into Mancha temple, The Sun Temple, is the temple of the Inkas built before the colonial era. The floors and the ceilings were covered with gold before the Spanish took all of them. For Inkas, gold did not have an exchange value, or a material value, that’s why at first they agreed to give all the gold to the Spanish...

A page from history: we are at the Saqsaywaman Castle which is nothing but a pile of big stones in the middle of fields today. It took the Incas a while, but they finally realised that the aim of the Spanish was not simply to grab all the gold and leave, but to stay here and rule the country. First their gold was stolen, then their land, and finally their wives. They were at a loss as to what else they had to give up in order to lead honourable lives when an unexpected member of the dynasty,...

This is one of the most visited places in the world, advertised loudly by the words ‘see it before you die.’ A mountain in a forested valley is rising to the sky like a huge tent, with an alpaca in front of it which was probably added on Photoshop. Could it be a place a traveler who avoids clichés want to visit? …Located around 2500 meters above sea level, in the middle of the Andes, it is a city built with perfect masonry; it was hidden for years, and reachable only by foot in an age when...

Travellers who have visited Madrid and Spain often find themselves comparing these two cities. Barcelona, with its location by the sea, compact size, architecture, and atmosphere may receive more visitors than Madrid, but I will say the Capital is my favourite!First of all its old town: city’s most historical places are quite well preserved, the area from the big square Plaza Mayor until Atocha, with its narrow cobblestone streets, little squares, architecture, flamenco studios and tablaos,...

There is a crystal palace hidden inside Retiro Park. I have toured the park many times in the past but have never entered the palace. As I am approaching it, the colorful tiles covering the palaces’ walls are arousing my attention. The whole building is made of glass, including its roof. Although it is the middle of January, the trees dressed in autumn colors paint the palace in a red light through its windows. Two rectangles forming a cross. A palace of glass set in an iron framework,...

At the end of my three hours flight from Buenos Aires to el Calafate, from the window of the plane I see the first images of Patagonia: plain brown mountains with no trees, little lakes formed by melting of the snow, empty vast lands that seem endless, closer to our landing a huge turquoise blue lake that is just at the right handside of the airport.Known as the end of the world, Patagonia is a huge territory with mountains, fjords, lakes, glaciers at the end of the South American continent;...

When I was looking at the Nordenskjold Lake for the last time I knew that it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life. The lake takes its name from the Swedish geographer Nordenskjold, who did not only come here to Patagonia but also spent two years in Antarctica. The Torres del Paine National Park is open to public for about sixty years. It is cited as the eight wonder of the world.If you are not in Chile and you are traveling from Argentina, you will need to make a four hour...

After Antarctica and Greenland Patagonia is the third place on earth where most of the glaciers are found. They may have been there for thousands of years but the touristic access to them is relatively new. The National Park of Glaciers were founded in 1937. Both Perito Moreno and Upsala, Spagazzini glaciers are inside the frontiers of the park. Most visited one, the Perito Moreno is about 50 kilometres from the city of El Calafate.After an hour drive from the city you reach to the entrance...

Apart from Perito Moreno there are two other glaciers that are included in organised touristic tours; Upsala and Spagazzini are also located inside the Glacier Park and can be reached by boat. We start the boat trip on the Argentinian Lake, it takes a 4-5 hour trip to go and come back. These are comfortable tourist boats with both open and closed areas. As we pass the Devil’s throat and take the left turn we start seeing the little particles of icebergs on the water, we then reach to the...

When you think of Panama what comes to mind is of course the Panama Canal. During your visit you will hear it, see it, visit it, every where, it will almost seem to you that the country is identified with the Canal. Actually until 1903 Panama was a part of Colombia. French started the project in late 19th century and worked on it from 1880 to 1901, however they had to quit the project due to high mortality rates (more than thirty thousand workers died due to yellow fever) and costs. In 1903...

Let’s talk about the story of the Panama Canal. When you visit the Miraflores Locks you watch the passing of the vessels by the Canal, you also visit the Museum where various information are provided. French started the project in late 19th century and worked on it from 1880 to 1901, however they had to quit the project due to high mortality rates (more than thirty thousand workers died due to yellow fever) and costs. In 1903 the Americans started over again and finished it in eleven years....

Biomuseum is mostly known as the architectural piece by the famous Frank Gehry with its colourful appearance from the outside. It has lots of valuable information about how Panama geographically changed the world. I recommend you to buy a combined ticket for Miraflores Locks and Bio Museum and visit the two of them at once. You then will come to think how the millions of geographical formation was challenged by the man kind in only thirty years. Biodiversity Museum gives you well explained...

The old quarter dates back to 16th century when it was found as a base for expeditions to Inka Empire’s lands in search of gold. You will see many architectural styles: French, Antilles…some of them are being renovated. Two floor houses with colourful doors and wooden windows have balconies on second floor with fer-forge bars and pink bougainvilleas hang down the street. They make the old quarter so picturesque and give the perspective so that you stop every corner and admire it as an artwork...

Yürürken rastladığımız mekanlardan bazı tavsiyeler… Panama’nın eski şehrinde çok fazla otel yok, olan bir-iki tanesi ise renove edilmiş eski binaların ihtişamını taşıyan oteller; American Ticaret Oteli Herrera Meydanı'na bakan beyaz şık bir bina, içinde ünlü caz müzisyeni Daniel Perez’in bir caz barı var ve neredeyse her akşam canlı performanslar gerçekleşiyor. Bir diğer otel Bağımsızlık Meydanı’ndaki Central otel. Bu otellerde kalmasınız bile lobilerine girip havasını almanız tavsiye edilir…...

For me it was a discovery. I was at one of the top floors of the Museum of Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, famous with its collection, including Guernica.At one of the walls I see this painting where four women who look extremely real but also surreal at the same time, one of them is reading, another one smoking, one of them looks at us right in the eye, they look as if they are in a room or somewhere that can be anywhere, they look strong and lonely at the same time, the painting has something...

Sublime, indescribably beautiful. Millions of colours, living beings, under and above the waters, colours you cannot even name, a silhouette made of thousands of islands that raise like giant black mountains on the water, a green that you will never see it anywhere else, a gentle breeze of tropical weather, a place you wish the time could be frozen… El Nido is situated at the north of the island of Palawan, one of the thousands of islands in the Philippines. It chosen by travellers as the...

The legendary jet-set destination of the 80s, the ‘Marvellous City’ Rio de Janeiro may be far from its virgin state when the Portuguese arrived at Guanabara Bay in 15th century and thinking that they have arrived to a river mouth on a January day and called the city The River of January, but it still is, in my opinion, one of the top three most beautiful cities in the world. During my first visit to the city I remember myself looking with eyes wide open from the Sugar Loaf Mountain and trying...

We are on the seaside of the old town: a long bridge across connects two continents. This is Praça Mauá, the Mauá Square and the building which looks like a metal ship about to sail away to the sea is the Museum of Tomorrow. It bears the signature of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (the architect of New York's Oculus). While designing the museum, he was inspired by the bromeliad plants in the botanical garden located in the south of the city.Walking in the museum, I feel like I am...

Rio’s old city, ‘Centro’ is the city center. All the historical buildings of the old city are here. The cobblestones of black and white stone along the beaches are the same. The business centers which are packed in the daytime turn into desolate streets where you cannot come across anybody at night.One night I chanced upon a flamenco troop from Spain performing a show called Carmen at Teatro Municipal. If we imagine the cultural life here which was more vibrant in the second half of 19th...

In a young country like Brazil, one doesn’t run into historical buildings very often so it feels so nice to stop at this café, in the heart of the old town in Rio de Janeiro. With its high ceilings, big mirrors on all walls, you feel the 19th century colonial atmosphere. We enjoy sitting here so much that our short coffee break takes longer. We watch the crowd, mostly tourists having their coffee and the special Portuguese Belem pastels, asking waiters to take a picture of them, we enjoy the...

Iguazu Waterfalls, located both on Brazilian and Argentina land, is one of the biggest and most magnificent natural formations in the world ensuring that one will spend some time exploring both countries.Since the greatest part of the waterfall lies on Argentina’s soil, the view from the Brazilian side is more beautiful; you can see it from a wider point of view and you can admire most of the waterfalls directly across from them like a painting. Nevertheless you are closer to the water on the...

Iguazu falls, which are expanded on Argentinian and Brazilian lands have another attraction worth seeing; when you are in the Brazilian side, right across the main entrance you’ll see the big, wonderful bird park.Parque das Aves hosts hundreds of bird species, here we see some of them:‘tachãs’, these black and white elegant birds with a ;broom like head scream so loud that they can be heard from two kilometers away, therefore called ‘screamer’ in English. They have a special spur on each arm...

The Costa Verde Region, which is called the Green Shore, encompasses the parts of the Rio de Janerio State from Itaguai to Santos. The ‘green’ part is named after the forested mountains which run parallel to the Atlantic Ocean.The buses which depart from Rio arrive in Paraty in five hours, taking the shore road and passing through Mangaratiba, Conceição de Jacarei, and Angra dos Reis. One of the old colonial towns, Paraty is an old port city which was built in the 16th century to load onto...

I have seen the paintings of Beatrix Milhaez for the first time at the Modern Art Malba Museum in Buenos Aires. The family of the painter with Rio origins was from Paraty: I came across this exhibition which is as small as this town. It is called 'A Graphic Journey'.Although the paintings of the artists known in the global art circles are defined as abstract, they are like the tropical paintings of this tropical country: colorful, vivid circles multiplied in different colors and sizes (Are we...

Every first visitor to Rio de Janeiro goes directly to two of its most important places: The Corcovado where stands the famous Jesus who embraces the whole city, and Pão de Açucar, the Sugarloaf mountain, both of them definitely worth visiting. The Sugarloaf Mountain takes its name from its similarity to the sugar forms exported during the colonial era. It is the mountain which you see behind the Copacabana beach, and has become iconic, such as the Corcovado. In front of it the Guanabara bay...

One of the most pleasant ways to spend time in Madrid is to stroll through the streets of the old town. You can make couple of itineraries and take a different street each time.I take one of the side streets from Gran Via and go down to Plaza Puerta del Sol, the Sun Gate Square. I turn right and start my walk to the direction of the Imperial Palace. This street, Calle del Arenal, has been turned into a pedestrian street and it’s lined up with shops on both sides, as street ends I reach to...

Another route would be from Plaza Mayor to Atocha Station and from Atocha to Cibeles Square.I start again from Gran Via, walk down to Sol and cross the square, one of the streets, Calle de Carretas, I usually climb that one to reach to Atocha Street, because at the corner there’s a famous ‘churrascaría’, the hot fried pastry that you eat with hot chocolate. If you go right you will reach Plaza Mayor again, so this time I turn left and start walking towards the Atocha Railway Station. This...

Following our self-guided walks in Madrid’s old town which is called ‘casco antigua’ around Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Santa Ana, this time we are at the opposite side of Gran Via.Starting from the street in front of the Gran Via metro station, Calle Hortaleza, we go to the neighbourhood of Chueca. This was a bohemian neighbourhood known with its gay community once, but as the streets are turned into pedestrian shopping attractions it also lost a bit of its hippie atmosphere. It is always...

The capital city of Madrid is symbolized with this square, every march would start at this point: The Cibeles Square, with its white marble statues draws a circle. We see the red and orange color Spanish flag. At one side of the square stands the Cibeles Palace, today the Communication Palace, also a public art space. If you enter the building and climb to the terrace you’ll have a wonderful view of the city. It’s nice to see the ‘Refugees Welcome’ poster at the top… The square is where the...

Antônio Francisco Lisboa, or shortly Aleijadinho, was born in Ouro Preto and lived there all his life. He was a sculptor, architect, and a wooden carver, a master of all these arts. The city of Our Preto, the colonial gem in the state of Minas Gerais, a Unesco world heritage city, hosts many of his works. One of his most famous work is the Church of São Francisco de Assis (though attributed to him, there’s no official document proving that it was made by him, he had somewhat mysterious life)...

I had never heard of Inhotim. One of the days I watched an interview on CNN International, which was about Brazil’s most affluent citizen’s project of building a large park in a vast wooded area that would house modern art pieces. He was a mining tycoon, Bernardo de Mello Paz. He started to buy lands in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brumadinho where the Institute of Inhotim is located. From mid 1980s to 2000s the dream-idea to build a huge park where several art works belonging to artists...

If you think you have spent enough time in Rio’s old town and on its famous beaches that line up along the shore, you may try travelling to the other side of the city and admiring it from there, which would give you the opportunity to visit one of the marks Oscar Niemeyer, the legendary architect, left behind in his country.Many inhabitants of Rio commute on this route to go to work in the morning and get back home in the evening; we take a ferry that departs from the port in the old town and...

Leo Trotsky is one of the prominent figures of the Soviet Revolution. He was deported both from the party and the country due to his opposition during the Stalin period. Before his exile years in Mexico, he lived in Istanbul for four years. We are now at his house on Buyukada shore, the house in the photograph with only its walls standing. Passing by the ruined walls, we are taking a path to the seaside, skipping over the thistles that overrun the place. Dazzlingly white statues placed on...

One of the exhibition sites of the biennale was Rumelifeneri which is located at the end of the Bosphorus where the Marmara Sea meets the Black Sea. To be honest we did not know what to expect; we were supposed to cross the sea by a boat but we had no idea if we would land on the shore or just view it from a distance. The Bosphorus came to an end and we passed by the third bridge which is under construction when finally the light house appeared to the left on the European side. We are getting...

Just as with every biennale, in this biennale too they attempted to make a connection between places and art works exhibited there. The work of the Vietnamese artist Nguyen Huy An too has a connection with this place; it is the office of Agos , the weekly newspaper of the Armenian community in Turkey, and also the headquarters of a cultural organization named after the Armenian journalist who was killed recently. The hearts of everybody in Turkey, not only the Armenian community, went out for...

A line of people in front of the Crystal Palace inside the Retiro Park in Madrid, they are waiting to see an installation signed by the Colombian contemporary artist Doris Salcedo ‘Palimpsesto’. As we are approaching the entrance we see people inside the Palace looking down on the ground and wonder what we are going to see, we put the shoe covers and go inside.A floor that look like sand, a yellowish colour with sand particles that have become harder to make a platform, letters that are made...

When you leave the Arte Reina Sofia Museum behind and walk to the main avenue of Prado Passage, you will see right in from of you the entrance of Atocha Train Station. A nice brown building from the outside it has a tropical botanic garden inside and is one of the most beautiful train stations in the world. A tragic event occurred here on March 11, 2004, here, at this beautiful station, in the morning when many people were going to work, ten synchronized bombs exploded and 191 people died. It...

Manaus is the capital city of the state of Amazonas, one of the twenty seven states of Brazil. It takes its name from the indigenous people of Manus. Its nick name is the ‘Paris of the Tropics’ due to the beautiful Amazones Theatre built at the end of the 19th century during the rubber rush era.It is relatively isolated from other parts of the country, from Sao Paulo it takes a 3,5-4 hours flight to reach here, you can book direct flights from Manaus to Fortaleza and Brasilia but to other...

The Amazones Theatre is the symbol of Manaus! It was built in late 19th century during the economic boom, a perfect example of European architecture and the renaissance style in the middle of the jungle! It is cited among the top ten opera houses of the world and celebrated its 120th anniversary last year in 2016.The theatre was built in fifteen years and most of the materials used in the construction were brought from Europe: the marble used in stairs and sculptures and the glass used in...

The biggest tropical rain forest on earth, the Amazones have two seasons basically. However, they are not dry and rainy seasons; the rain falls throughout the year. There are two seasons: rainy season and not-so rainy season. From November to May the rainfall is higher, they tell me this year in 2017 it is even higher than the average. While a great number of tourists prefer to visit the region from June to September to enjoy the jungle more, I am here in April and witness heavy rainfalls in...

The biggest of the family of the water lilies, they can reach up to two and a half meters in size. They were born here, at the shallow waters of the Amazon rivers; were then taken to other parts of the world such as England, Australia. The British gave the name of the queen Victoria, but the locals name it differently: irupe, aguape,… The leaves remain alive for almost two months, we see the newly born leaves, the ones that are dying. Their roots under the water give way to the ones aho are...

At the centre of the old town of Manaus, on the corner of the São Sebastian Square, you will see this little museum; it is the Museum of the Amazones, MUSA, a small place with exhibitions, seminars, handicraft made by the locals.When I visited the museum there was an exhibition of Feliciano Lana with his paintings telling an Amazon story ‘The Devil with no ass, the origen of Sarapó’.The indians in the Amazon region may have not left a written culture but many anthropologies coming here for...

An unforgettable memory! I am at the second terminal of the airport in Manaus, this is a smaller terminal where you find mainly the offices of the Air Taxi companies. The Amazones is so big and expanded on the rivers that to some places it takes hours to reach by boat; so air transportation is highly demanded! As they take me out to the runway I see lots of little commercial airplanes, two pilots introduce themselves to me: ‘Eu sou commandant do vôo’, he says ‘I will be the pilot of this...

Although the rubber rush lasted only thirty years and the city lost its leading role in rubber commerce at the beginning of the 20th century, Manaus is still an important hub for naval commerce. The port of Manaus connects the city to all places in the Amazones and to the city of Belem in the north, from there to the Atlantic Ocean. Today many multinational companies prefer making business here due to the advantages of a duty free zone. The port of Manaus is a busy place: we see many cargo...

You need at least two weeks to visit these two countries; if you have more time you can include Laos and Thailand as well (Indochina is a big area indeed including Myanmar, Thailand, the Malaysian peninsula, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia).Your first stop in Vietnam will be either Saigon or Hanoi. You may find Hanoi historically more charming and Saigon a little tiring and humid. The ancient city of Hue and the little picturesque town of Hoi An will appeal more to your tastes if you are looking...

Saigon and Hanoi are two cities in Vietnam that symbolize the division between the south and the north of the country. Vietnam is a well-known country due to the recent war which the superpower U.S.A got involved in and inspired many Hollywood movies. Our imagination is filled with the images of chemical bombs striking down the civilian population, of traumas American soldiers suffered, of soldiers fighting in green fields and native people resisting.A cursory study of the country’s history...

The best thing to do in Hanoi is to take a tuktuk and do some sightseeing in slow motion. While the bicycle taxi is pedalling on his own rhythm you can sit and watch the city.We make a tour of the Temple of Literature, the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the Hoan Kiem Lake and the streets of old town. Known as the first university of Vietnam, this place is also a temple dedicated to Confucius, academicians, and scholars. It served as a university since the beginning of the 11th century until the...

It is hard to describe Halong Bay without the use of clichés. It is so impressive and gorgeous that your admiration never wears off no matter where you look at around here. You need to spend a night at Halong Bay, which is in a 4 hour drive from the capitol city Hanoi. They bay is bigger than we expected; it is speckled by around 5000 limestone isles which took 500 million years to form. Limestone, formed by the tropical wet climate in 20 million years, is the main building block of these...

The ancient capital of Vietnam Hue is where you feel the Chinese influence more, especially in the architecture. The old town, the Ancient Palace Complex, with its palaces from the Nguyen period, the tombs, pagodas, temples, are all in the Unesco Heritage List. The main tourist attractions are these palaces where the Nguyen Dynasty lived between the 17th and 19th centuries. The city is a standpoint between the North and the South, and the history tells us that the last king, supported by...

Hoi An and Hue attract visitors as two old cities on the shore line in the middle of Vietnam while the country coils up on the world map like a long serpent. An important port city between the 15th and 19th centuries, Hoi An in that period was the meeting point of Southeast Asian trade and an influential settlement due to its strategic significance. Today it is a magic place where one can admire the architecture of the period, walk in its old town which is under protection and closed to...

Though the official name is Ho Chi Minh City, the city is still often called Saigon. The climate is quite different from Hanoi, which we visit later on. Here it’s humid, hot and tiring. The streets are full of thousands of scooters, we cannot figure out how to cross a street, a total chaos it seems at first , but one can sense that there is a set of unwritten set of rules that everybody follows. We are passing through the shopping area, the five star hotels and international brands line up...

For many people Angkor Wat takes the top of the list of the most impressive journeys in a life time. It is hard to describe this experience by dishing out practical information; I think the main reason why it moves you deeply is because the temples are scattered deep in the jungle in numbers that seem never to end and you can be a part of this mystic atmosphere if you a ride a bicycle just as we did.Angkor is the world’s biggest constellation of temples that spreads out in the wilderness. ...

Angkor Wat has become a popular symbol which even made its way onto the Cambodian flag. It is considered to be the biggest temple in the world, and definitely the most well-preserved one among the other temples in the city of Angkor. Its structure was influenced first by the Hindu religion and then Buddhism.It was built as a temple and eventually the final resting place of King Suryavarman the Second. You enter the temple over a bridge spanning the river, and walk through a courtyard...

We left behind Angkor Wat. We keep pedaling. The series of statues on the bridge we will pass over in a few kilometers herald another ancient settlement. Angkor Thom is the last Khmer Empire city and it has the longest history of settlement. Back in its glorious days it was a city where more than a hundred thousand people lived. It was abandoned in the 16th century. It is the first big edifice you would see when you enter Angkor Thom. After parking our bicycles, we are approaching the city,...

This temple is one of the places featured most frequently in the visual materials about Angkor. This is because Buddha visages in varying sizes cover the façades of the temple. It is impossible not to notice a Buddha face wherever you look. The temple is darker in color than others and was built in the Baroque style.It was built by the order of the King Jayavarman the Seventh who adopted Mahayana Buddhism in the 13th century and it is the last of the temples built by the king in Angkor. More...

The unique atmosphere of the temple is mostly created by the centuries old trees that creep up the walls, with roots that have become one with the walls, gigantic trees that seemingly conquered the temple, looking like exotic living beings. The place is designed both as a temple and a monastery; unlike other temples designed as pyramids or towers that look like trees, Ta Prohm has straight lines. We are passing through one yard after another and it feels like we are walking in a jungle rather...

This is a Hindu temple dedicated to the God Shiva, some way outside the city. You need to drive in order to get there. Its details are interesting. We encounter the best of mason crafting here. The temple gets its color from the red sandstone used in its construction. Its original name refers to Shiva, the God of the triple world, but it is called today the Castle of Women or the Castle of Beauty; it received this name on the account of the engravings on the walls which are the expression of...

Destinations like Spain, Italy or France may be on top of the list, however in Europe we go for Portugal! The main reason is its melancholic beauty; it may sound like a cliché however there’s something sad and reserved about this beauty.First of all, Lisbon is a city that appeals to your aesthetic senses, its being founded on hills gives her a beautiful perspective, the well preserved old city of Alfama, with its cobble stone narrow streets to ceramic walled houses is elegant. You may spend...

Numerous red tile roofs under the sky, roofs large or small, short or tall; trams which go up and down the hill, and the ripple of a river seen through the canopy of these roofs. Alfama, which comes from the word “al hammam” in Arabic, is the name of the old town in Lisbon. It is a medieval place that was built in a valley between São Jorge Castle and the Tejo River. It was the residence of the monarchy until the 16th century and is a city which has existed since the Arabic reign. You may...

Portugal has always had a distinguishing interest in discovery and journeys to the unknown. Underlying the power which this small country attained in the 15th and 16th centuries was this curiosity. This is also why Lisbon is called a melancholic city. People who sailed to undiscovered places departed from here: the city has a melancholic aura due to the numerous stories of those who sailed away, but never returned. The sound of Fado songs echoing in the city expresses the longing for the ones...

A nice place to visit just about an hour away from Lisbon. Cabo de Roca is the place where the old world ends and the new world begins. Located on top of the hill by the ocean it shouts in your face that Europe, the old continent, now comes to an end and that another world begins onwards with an enormous ocean: herein the Europe ends and we are now in the spot where the Atlantic Ocean begins.We then leave the farthest Western point of Europe and heading to Sintra, this road is like a movie...

We were meant to go to Evora. Our days in Portugal, without plans, schedules or lists ended; we spent them as we liked, without calculating the hours or days and there was no time left to visit Evora which we were planning to see. The day we would check out the hotel, with luggage in our hands, the phone rang; it was the airline calling us to inform that the flight was cancelled due to heavy snow in Istanbul, and we were staying one more night! We went straightly to the bus station and took...

The strategic location of this Portuguese city which was built over the Douro River helped its development. Porto, which means ‘port’ in Portuguese, had played a significant role in trade. In the 14th century, the close relationship between the Portuguese and the British royal families was strengthened by a marriage that led to a military alliance. In the 18th century, the United Kingdom sought to monopolise the wine production in Porto after a disagreement with France. Perhaps winemaking...

In Porto, this “house of music” in word-for-word translation, is the biggest concert hall which is now a symbol of the city. It was designed by the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhas: It looks like an enormous diamond gem dropped out of space... When we visited this building that can also be toured with a tourist guide, we saw the orchestra through the sound-proof glass, but we did not hear anything at all. These auditoriums which have perfect acoustics are the home of the orchestras of the...

If you visit Belem to see the famous abbey and the statue of the explorers, you might as well tour the Berardo Museum; you will find a collection there that is mostly dedicated to contemporary art. It is also possible to view American and European pieces of some famous artists like Duchamp and Magritte… The collection belongs to the Portuguese collector José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo who is the namesake of the museum. We find out that as expected, every collector makes a fortune in the mining...

One of the museums in Lisbon that you can visit has a story which has a connection to our home country. The Gulbenkian Museum is a small cultural center which contains predominantly ancient art works in a building located in a big park. It has auditoriums, a library, and a conference hall. It has an architecture style like those in communist countries.The museum hosts nearly more than 1000 art pieces; from Ancient Greek and Roman pieces, the Near Eastern-Eygptian, Mesopotomian, Armenian, and...

Both in Lisbon and Porto in the old town most of the buildings are covered with ceramics, these are painted stones that cover both the exteriors and interiors of the buildings, and apart from decoration purposes, also serve for controlling the temperature. The Portuguese took this technique from the Arabs (the word ‘zellige’ in Arabic is used to define this technique), the Arabs took it from the Romans. In Spain, especially in Andalusia, in places where the Arab heritage is well preserved...

The island of Bali, one of the more than 18.000 islands that make Indonesia, is made of coastal and mountain towns; where you can divide your stay do experience quite different activities. The island offers high-end resorts, yoga and retreat centres, surf schools, Hindu temples.Ubud is located at the interior part of the island among the mountains. Its quiet and tranquil air makes one fall in love with it at first sight. It takes more than an hour to get to Ubud from Denpasar Airport. The...

The rock formation on this beach in Tanah Lot definitely makes the atmosphere of this place; as you walk on black rocks on the beach you feel the water under your feet, a gentle breeze comes from the ocean, the temple just stands on the big rock by the sea. The Hindu temple on the rock was built in the 16th century and was dedicated to the sea gods. According to Balinese mythology it is also protected by the sea snakes under the temple. The Pura Tanah Lot Temple has always visitors, mostly at...

A place taken out from the postcards. In Tegallalang green rice terraces follow one another. It’s raining but we don’t mind getting wet.We then continue to Bali Bird Park in Ubud which hosts more than 250 bird species. My favourite one is the Australian pelican, black and white coloured they are known as the bird with the longest beak, some of them may have a 50cm beak! They are also called the ‘traveler’ bird as they are able to fly for 24 hours, and can travel from one ocean to the other....

This is Ubud’s first museum: Puri Lukisan Museum is located right at the heart of Ubud centre and is a beautiful place inside a wonderful garden. It has a rich collection of the Balinese art. The real gem is the work of Gusti Nyoman Lempad. He was born in the second half of the 1800s in a village in Bali. Being a multi talented person he becomes a master in painting, wooden carving, architecture and other forms of art. As he meets the Western painting he starts using black ink on paper. His...

While you are walking in the streets of and pass by the little narrow wooden doors of houses, schools, temples, etc. you will often see these two things: 1.‘Om Swastiastu’, this is the greeting word in Balinese culture. 2. the symbol of Swastika similar to gammadion cross. It’s the ancient symbol originated in the Indian subcontinents that is used to bring auspiciousness. It also represents the continuity of the cosmos… There’s a way to run away from the tourist crowds in Ubud, it’s right at...

The island of Bali is quite big; it is geographically impressive in the sense that in the same day you can watch the sunrise on the top of a volcanic mountain, and at the very same day watch the sun set on a beach looking at the horizon while listening to the sound of the ocean; it touches all your senses.The interior part of the island is made of rice fields, volcanic mountains, green valleys; the coasts are both made of beaches where big waves are always at the disposal of surf lovers or...

It’s three a.m. in the morning and it’s still dark. I am on a bus with other three tourists, one Italian, one Croatian, one American Indian and me, one Turkish; we are laughing ourselves as we feel as if we are inside a joke. We are going to Borobudur Temple to watch the sun rise, although it’s cloudy and we know we will not get a clear view of the sun rise, we are hurrying to get there before the day begins.Borobudur Temple is about an hour drive from Yogyakarta city centre, it is known as...

After visiting the Buddhist Temple of Borobudur we head to Prambanan Temples. 50 years younger than Borobudur and a Hindu temple, they are dedicated to the trinity of Hindu Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the creator, sustainer and the destroyer.Here, as in Borobudur, three areas circle one another, this time three squares, the third, most sacred one dedicated to gods is where the main temples are located, 16 main temples with 3 main temples dedicated to three gods. The square that surrounds...

If the Greeks have Odyssey and Iliada, the Indians have Ramayana and Mahabharata.The exterior walls of the main temple in Prambanan are covered with replicas from the epic Ramayana, the story of the Prince of Rama. One of the three main gods in Hinduism, Vishnu is reincarnated in Rama, a god/prince, who is sent exile- such as in Odyssey there’s a story of journey. The journey of Rama, his brother and his fiancée and their exile which lasts years are finalised with a victory. Some of the main...

Yogyakarta is the centre of the island of Java, the locals call it shortly Yogya. It is known as the cultural capital of Indonesia due to Borobudur and Prambanan temples. Some tips to spend a day in the street: take a bacek, the little transportation bikes similar to tuktuks, where you sit in the front and the driver is at the back, either on motorcycle or bicycle. Go out early in the morning when it’s cooler and watch the Yogya people in their daily routines. As you go along the streets with...

Taman Sari is a complex of Palaces with pools from mid-18th century, the era of Sultanate of Yogyakarta. It is located very close to Kraton Palace. At the entrance you will meet the tour guides who are dying to offer you their service. Let’s take one and support the economy! Although his explanations are like ‘My dear Sultan used to have fun here at this pool with his third wife, my Sultan used to play at this another pool…’ it’s always good to have a company of a local… The Palace complex...

In today’s world, even the possibility of a place where one will not see the same brands, the same cafés, the same hotel chains make the traveler curious. So I was one of them who went to Cuba to see it before the wind of change, already started to move things, got stronger. I arrive in Havana on a December morning the first impressions: a hot air without an A/C at the airport, officers who check your passport looking with eyes as if asking ‘What the hell these people come here?’; they look...

This is the oldest square of Havana, dating back to the construction of the city in 1520. There used to be a church in this area which is today occupied by Palacio de las Capitanes Generales. The square has a lot of bookstores. Postcards of Che and Castro one can come across everywhere; in the centre of the square, a marble statue of Céspedes, the figure who started the independence movement. The square offers a view of the shore down the road; you can also take a side alley that leads to...

The Cuban Revolution of 1959: it is a landmark in the history of every place here which has a ‘before’ and ‘after.’ This was the parliament house until the revolution: the place where the government ruled the country until then. But was there a country then after all? Or more precisely, was there a Cuban identity then? This building which was inspired by the Pantheon in Paris is a perfect replica of the one in Washington, but its architecture is even richer. The money from the exploitation of...

After visiting Capitolium, we continue our journey to re-live the grandeur of the pre-revolution Cuba. We are in the Museum of the Revolution which used to be the Presidential Palace. Its construction took 7 years between 1923 and 1930, and its interior decoration was undertaken by Tiffany of New York. Today it is the Museum of the Revolution: the exhibition, starting on the top floor, of Cuban history, from the pre-revolutionary period to the revolution, the blood-stained uniforms Che...

You have strolled through the streets of old town. Would you like to view this city now from the other side? Take a tuk-tuk to travel to the Castle of La Cabaña: from the old town, this place looks like an area enclosed by walls, but when you enter it, you find yourself in an area larger than you expect. It was built by the Spanish in the 18th century, out of the fear and anxiety of the British troops which took over the city briefly. It was ranked the second biggest military fortification...

Plaza Vieja, which means ‘Old Square’ in Spanish was originally named ‘New Square’ when it was built, because the city’s oldest square, Plaza de las Armas predates it. Plaza Vieja was used for formal celebrations for a while, and then served as a market place. Today it is still the best-preserved looking among the squares in Havana and it is on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. After the old town changed with a series of renovations, it is now second to none among European squares. The...

One of the five squares in the old town of Havana, and the one that was built last is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of them. As soon as you reach there you notice how beautiful and elegant it is and you feel like you want to spend more time there.At one side is the Cathedral, a fine example of 18th century Cuban Baroque. The other three sides of the square are surrounded with houses of the 18th century Cuban aristocracy. One of the most picturesque is the Casa Bayona, a stone two floor...

You arrive in the most peaceful place you will ever see two hours distance from Havana. This is the state of Pinar del Rio: the mountain tops here were flattened due to the limestone erosion and there are caves in most of them which you can visit taking a boat tour. These lands are also the place where the best cigar tobacco plant grows due to its climate: it is a part of the tourist package to visit tobacco factories and watch the Cuban girls sitting in a line and rolling cigars. Famous for...

Cienfuegos is the only city in Cuba built by the French: it is a coastal city where the streets are larger than those in older cities. There are colorful houses along the roads, their terraces facing the road; a Malecón on the seaside, similar to the one in Havana; shabby ships; at the square called the New Town, Thomas Terry Theater with its squealing wooden seats; people forming a queue in front of a cart, which is a shuttle that departs when it is full; peddlers who carry bunches of garlic...

After Havana Trinidad is the most impressing city in Cuba. Much more smaller and touristic, this is a Spanish colonial city founded in the 16th century: it thrived on the trade of sugar cane and it is one of the best-preserved old cities in the Caribbean area. Its streets are colourful: losing one’s bearing in its stone streets, looking back and watching different reflections of the same places in sunlight, desiring to get lost in here, that is what you experience in Trinidad. As in the rest...

What comes to your mind when they say California? Sunny days, surfers, celebrity houses, people driving fast their big cars with looking attractive with blond hair and blue eyes, shortlyan imaginary place in our heads created by Hollywood movies.So when we were in a fast food restaurant in San Francisco on our first night after a 15 hour flight, surrounded by Asians, we were quite surprised; in fact California is one of the places in the world with the highest number of Asian immigrants...

If time is not an issue for you you can choose the slower option and explore California by train; there are two wonderful train routes; the Amtrak Starlight Train and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train. We took the first one to travel from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and the secon one to go down to San Diego.We had no intention to travel by train in America. Given the distance between the cities, the rule of cars over the whole country and cheap and frequent flights, we were so prejudiced...

Just about one and a half hour drive from Rio, inside the mountains there’s a nice place to spend the weekend. It also has a significant place in Brazil’s colonial history. The story of Petrópolis’ ‘discovery’: during the reign of Portuguese Kings in Brazil when Rio was still the capitol city, King Pedro II. and his family set out on a journey to the mountains and discovering that this region has high altitude, less humidity, and a cool and relaxing climate, they decided to found a settlement...

In the area 70 kms. from Rio and behind the wooded mountains is an imperial city: Petrópolis, which means Emperor Pedro’s city, captivated the royal family with its great climate and became an imperial city with a summer imperial palace in the 19th century. This city, which later on also attracted artists and intellectuals, still bears the traces of two surprising life stories.Dumont who developed winged airplanes which were the first prototypes of modern light air craft was the son of a...

Before heading to Ouro Preto a morning walk in town. Belo Horizonte, meaning beautiful horizon in Portuguese, is the capital city of the State of Minas Gerais.Its significance comes from the fact that the precious metals, most important of them gold, was founded in their region during the Colonial period. Today, it is the fourth biggest city, in terms of income, after São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and the capital city of Brasilia. It is also important in the political history of Brazil since the...

When Portuguese sailors arrived in Porto Seguro in 1500, they probably did not know that it was the first land in Brazil touched by these discoverers, unaware that this place extending as far as the eye can see would be one of their colonies. Yes, Porto Seguro actually means safe port and that is why their ships might have shored up here. Indeed the Atlantic Ocean in this area turns into a long strip of calm water.This area, now in the south corner of Bahia state, is called ‘costa de...

Located at the ‘Prado Walk’ with the other two museums, Prado and Arte Reina Sofia, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum has a large collection from 13th century to the 20th century painting; a personal collection of Thyssen family.As you begin your visit you’ll see first the paintings with religious themes. Here we see the Evangelists one by one: San Mateo, San Marcos, San Lucas, San Juan… We are passing to the hall of Portraits, the two of them that we see in the pictures, one that calls our attention...

Where did art come from? Why does art exist? Prado Museum selects 137 art works in its collection and tells you a story so that you can think about these questions. Beginning from the Middle Ages and finalizing in 1819, the year when the museum was founded, you make a journey through certain themes: religion, mythology, portraits, art collectors…We start with the religious themes, El Greco’s painting named ‘the Veil of Veronica’, the face of Jesus on a cloth, an iconographic motif that became...

This is the shore line with stone jetties which starts from Old Havana and goes on for 8 kilometres to the modern neighbourhood of Vedado. The city folk come here at dusk to end the day. Although it is an ‘egalitarian’ country, obviously people from the lower strata of the society gather here. The houses on the other side of the road looking over the ocean look shabbier than the buildings in the town which were renovated and look better now. This place has an intrinsic sad and poetic quality...

Leaving San Francisco in the morning , after almost eight hours along the Pacific shores the night falls and we arrive in this quiet place which looks like the summer and weekend resort of the upper middle class Americans. It feels like a place where life is always beautiful, with people, devoid of hurry, walking quietly along the shore. And during the entire trip to California we are at our happiest in Santa Barbara. Cycling along the coastline, enjoying the view of town at the terrace of...

We are heading north this time: The Pacific Ocean is on our left and the sun is setting. The sunset takes so long that we had a chance to watch every hue of red and orange until satisfied. When we arrive in Los Angeles, it is getting dark. We are there in a huge metropolis, at the main train station called Union Square. We are getting off the train just like everybody else to enter the big city but we have no idea what we are going to do next. Everybody told us that Los Angeles is a city...

Los Angeles is always sunny. The surfers who are waiting for waves at the early hours of the morning before anyone wakes up look like tiny penguins in the open waters of Venice Beach. On the way to Santa Monica tattooed street performers, peddlers, skateboarders, cyclists, all people are moving around. We are leaving Venice Beach where subcultures somewhat prevail, and arriving in Santa Monica which is more posh. It reminds me of Rio with its line of apartments along the long shore of the...

Another collector: the lives of collectors could be as interesting as the lives of artists. The American millionaire, born on April, 15, 1892, was an oil tycoon who exhibited the art collection he brought together throughout his life at his villa on the Malibu beach and at Getty Museum. Important pieces from ancient Greece, and the Roman and Etruscan civilisations at villa with a big garden and a bird’s eye view of the serpentine roads of Los Angeles.Infact there are two Getty Centres in Los...

One of the features which beautify San Francisco are its hills which are very steep but do not pose a challenge for somebody from Istanbul. The perspective the hills bestow on the city, the joy of looking back, and watching the city from a different point of view… We are staying at the heart of the city, in Union Square which has a great location, it reminds us of Wall Street district of New York, in fact everything seems similar to New York here in San Francisco, in a slower and calmer...

One of the features which beautify San Francisco are its hills which are very steep but do not pose a challenge for somebody from Istanbul. The perspective the hills bestow on the city, the joy of looking back, and watching the city from a different point of view.We are staying at the heart of the city, in Union Square which has a great location, it reminds us of Wall Street district of New York, in fact everything seems similar to New York here in San Francisco, in a slower and calmer rhythm...

Long before it was the birth place of the Silicon Valley and tech companies, San Francisco was the place the hippie counter- culture emerged. The influence of ’68 movements, the flower children, the beat culture, today’s modern city still has a bit of bohemian air.You may spend a morning in the Haight-Ashbury area to see the typical two flour Victorian style houses, now converted into boutique stores, record shops, etc. You may then go inside the Golden Gate Park, taking the same with the...

What is the best place to learn flamenco? If you exit the Anton Martin subway station in the old town of Madrid, cross the street and enter the side alley, you find yourself in a place which looks like a marketplace. If you walk in the two-storey square building, you will see a group of green groceries, cheese shops, and fish shops where the smells of the food sold here hang in the air. One cannot imagine that people perform art on the second floor of this place. While climbing up the stairs,...

“Salvador de Bahia de todos os Santos,” meaning the saint of all holy saviours in Portuguese, was established in the 16th century as a Portuguese colony and a port city. The city was settled on a hill and its uptown was the administrative and religious centre, was (and still is) connected by an elevator to the lower city, which was the locus of its trade.Salvador de Bahia had the honour of being the first capitol city of Brazil until 1763 when the capitol city was moved to Rio. Pelourinho,...

Zona Sul is the southern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the most touristic, famous, expensive part of the city since its glorious days of the 80s when the high society made it known to the world as the Marvellous City. Beaches right beneath the wild green mountains follow one another: Leme, Copacabana, Arpoador, Ipanema, Leblon.Each one black and white cobble stones, people jogging, cycling, skating day and night, wide yellow sand beaches with soccer, volleyball players all day, a kind...

Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is the leading literary festival of South East Asia. The 13th of the festival was held in October 2016, with a diverse mix of Indonesian and international writers, readers, editors, bloggers, activists and during four days people from around the world exchanged ideas, participated in seminars, watched movies, read poems. This year’s theme was ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, ‘I am you, you are me’, a rooted philosophy with its origins back in Upanishads wrote in Sanskrit more...

This year (2017) from September to December Bienalsur brings 350 artists and curators in 32 cities and 16 countries, taking Buenos Aires as its zero point. It defines itself the Biennial that draws its own cartography.It is the first days of November which is spring time in Buenos Aires, I arrive to the port where the Hotel Museum of the Immigrants is located, candle lights line the hallway spreading a delightful aroma to the air and as I climb the stairs to the third floor I hear music and a...

The capital city is also home to several political manifestations and plays an important role in the bloody history of Latin America. The May Square is the center of all political movements, since 1810 when Argentine gained her independence from Spain. This is where the sound of the people is heard, where the Mothers of the May Square insist to gather to recall their lost ones during the dirty war when the military regime took various people from their homes who never came back. At one side...

If we are to talk about sister neighbourhoods San Telmo reminds someone from Istanbul like me the Karakoy district in Istanbul, in terms of its development as an industrial zone then becoming a hip district. An industrial zone close to the port, it was the residence place of the workers, far from the city center. The bohemian bourgeois ‘discovers’ it and little by little, by new art galleries, antique shops, cafés become a popular, stylish, arty place among the middle classes.If you go there...

This is a great route; the street extends in a straight line and October here is the month jacaranda trees bloom in purple, month that smells like the warm pre-summer happiness. And this route goes through the Soho neighbourhood that has the most elite and cleanest streets and villas, the inside of which one can only imagine.The Japanese Garden is a replica of those gardens in Japan that has no single unpleasant feature. On the morning that started off with a Japanese Garden tour, you will...

One of the most beautiful neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires is Palermo; if you walk from the Japanese Garden toward the Recoleta District on the city’s most sought-after upscale street in October, just as I did, you would pass by chic buildings and make your way through trees that bloom in spring with purple flowers-it is another long, wide and straight street just like others that spin around the city. A short distance before the university buildings, you will see a futuristic, modern building...

Buenos Aires is one of the most European cities in Latin America. Built by Italian migrants, this city both resembles Paris with its long and wide streets and New York as an example of grid city planning; with its crisscrossing cobblestones and cafés on corners that lure you inside, it is a place where one can walk for hours. One of the places one should stop by while walking around cafés, bookstores, museums and parks with a big smile on one’s face is El Ateneo Bookstore. Having started...

Walking along the streets of La Candelaria is taking a history class about Colombia. La Pola, or with her full name Policarpa Salavarrieta. She was born in 26 February 1795 in Guaduas, was executed in 14 November 1817 in Bogota. This statue at the corner of a street by the Journalists Square (Plaza de los Periodistas) shows us who was La Palo, a prominent lady of the independence movement. She is one of the heroes of this fight. When she was 14 she joined the cry for independence; took an...

When we speak of ‘world cities’ such as Rio de Janeiro, suddenly we have an image in our minds: an iconic image of that city, in Rio’s case The Jesus Christ statue on the top of the mountain which opens his arms and embraces the whole city, or even the whole universe. It is a sublime view from Corcovado: the Atlantic Ocean, the hills covered with the greenest trees, the bays, the beaches which follow one another… Even the ‘favelas’, the shanty towns right behind the luxurious skyscrapers,...

Warm waters, a green-blue colour, natural pools inside the sea, coral reefs and the tide, these are some typical images from the Northeastern shores of Brazil. The capital city of Pernambuco state Recife is located about one hour drive from Porto de Galinhas. When you arrive at Recife airport as soon as you go out you will see travel agencies lined up one another selling tours and transfers, you can buy a shuttle service to reach to Porto de Galinhas.Once a fishing village, today it has...

Brazil has many examples of colonial beauty: Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais state, Salvador, the first capital of the country in the state of Bahia, Paraty in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and Olinda in the Northeast, the state of Pernambuco. As beautiful as the name is the old town of Olinda.Founded in 1554 by the Portuguese it is declared a world heritage site by Unesco. Many buildings you’ll see are from the seventeenth century which are built after the Dutch invasion of the city. Two floor...

The museums are the collective memory of a country/nation, the collective memory of Colombia is exhibited in Bogota’s National Museum. If you have fully visited the most important museum in town, the Gold Museum, the corridors of the National Museum are waiting for you. This time we start our walk at the Modern Art Museum.The entrance of the museum and the little square in front of it is followed by stairs coloured by an art work. French artist Daniel Buren’s work ‘From half circles to full...

The historical centre of Bogota, La Candelaria, is a place that looks like time stands still since the 16th century! Cobble stone streets, one floor houses painted in lively colours, a well preserved place where you’ll find museums, book stores, squares, parks, cafés, street performers, musicians.You may start your walk at the Bolivar Square, a big square surrounded by the Cathedral, the Palace of Justice and the Parliament. If you take the road at the corner that leads to the Presidential...

This is the place where Bogota was founded, shortly called ‘El Chorro’, the full name is Square of Chorro de Quevedo. From the time of the Muiscas, the people of pre-Colomb era, the city was extended from this point on. The city’s foundation is cited as 1538. The oldest street is right behind this square. The Embudo Street, Callejón del Embudo, a narrow cobblestone street with several graffiti paintings. If you rise your head you’ll also see the sculptures, an acrobat riding a bike on a cable...

Bogota is a capital city between the mountains, located at 2600 metres above sea level. There’s even a higher point where a Cathedral is built: Montserrate, taking the same name from the mountain in Catalonia, is located at 3150 meters. It is a sacred place from the time of the indigenous people, the Muiscas. When you are at the old town, la Candelaria, you can see it above, you can even walk there if you are fit enough, it is about a 45 minutes climb. You have other two options: the...

The Salt Cathedral is built inside the salt mines in Zipaquira, an hour drive from Bogota. It is built inside the mine, you walk down 200 metres to reach it, a pilgrim destination for Christians, also the the most visited place in Colombia.As you pass the entrance you will feel the salt in your nose until you go out to open air. The biggest part of the visit tells you the story of the ‘way of the cross’, the fifteen steps, with a cross in each one - different from the others- fifteen steps...

The story behind this art work. How did the photograph of a little girl running from napalm bombs become a symbol of the war? ‘The Girl in the picture’: a legendary picture taken by a Pulitzer winning photographer; it has become an image in the collective consciousness of the whole world. The story behind it is quite interesting. During the Vietnam war the international agencies which reported the war were based in Saigon. Their foreign representatives were not directly involved in the war as...

Two of my favourite works in this Biennial are exhibited at the Galata Greek Primary School. The first one is Pedro Gómez Egaña’s work ‘Underground’. The big hall at the first floor is dark, you are one step above the work, in the middle you see a big installation, a wooden table with iron legs, infact the table is made of several parts separated from each other, but they look like one piece on which a little apartment floor is built: the sleeping room, kitchen, bathroom. After a while you...

The ‘coffee zone’, ‘Eje cafetero’ or the ‘coffee axis’ of Colombia is located in the interior of the country, between the Andes Mountains, in the state of Armenia. Coffee trees spread over the mountains, a scenery of green trees and valleys, a soft and warm climate throughout the year, little villages, jeeps carrying packs of coffee with a latino song on the radio, the sound of birds, thermal waters, colonial towns with colourful streets, this postal card like place of Colombia is also...

Similar to Manhattan island of New York, the grid shape plan in Buenos Aires make it easy to stroll through the city. The centre around Florida is lively during day time: the pedestrian street Florida and the parallel streets Maipu, Esmeralda and Suipacha cross the avenues Paraguay, Córdoba, Viamonte, Tucumán.Many of the buildings are offices, the Florida street is a shopping heaven, from best quality leather shops to bookstores or souvenir shops you can find anything. A chic shopping mall is...

Walking in the old town of Panama City someone picks us to visit an exhibition. Olga Sinclair’s retrospective exhibition is inside this beautiful two floor colonial house and we come to learn about this artist: born in Panama City, Olga Sinclair is the daughter of a master of modern art, Alfredo Sinclair. She began her career under the tutelage of her father, she participated in a group exhibition of professional artists at the age of 14. She studied fine arts in Madrid, Spain and continued...

We are at the Piazza de la Rotonda, the Pantheon stands right in front of us. How many times we’ve been here, gone inside, looked at the sky outside the oculus, the big hole in the middle of the dome, or sit outside and counted the pillars in front of it… A Mekka for the students of architecture, an inspirational model for many buildings like the White House, or the mosques in Istanbul with their similar domes, one never gets bored of watching this magnificent building. At the entrance gate...

Rome, isn’t it the most beautiful city on earth, worth spending days on its streets, getting lost and lost again. A morning in December, here’s the route I made:I start in Via Guilia , go straight to the river side, walk along the autumn leaves still yellow in early December, across the river is Trastevere, a neighbourhood worth to spend a full afternoon, so I skip it now and keep walking on the left side of the river Tiber. I take one of the side streets that goes to the old historical town,...

Did Hemingway bestow fame onto Cuba? The American writer travelled to Havana in 1939, when this small island was a small fishing town no one knew about. He had lived in the room number 511 for seven years before he moved into a small ranch outside the town. That house, Finca Vigía is located aprox. ten kilometres from the old town and is open to public as a museum. He spent nearly twenty years in Cuba. Hemingway lived in Paris while he worked as a journalist, went to Spain to fight in the...

As I’m walking in the old town in Havana from the Plaza Vieja to Plaza de las Armas along the Calle Mercaderes road I see this text on the way written on a stone at the entrance of a building: “In the memory of 130 years of Italy’s liberator Garibaldi’s stay in Havana the city of Rome dedicates this commemoration to José Marti, who encouraged the idea of independence of Cuba.”… Here is an interesting life story…The political leader, Garibaldi Giuseppe, the founder of the Italian Union has an...

What makes Lisbon so special? What makes its ‘sui generis’ atmosphere, its ‘distant’ mood from other European capitals? Why does it look like it belongs to some other world? What comes to your mind when you think of this small but ‘intense’ place? The slow rhythm of a tram appearing suddenly on a narrow street, the roofs that look as if they stand on top of one another, the reserved mood of the locals sitting in cafés, the bitter colour of the river or the verses of the poet who is...

Mexico is one of those places that is so rich you cannot grasp it on your first visit. The Maya-Aztec culture, the colonial history, the famous Mexican Revolution… With its architectural heritage, vibrant cultural life- museums, exhibitions, a sophisticated art history- its cinema, it has become a pioneer and the cultural capital for the rest of Latin American countries. Considering this richness a travel to Mexico will ask for a long period of time; so if you have only ten days to two weeks...

The first morning I opened my eyes in Mexico, I found myself gazing at this gigantic square from the terrace of the hotel where I was having my breakfast. I wondered if it is among the largest squares in the world. This square which looks like a big rectangle, or a soccer field has been a ritual site since the beginning of the Aztec period in the 14th century. The Great Temple next to the square is the place the Aztec believed to be the center of the world. I am at the old town which is...

The National Palace which extends along one side of the large Zócalo Square in the center of Mexico City houses the murals of Diego Rivera.These murals portray Mexican history, starting from the ancient civilizations, the Spanish invasion, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez and his Mexican wife La Malinche, the Mexican Revolution, the revolutionists, and the pictures of Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo, all mixed together. When you go through the main gate and climb the stairs, you will see a...

The distinguishing characteristic of human beings is their capacity to think about themselves called “self-reflexivity”…Mexico is one of the most interesting countries with its ancient cultures, its history of colonization and the transformation it underwent after the revolution. One needs to come back here several times and focus on another aspect of this elaborate history. On my first day in Mexico, I am walking into a wonderful and three-dimensional encyclopedic world available here.The...

You can reach this quiet and nice neighbourhood by metro from the historical center; you will enjoy walking on its streets lined up with two floor colourful houses, cafés and bookstores and pay a visit to one of the most touristic attractions in town: The Blue House, Calle de Londrés 247. The house in which Frida Kahlo was born and died: she lived in this house with its walls painted blue, together with her family and later with her husband, the famous painter Diego Rivera. The front yard of...

The Mexican people engraved in these cities the names of the heroes who played a major role in the war of independence they won against the Spanish. The places we will visit first as we travel from Mexico City to Northern Mexico: Dolores Hidalgo, the small city where Father Miguel Hidalgo uttered the famous ‘cry for independence’ on September 16, 1810. The army mobilised by this small insurrection later travelled to San Miguel, which was the first city to achieve independence. The word...

Imagine an underworld with roads extending underneath the roads. This is the place where the silver mines are; today active mining still continues in this area. It has the reputation of the most beautiful colonial city of Mexico. Indeed the old town is very well-maintained and beautiful part of the city; it is colorful, animated, historical, with an infrastructure that will satisfy all tourists.The house in which Diego Rivera was born and lived in until the age of 8 is in this city: it is...

This city located in the northern region of Mexico and founded in the second half of the 16th century during the Spanish colonization period (Mexico was then named ‘New Spain’) thrived thanks to its silver mines and the other metals found in the area. But its real reputation goes back to the War of Zacatecas which took place during the Mexican Revolution. There is an equestrian statue of the General Pancho Villa hailing us enthusiastically at the square where the revolutionary troops won the...

A night full of surprises: tonight in the squares of the old town I watched African dances, a theater play which narrated Mexico’s history of independence, and the colorful fireworks which served as a grand finale for it all, though I was thinking I would just have an evening walk.As opposed to other colonial cities’ air of small town quaintness, Guadalajara feels like a big city with its crowd, traffic, and noise. But its old town is nevertheless rich enough to lure you outside this chaos:...

I spent the most peaceful and magic time here, perhaps because of the mountains and lakes surrounding the city, or because of the walls that enclose the city, and the city’s welcoming small town atmosphere. Maybe by the time I arrived here, I had already made my way into the story, having spent many weeks in Mexico and treading the cobblestones of many towns: my curiosity for an unknown place already turned into a feeling of home, having internalized the places I visited. Just like every...

The churches painted in the colours of Mexico are a reason to visit the country on their own. The empty temples which surpassed the common purpose of the churches in European cities and became places to visit instead of places of worship are the places where people pray day and night. If we suspend the criticism of the history of Christian missionarism during the colonial period and evaluate these churches only in terms of their aesthetic and architectural values, one characteristic you would...

During one of your days in Mexico City throw yourself to the streets of the old town around the Zócalo Square. Here are some places to stop by.The Palace of Fine Arts stands at the historical centre of Mexico City, a beautiful art nouveau style palace built in the beginning of 1900s; still serves as a centre of arts & culture. Inside you can see the wall paintings, the most famous ones, Orozco’s ‘Catharsis’, Diego Rivera’s ‘Man, controller of the universe’, originally ordered by the...

In every new city one travels to, after taking a tour and getting acquainted with the surroundings, one envisages one’s life there, and says to oneself, if I lived here, I would love to be based in this or that neighbourhood. This is one of the comparisons we make, like comparing that city’s main street to the main street of our home town-an internal conversation both inevitable and amusing, as if one would be moving over there tomorrow. In São Paulo where I have been several times for...

Your mood is different during the night time, right? So is the city’s mood, its streets’, monuments’, peoples’… A description of St Sophia in 6th century written by Paulos Silentarios* in 563: “Everything glitters- everywhere you cast your eyes, you behold a masterwork. Words are not enough to sing proper praise to this evening awakening. It seems as if a nocturnal sun is illuminating the majestic church.” and it goes on… After 16 centuries, on the night of the Museums 18th of May 2017, we...

You may meet somewhere a Turkish citizen who has traveled the world and will still say that even if he/she has seen the South East Asia, Caribbean, Pacific islands, some of the best beaches are located in Turkey. So I came to think about what is it that makes these Turkish bays so splendid? The first thing must be the special geographical location, that the two seas, the Aegean and the Mediterranean meet at the Southwest of Turkey and sharing the same geographical privilege with the Greek...

The Greek island Kastellorizo is a small island that can be reached from Kaş in about 20 minutes. It is a beautiful, small, postcard place with clear turquoise waters. Although I have been in Kas before it had never appeared to me to pass to this Greek island and I give it a try this time. The boats depart at 10 A.M. in the morning and you need to advise the Police a day before since they register your passport (and yes Turkish citizens need a Schengen Visa even if it’s a day trip). You can...

Located on a hill village in the Mediterranean region in Turkey, namely Cukurbag Village, the Dreams Academy is an open air complex converted from an old primary school. The Academy itself is based in Istanbul, here in Kaş, since 2014 it serves mainly outdoor activities for ‘Alternative Camp’ a programme for disabled and a project for adolescent girls who are socially disadvantaged. I spoke to Alper Akça, the project manager and asked him how his idea come into reality. It is such an...

Mosques, churches, terraces, tunnels… What we imagine before traveling to a city and what we remember afterwards, I guess that’s what we talk when we talk about cities.Before my visit to Mardin I had read aboutthe city in the books of thefamous Turkish poet/writer Murathan Mungan. In one of his books, ‘The Genies of Money’, he says that "in Mardin the use of the stones is very important.The streets are connected to one another by dark tunnels which are called ‘abbara’. These abbaras pass...

Everything seems lonely here in Patagonia: lakes, mountains, people, even the birds. Here is a sightseeing point at the town centre itself, the Laguna Nimez bird reserve is located in El Calafate, downtown.If you walk on the main avenue Libertador and reach the corner where the park is (Intendencia Parque Nacional los Glaciares), and then take the road towards the lake and continue walking for about fifteen minutes you reach another avenue Calle 2 and there is the gate of the Laguna Nimez...

This neighbourhood takes its name from the castle built in the 15th century by the Conqueror of the City Fatih as a base before he started the siege of the city of Constantin.First of all just before the neighbourhood of Rumelihisarı you will find the Aşiyan cemetery. All literary souls lie here under the same sky. The cemetery of Aşiyan, located between the neighbourhoods of Bebek and Rumelihisari, looks right at the Bosphorus. Aşiyan means ‘home’ in Persian. It is the eternal home to ones...

I met De Chirico at an exhibition at the Pera Museum. I found it surprising to find out that his roots are here in Istanbul; they go back to the Ottoman era. His father, born in Greece and originally from Italy, moved to Constantinopolis to work in train construction, and lived in Buyukdere (close to Sarıyer in Bosphorus); his mother is from Izmir, a coastal city in the Southwest. He spent his childhood in Greece, and for the most of his life lived in Italy, a Mediterranean mosaic. One of the...

The Sabanci Museum in Istanbul is hosting China’s internationally known artist Ai Weiwei. His exhibition ‘Ai Weiwei on porcelain’ is shown on three floors of the museum with several porcelain objects like broken plates, little stones, columns,… If you are not informed about his activism, his life story, his stance against the hegemonic power, the things you will see at the exhibition might not make much sense to you. On one of the floors you enter a room surrounded by walls on which you see...

Most of the visitors come to this city in Central Anatolia to pay a visit to the mausoleum of Rumi. Especially in the last years the story of Rumi and Sems, two mystics who met here in Konya has become widely known.The Mausoleum of Rumi is always full of people. At one of the walls inside the Mausoleum of Rumi you’ll see the waw letter in Arabic alphabet: waw, this time two of the letters are looking at each other. The mystics interpret this as a representation of the fetal position of the...

Have you ever thought that cities have their own colours? In one of those days I let myself enjoy every single corner of the gorgeous city, passing by the same streets again and again in order not to miss any details. My friend takes me to a piazza, promising me to show something wonderful. We took one of the streets from the Piazza de la Rotonda where Pantheon is located, she said I should look down on the street until she tells me to raise my head. We arrived in a little square, took the...

The 14th Biennial included the biggest of the Princess Islands in its itinerary and made this remote part of the city an exhibition centre within its conceptual framework ‘Salt Water’. The Splendid Hotel (as if it is taken out from the movie Grand Budapest Hotel), The Mizzi Mansion (which served as San Remo Hotel between 1930-40) and Trotsky House (The Yanaros Mansion) were the spaces where the works were exhibited. The South African artist William Kentridge whose works are exhibited in Hotel...

In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, towards the end of the 19th century, the place in today’s Karakoy known as Bankalar (Banks) Street, named after the word ‘voyvoda’ in the Slav language which means “lord, landlord,” was the place where the first banks as we know them today appeared; the bankers and money-changers in the old trade centers called ‘han’ used to keep the first samples of printed currency, ‘kaime’ in Ottoman, in safes.Today many art galleries have opened their door for...

The State of Minas Gerais (the Mines state) has some of the best preserved colonial towns of the country: Ouro Preto, Tiradentes, São João del Rei, naming some of them. Ouro Preto, the most visited one is located couple of hours from the capital city of the state Belo Horizonte.Cobble stone streets, colourful houses, the hills make it a postcard town. It mainly lives on tourism and as it is nested in a valley between mountains, in Ouro Preto one takes a step somewhat outside the scorching...

I had my doubts about Bali, was I going to travel all the way to visit a honeymoon destination and sit in a resort to get a massage? Until one day I traveled for a writers and readers festival in Ubud which gathers every year at the end of October various writers, readers, journalists from around the world. The most famous tourist destination in Indonesia the island of Bali is quite big; I would recommend you to divide your stay between the mountain village of Ubud and the sea side like...

This complex of buildings has been the home of the Siam Kingdom since the 12th century. When you enter it, you start walking under domes and through courtyards that seem to go on forever like doors that open to infinity. It has many ornamental and architectural styles. The golden domes and columns look brighter than they are when they reflect sunlight. It feels like you have travelled to Alice in wonderland. Because they are asymmetrical, it is possible to get a point of view that reveals a...

When we arrived in Macchu Picchu, I walked in to the administration office at once to get down to business: “I have official permission to enter Machu Picchu requested from the Turkish Consulate and issued by the Ministry of Culture; what do I need to do?” I showed the document in my mailbox: ‘To whom it concerns, attached is the permission to enter Machu Picchu of Didem Dogan who will visit it on the 2nd of May.’ ‘But it is the 1st of May, today,’ said the attendant. ‘But what does it...

Pinacoteca is in São Paulo’s Luz area in the old town, next to República; it stands just across the train station with its red coloured bricks. It’s relatively a ‘historical’ building in this new country, as its history goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. Just next to it there’s a nice big garden. The museum possesses a big collection of the Brazilian art, like this one in the picture, of Almeida Júnior, the painting of a guitar player and a woman next to the window.I saw...

Prado Museum’s first floor, room number twelve, section Spanish Painting, the walls of the circular room is lined with portraits, right in the middle of the room a painting that differs from others. We see a party of nine people inside a room with a high ceiling surrounded by paintings on the walls, a little girl in the middle and next to her two teenage girls who look like they are taking care of her. On the right a dwarf, next to him a little boy or another dwarf, a dog is lying in front of...

The UK based literature festival Hay had recently its Latin American gathering in the city of Cartagenas.Bogota 39 named Latin America’s promising writers under the age of forty who participated many activities within the festival. These writers are writers under the age of forty, with at least one published book, and they are the new voices, the new story-tellers of Latin America.In a country like Colombia or in any other country that witnessed the Latin American ‘boom’ in literature it...

There are two must-see places in Tehran’s old town: The National Museum and the Golestan Palace.So many treasures are hidden in the silent corridors of this history and archeology museum, which is the National Museum. If you missed visiting Persepolis like me you may find many clues at the exhibition halls about this magnificent ancient civilisation. We see many valuable pieces brought from the city of Persepolis, which was founded in the 6th century B.C. as the capital city of the Persian...

This figure that we saw on one of the walls of the Golestan Palace in Tehran is the Šir o Xoršid. It is the lion which bears the Sun on its body: this figure with origins in Babel mythology represents the period of the year that coincides with the Leo sign in astrology when the sunlight is at its strongest. The sunlight is at its strongest between the 20thof July and 20th of August and in this period the Sun moves into the Lion constellation. The same figure was adapted to Shih Islam during...

We are departing from Tehran by bus before sunrise. Since it was the spur of the moment, we could not find a seat on any flight. We are determined to travel for five hours just to spend a single day in Isfahan. Since the sun has not risen yet, travelling on a straight road in the dark feels like we are in a film stage similar to David Lynch movies. As the scenery is lighted up we realise we are going through deserts. The landscape spread before us is an unchanging image to the right and the...

We are in Orsay Museum. Following St Germain neighbourhood we walk along the river Seine, an old train station on the left hand side of the river is turned into a museum, famous with its impressionist painters’ collection, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh…The most significant novelty of the Impressionists was to paint the daily life. The second half of the 19th century, train stations, picnics, theatres… The reason Impressionists became so famous was not only their technical innovation...

The night has fallen, on our wooden banks we raise our heads to catch the shooting stars, around us are the olive and pine trees, while we listen to the 17th century Italian music sang by opera singers on the stage everything is just in perfect harmony to make this night special. The concert named Hortus Conclusus takes the 17the century Italian baroque music when a group of musicians asked what was the core of music, the part that was unchangeable and eternal to music art and interprets it...

The night has fallen, on our wooden banks we raise our heads to catch the shooting stars, around us are the olive and pine trees, while we listen to the 17th century Italian music sang by opera singers on the stage everything is just in perfect harmony to make this night special. The concert named Hortus Conclusus takes the 17the century Italian baroque music when a group of musicians asked what was the core of music, the part that was unchangeable and eternal to music art and interprets it...

On one of the narrow streets and little piazzas that head to famous Piazza Navona is located Chiostro del Bramante. It was built in late 15th century as a monastery in Renaissance style, today it serves as a public art space and during my visit was hosting Dutch artist Escher’s exhibition.The traffic artist and graver Escher lived here in this city for twelve years in his youth and traveled through almost the whole country, the Italian country side was one of the main inspirations of his work...

A fresh breeze coming from the river as I step outside Rue de Seine in the neighbourhood of St Germain des Pres. It’s a mild December morning and we are having a somehow belated winter with the colours of autumn leaves all around. This neighbourhood has a literary heritage with all the famous characters hanging out at the cafés lined on the boulevard just across this street, today the bookstores are still packed with people and it’s hardly to see people looking at the screen of their mobile...

One of the main international contemporary art events in the world the São Paulo Biennial’s 33rd edition is taking place in Biennial Pavillon inside the Iberapuera Park from 7th of September to 9th of December. The pavilion itself, signed by legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer, is iconic; a huge building in rectangular shape from the outside has curved corridors which gives a different dimension to the exhibition. The Iberapuera park has other buildings designed by Niemeyer such as the...

As you walk along the Puerto Madero district, the harbour district by the river, you come to the pedestrian avenue and turn left where you will see the splendid building that looks like standing in a Parisian postcard. The Cultural Center of Kirshner, taking its name from the former president of Argentina, used to be the main post office of the city and from 2015 on it has become one of the main public culture and art spaces. It has a concert hall, five auditoriums, eighteen halls, forty art...

The neighbourhood of San Telmo which is mostly known for its flea and antique market on Sundays is also the art district of the city. Many art galleries are found in this area as well as two museums that are standing next to each other. The Contemporary Art museum of Latin America and the Modern Art Museum of Buenos Aires.As we see the brick wall exterior of the modern art museum we go inside to explore the big collection of the exhibition ‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ spread out into two floors. In...

A couple of public culture and art spaces on Paulista Avenue. We start by the Japan Houselocated on Paulista 52, an art space to promote the Japanese culture (the second biggest Japanese community outside Japan lives in São Paulo). The exterior front is covered with a wooden platform, the building just behind it is covered with a graffiti of Niemeyer’s face. During our visit the exhibition of ‘Aromas and Tastes’ includes Japanese plastic artist Maki Ueda’s work where she hangs little glass...

Right across the river, an hour ferry trip from Buenos Aires takes you to Colonia del Sacramento, the little town with historical quarter listed in the Unesco world heritage site. And it is worth the trip, once you take the ferry at the Puerto Madero Port in Buenos Aires, you arrive in an hour and a half - check the Buquebus or Colonia Express lines to see the schedule for several ferries per day- at the port of Colonia del Sacramento.The historical quarter is walking distance from the port....

New York’s answer to London’s British Museum or Paris’ Louvre. The main museum is located at the Eastern side of the Central Park with an enormous collection of antique civilisations including the Greek, the Roman and the Egyptian which would require days to truly visit. Your ticket will be valid for three consequent days in all Met museums including the Met Breuer, a couple of blocks down, the space which is reserved for contemporary art exhibitions. The other museum Met Cloisters is located...

Met Breur is Metropolitan Art Museum’s space for contemporary art located on the Madison Avenue. The modern building that looks like a descending stair from the outside took its name from the Hungarian architect Breuer who designed the museum.The exhibition “Everything is connected: Art and conspiracy” gathers contemporary artists’ works during the past fifty years questioning the relation between the hidden exercise of power and citizenship. They criticise the manipulation of power...

Picasso’s ‘Les Dames d’Avignon’, Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Nights’, Warhol’s 'The Last Supper’, Dali’s ‘The persistence of the Memory,’ these paintings may sound classical pieces today but when you imagine the world of 1929, the birth year of the Museum of Modern Art in New York they must have been the most avant-garde and provocative art works of the era.New York’s art scene relies mostly on private funds, philanthropy is almost equal with supporting arts here in New York. Mama was founded as an...

One of the main spaces for contemporary art in New York is the Guggenheim Museum in upper East Manhattan on the 89th street and fifth avenue; the famous building made by Frank Lloyd Wright in a spiral shape is both picturesque from the outside and inside and when you are inside it whatever art work you are looking at it makes you feel like you are looking at an artwork inside another art work. Climbing the six floors from the bottom to the top or descending them you have different views in...

The hippest neighbourhood of New York may be Chelsea located in Southwest Manhattan; we do recommend the three following activities:.Eat at Chelsea food market;.walk the High Line;.and visit the art galleries.The Chelsea Food Market is a place where you find many options to eat, from Asian cuisine to French bistro, from American burger to lobster, an Italian supermarket, a Chinese store to buy porcelain kitchen stuff, a bookstore and shops to buy some souvenirs. Right across the market exit...

The Midtown Manhattan is the area between the 59th street at the end of Central Park and the Union Square on the 14th. Some of the most famous buildings of the city and main sightseeing places are located here. One of the most beautiful one is the Grand Central Station, after its renovation the train station gained its former glamour. Though the busiest station is the Penn Station, The Grand Central Terminal is a movie like place where you can go inside even if you’re not traveling somewhere...

Here is a famous bohemian neighbourhood of New York. From 1950s poetry gatherings to today’s comedy cellars, from legendary jazz clubs to modern small jazz bars it still is the place where music and bohemian soul is alive. Spare a couple of nights out here at Greenwich. The Blue Note and the Village Vanguard are the classical jazz bars where once the most jazz musicians like Coltrane played. There are other new bars as well such as Smalls or the Zinc, where we had the chance to a marvellous...

For first time visitors to New York, following some walking routes can be a good way to explore the city. The best way to explore New York is on foot. The grilled shaped Manhattan streets with vertical avenues and parallel streets make walking easy from one block to another. The subway, though it may look old and dirty, is also easy to use and a week metro pass for thirty dollars will let you to move fast in the long island of Manhattan.First the Midtown: start with the must visits to...

Palais de Tokyo is located in Paris’s 16th arrondisement by the River Seine and since its inauguration in 2002 it is one of the main places where the most interesting and creative contemporary art works are exhibited.The Argentinian contemporary artist Tomas Saraceno’s exhibition On Air occupies the large site with various entities floating in the air: spider webs, radio waves, floating sculptures, sound waves. The exhibition starts with the ‘Webs of Attention’, real spider webs are watched...

The museum of inventors, pioneers, Musée des Arts et Metiers is housed in a gothic monastery dating back to eleventh century, the Saint Martin des Champs. The collection of the museum belongs to the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts from eighteenth century. It is truly an experience to feel the gothic aesthetics of the ancient convent and admire the collection that were once the most innovative objects of their time.The most famous one is the pendulum of Foucault. The Franch physicist Léon...

Walking in Montmarte area is also to imagine how would it feel to be in Paris during the Belle Epoque.The end of nineteenth century, the beginning of twentieth century Paris was the place many artists chose to live and most of them settled around this area. From Van Gogh to Monet, from Picasso to Modigliani many painters had their studios here in Montmarte. For instance, the Bateau Lavoir building on Rue Ravignan, an ex piano factory was converted into painters’ studios. Picasso’s first...

On the right bank of the River Seine in third and fourth arrondissements the neighbourhood of Le Marais is one of the hippest places to hang out for tourists due to its narrow picturesque roads in a Gothic atmosphere, the trendy shops and cafés and various art museums around.This historic neighbourhood was the place where the aristocracy chose to live until the Revolution, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it lots its glamour when the rich left this area. After the french...

It is almost impossible to find Picasso’s work in one place, you will need to visit the artist’s museums in various cities. In France where he lived most of his time there are Picasso museums in Paris and in the south in Antibes.The Picasso Museum in Paris is located in Le Marais district at the 17th century Hotel Sale building and during our visit ‘Picasso, masterpieces’ exhibition’ gathered some of his works brought here from different parts of the world. The exhibition opens with his first...

The Pompidou Centre is located between Les Halles and Le Marais, an exceptional building built in 70 with colourful glass pipes in its exterior- as if the building is inside out- big galleries with neon lights, it has a young and creative atmosphere and there are always interesting works to check out. It is also the home of the Public Information Library and the National Museum of Modern Art.There’s an exhibition here on the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The legendary architect who won the...

The former central police station compound from the colonial era has been converted into a Culture and Arts Centre after eight years of renovation sponsored by the Jockey Club with nearly four billion HK dollar fund and it has opened its doors to all visitors in 2018.Now one of the greatest places to hang out in the city it has a museum, a space for contemporary art, garden and a court with cafés, restaurants and design shops. Take the entrance on Hollywood Road after your visit the private...

There are many ways to enjoy the river Seine, take the ferry from Eiffel Tower bank or take the night boat departing from Ice St Louis or walk along it by crossing the bridges from right bank to the left. On a sunny day like this we walk from Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame, the two symbolic places of the City of Light.The end of 19th century, centre of arts and culture, a city where all the writers and painters and artists choose to live, did Paris really need this tower, made of steel, this huge...

When I was transiting Hong Kong Airport back form Tokyo to Istanbul I ran into this exhibition… The Association of Hong Kong Professional Photographers and the Association of Hong Kong Artists worked together in this project. 18 photographers have pictured 20 Cantonese opera artists at the Yau Ma Theatre. The art of Cantonese Opera is a traditional art but still alive, photography is relatively young as an art form. A performance art, with moving images is frozen in time by these photographs....

The Crystal Palace inside the Retiro Park has been hosting contemporary art works as a co-space to Reina Sofia Modern Art Museum. Previous exhibitions such as Colombian artist Doris Salcedo’s Palimpsesto used the ground to write the names of refugees who lost their lives in the Mediterranean or the Vietnamese artist Danh Vo’s ‘Banish the Faceless/Reward your Grace’ work that showed a figure of Jesus with fossils hang from the ceiling; this elegant glass building has been the space for...

In order to get a true sense of Brazil’s first capital Salvador de Bahia, it is recommendable to stay in the heart of the old town ‘Centro Histórico’. The Bahiacafé hotel which is located on the Praça da Sé (Se Square) is a two floor colonial style building with rooms made of wooden floors and high ceilings, the percussion sound coming from outside makes us feel we are now in Bahia. During day and night you’ll hear music on the streets of Salvador’s old town, percussion groups made of...

Rio de Janeiro born Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is one of Brazil’s renowned names in the international arena. His art defined as abstract minimalism is now well recognised by art lovers. He had exhibitions in main art centres of the world such as Venice Biennial in 2001, in Paris at Pantheon with his work Leviathan Thot in 2006, in Zurich train station with ‘Gaia Mother Tree’ in 2018, at London’s Hayward Gallery in 2010 with ‘Edges of the world’, in New York’s Armory on Park Avenue with...

Is Gandhi the father of the nation just because he saved his country from the grips of Imperial colonisation? Romain Rolland begs to differ: “Mahatma’s fight is the fight of all of us.”Son of a Jainist father and a wealthy but non-Brahman family, Mahatma studied law and went to South Africa to practice it. He witnessed the cruelty thousands of Indians including himself in this land received. Inspired by Tolstoy, he established a farming colony and recruiting factory workers, he paralysed the...

We are travelling from Jodhpur to Udaipur in the Rajasthan area of India which is rich in wonders left behind by the Babur Empire. We are stopping in Ranakpur by the lake between the two cities. This is the city named after Raja Rana Kumbha and considered one of the five holy places of Jainism.We are welcomed by a gigantic temple in hundreds of hues of white surrounded by the forest, with its multiple-storey marble entrance, and towers that look like pine trees. This the Chaturmukha Jain...

The capitol city of the state of Rajasthan, Jaipur was built in the 18th century as the first planned city of India: it is one of the most visited places in the tourist haunt called the “Golden Triangle,” along with Delhi and Agra. This place, named after Maharaja Jai Singh, is called the Pink City on the account of all buildings painted in pink, inspired by the color of sandstone used in the construction of the Babur buildings. Jai’s city is one of the most touristic places in India today...

A castle resting on the hill of Jodhpur, the second biggest city of the state of Rajasthan, and far in the horizon, the houses painted in blue in the old town surrounding the castle. The city was built in the 15th century by Rathore Dynasty and named after its then ruler, Jodha who was one of the 24 sons of Ranmal. The construction of the castle also dates back to the same period. Its name is composed of two nouns in Sanskrit: “Mihir” means the Sun, whereas ‘garh’ means castle (one cannot...

The city palace built on the eastern shore of Pichola lake; not a single palace, but a complex of buildings composed of many palaces. One can find both Rajastani style and Babur style in its architectural design. It is a group of buildings also influenced by the architectural styles of Europe, Middle Age, and China. We are again back in the 16th century: Having defeated by the Babur Emperor Ekber, Maharana Uday Sing ordered the construction of a city that will immortalize his name here,...

The city palace built on the eastern shore of Pichola lake; not a single palace, but a complex of buildings composed of many palaces. One can find both Rajastani style and Babur style in its architectural design. It is a group of buildings also influenced by the architectural styles of Europe, Middle Age, and China. We are again back in the 16th century: Having defeated by the Babur Emperor Ekber, Maharana Uday Sing ordered the construction of a city that will immortalize his name here,...

After visiting the Gandhi monument we then go on with our sightseeing to some of the most important places in Delhi, which are similar to the examples of Islamic architecture we have known in Rajasthan: tombs, minarets, mosques.Qutup Minar: Masoned upward to the sky, Qutup Minar is the world’s tallest brick-work minaret which is 73 meters high and made with brown-red stone. The Qutub Complex, consisting of other mosques, tombs, the steel column, and the madrasah along with the minaret, is...

‘Just like a movie set’, do you remember places which made you say these words? I can say I truly felt this way when I was visiting the mountain villages of Chios. Stone houses and stone walls with narrow cobblestone streets, a village square where cats sleep under trees washed by afternoon sunshine, elderly locals converse each other on a bank, the smell of jasmine flowers, when I stop for a coffee in Vessa on my way to Lithi after a couple of days in the island the feeling I had was...

An island is an island. Right after you cross from the Turkish side to Chios, even if it’s a short journey, your days start being shaped by a different rhythm. The time extends between the villages and beaches; you look at the watch think what you’re doing at this hour in the city and compare your activities here in the island and you realize time slows by, the bell tolls and it sounds like a different time from the digital one.So that’s how I spent the days in Chios, from one beach to a...

Situated on a hill looking at the Golden Horn and the hills of the Pera district across this mosque is considered as the most important Ottoman monument in Istanbul. The architect Sinan built it during the reign of Kanuni the Magnificent in mid 16th century when the Ottoman Empire was its highest. It carries the name of the Sultan Suleiman and his tomb along with his family’s is located at the same place. The tomb of Sinan is also here; actually the mosque is a complex of schools, baths,...

It means ‘in the country’ the word ‘Chora’ and it is both literally and symbolically ‘in the country’. Because it was situated outside the city walls during the time of the Constantinopolis it was called ‘in the country’; the word also refers to Jesus Christ as he is the ‘country’ or the ‘land of the living’. The Byzantine church dating back to 13th century was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman era and the mosaics inside were covered with wooden panels; after the fall of the Empire...

As you walk down the Sultanahmet Square you will both leave the tourist crowds behind for a while, also start to enjoy the narrow and colourful streets of Ahirkapi. This neighbourhood takes its name from being the place of the royal mews during the Ottoman era. One of the most beautiful mosques of Sinan is located here, the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque was built by the architect Sinan for the daughter of Sultan Selim the 2nd who was also the wife of the Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha. The place...

We start our tour in Tophane with the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque; dating from the 16th century, the mosque of Architect Sinan was made in his late age when he was ninety years old. They say it is the one that most resembles to St Sophia to which he admired his whole life and avoided copying. The mosque is said to be the first mosque built on sea and was named after the Admiral of the Fleet Kilic Ali Pasha. He was originally from Calabria and named Ochiali; he then converted to Islam and became...

The Cordoba Mosque and the old town surrounding it, the neighbourhood of Juderias (the Jewish quarter) with its white coloured walls, cobblestone streets is very well preserved and have lots of interesting points of visit. In order to picture Cordoba in its heydays, its multicultural atmosphere, one can visit the museums in the old town. One of them is the Sephardic Museum; the Sephardics, the name for Jewish people during the time of Al Andalus, at that time, had a certain liberty and could...

Where can you find a minbar and a mihrab, a chorus and a cross, all at one place? Maybe only in Cordoba Mosque. The Cordoba Mosque, built at the peak of the Muslim Iberia in tenth century, during the 1st Abd al-Rahman dynasty, was a symbol of Cordoba, which, at that time, after Baghdad and Cairo it was the most advanced city in terms of education, multiculturalism, civilisation. When in the fifteenth century the Iberian peninsula was again the land of the Catholic Kings after ‘reconquista’,...

Sevilla Cathedral is known for being the biggest Gothic Cathedral of the world, also world’s third biggest cathedral, home of Cristopher Colombus’ tomb. The Cathedral along with the Alcazar and the General Archive of Indies are cited as Unesco sites.The Cathedral was constructed on the site of the Almohad Mosque dating from eleventh century and lasted more than hundred years. One can see the remains of the mosque like the fountain and the patio with orange trees; the tower, Giralda, is also...

Streets lined up with orange trees, a little square that appears suddenly as you walk a narrow road, little shops with hand made ‘abanicos’ (fans) and ceramics, cafés, tablaos, the old town of Seville has been one of our top places during our visit to Spain. Our hotel Petit Palace Canalejas has a perfect location to discover the old town of Seville.We start walking to the Cathedral, as we reach to the Plaza Nueva we stop by the book stalls, we then follow the tram line and see this café on...

The Velazquez Palace inside the Retiro Park is another space for contemporary art exhibitions such as the Crystal Palace and they can be both visited at once during your visit to the park. The space is hosting a retrospective exhibition of the Italian artist Mario Merz (1925-2003), ‘Time is mute’. His art was related to the ‘Arte Povera’ movement- meaning poor, impoverished, using ordinary, used materials, and was opposing the consumerist culture of post-war society- Pre-modern objects can be...

An hour drive from Madrid, you reach to Toledo; a picturesque, historical, mystical town, an important city to all rulers of these lands since Roman times. The capital of the Visigoths, the first town conquered by Arabs, today’s capital of Castilla La Mancha state of Spain, the birth places of Don Quijote. The city is located on a hill aprox. six hundred above sea level and surrounded by Tajo river that make it look like an island at first site. Its narrow steep roads, famous Gothic Cathedral...

If someone asked me ‘What is the most beautiful human made structure you have ever seen?’ I would answer ‘The Alhambra Palace’. A masterpiece of architecture and Islamic art, it is one of the main reasons people come to Andalusia; even the story has a sad ending it hasn’t lost its elegance during all these years. The legend says that when the last ruler of Andalusia, Boabdil, retreated to exile and turned to have one final look at Granada he cried and his mother said “You weep like a woman...

You may have visited the magnificent Alhambra; yet do not miss to see the old town of Granda where the Royal Chapel and the Cathedral are located. Around the squares of Plaza Bib Rambla and Plaza Isabel La Catolica you will find an area of beautiful gothic structures. One of them that looks more Andalusian style with its wooden windows; it is indeed a building from the Arab era: Palacio de la Madraza, which was used as a religious school in Andalusia is today a part of the Granada University....

If you are making a road trip to Andalusia, do not skip Ronda. The road between Sevilla and Malaga will be the most pleasant one: winding roads along the valleys surrounded by mountains and lined trees, hardly any industrial zones, for a couple of hours you will see this beautiful view until you reach to the magnificent mountain city of Ronda.Since pre-historic times, from Visigoths to Celts, from Romans to Arabs, several communities lived in Ronda. Its strategic location on top of a hill,...

The smell of the ocean, a gentle breeze coming from the sea touching the leaves of palm trees, white sands, tides- water pulling away for hundreds of meters making people seem like they are walking in the middle of the sky, water coming again bringing the big ocean waves… Smell of the spices, children saying ‘Jambu’ to you, the sound of the call to prayer coming from the mosques, women walking for kilometres with babies in their hands, old man sitting on banks, Zanzibar is definitely one of...

Mosques, churches, Hindu temples, all at the same place within walking distance from one another. Where do you see such a place? The old town of Zanzibar, Stone town, a Unesco heritage site, is an extraordinary place. The labyrinth streets of the old town with temples, shops, hotels, spice and coffee houses, markets, is so lively, colourful and interesting that even if you may have walked it for a week you may still find a surprise at one corner of this fascinating city.It is best to get lost...

This little island on the North Aegean Sea is located half an hour ferry ride from the main land (Turkey). We take the ferry from Geyikli station and when we reach the island we find ourselves right at the town centre. This is an old Greek town with cobble stone streets, stone houses, colourful doors, flowers hanging from the windows, it’s so charming you never get bored of walking the same streets several times like we did everyday early in the morning before we head to the beaches and later...

If we really have to do a top 10 list of the most beautiful places, this one should be in the list… First, coming to Kotor: we had so much fun traveling from Bosnia to Montenegro because we had no idea how to change countries in the Balkans. They are so small in size one thinks she’s changing cities instead of countries. We took the train from Sarajevo to Mostar, then from Mostar took the midibus to Herczeg Novi, passed the border, then from Herczeg Novi to Kotor Bay, all on the same day....

The Balkan countries, with their proximity and size can be visited quite easily combining a couple of places. With no prescheduled itinerary we flew to Sarajevo from Istanbul, spent the weekend in this elegant city with Ottoman heritage; then traveled to Mostar by train and from Mostar found a bus which was going to the Kotor Bay via Herceg Novi, passing the Croatian border. We then rented a car in the city of Kotor and circled the gorgeous bay and finally dropped it at Podgorica airport...

Stari Most, the Mostar Bridge has become a symbol of the civil war in ex-Yugoslavia, when Europe and the whole world watched the savagery happening right under their nose. For almost 500 years it had stood elegantly but during the war it was destroyed in 1993 by the Croatians, and it became iconic later on. Today one can visit the small town and see the bridge renovated. It’s a couple of hours from Sarajevo, we recommend you to take the slow but scenery rail road, travel along the valleys and...

The old town of Kotor, sharing the same name with Kotor bay, has a magnificent look with its perfect location on one of the hills that open up to the bay. It has a long history which goes back to the Phoenicians. For almost seven centuries it was ruled by the Romans, then was occupied by the Visigoths, Serbian kings, Slovenian tribes, each ruling for short periods. After a short period of independence, it was ruled by the Venetians for about three centuries. Then comes the occupation by the...

Is journey one of the ways? For Matsuo Basho, the master of Haiku as a form of capturing the moment, it is.“The days and months are travellers of eternity, just like the years that come and go. For those who pass their lives afloat on boats, or face old age leading horses tight by the bridle, their journeying is life, their journeying is home. And many are the man of old who met their end upon the road.” thus begins the travel diaries of Matsuo Basho in “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”,...

As you climb towards the Bulbul Mountain (aprox. 4 kms) from the archeological site of Ephesus you reach to the House of The Virgin Mary where Jesus’ mother Mary spent the last years of her life. Today it is accepted as a sacred site by both Muslims and Christians and is open to public visit.There are a couple of indications that show Holy Mary died in Ephesus. The first remains found on this site are from the first century. The expulsion of the apostles in Jerusalem who were being tortured...

The Ephesus Museum located in Selcuk is highly recommendable and can be visited together with St John temple and Isa Bey mosque as they are within walking distance. Many pieces from Ephesus are exhibited here and it will make your visit more memorable as you will notice many details of the ancient city when you walk through the halls of this important museum.The museum is divided into a couple of parts, the garden exhibiting the tombs, the hall of terrace houses (the ruins which you visited...

"It is not only necessary to survive but to live a good life."The Terrace Houses inside Ephesus show us the significant part of arts and philosophy for the elites of this ancient city. You may see the picture of Socrates or Cicero inside a house hang on a wall, or a mythological figure on the floor mosaic of a house. Terrace Houses located at the heart of Ephesus on the Curetes Street reflect the grandeur of the city during its peak period. Ephesus, the most advanced city of the Province of...

An exceptional tourist site of modern day Turkey, visited by thousands every year, Ephesus, located on the Western Aegean part of the country was one of the most important cities of antiquity and the capital of Anatolian Rome. The history of Ephesus goes back to year 1000 B.C. The location of the city changed several times; it was also destroyed and reconstructed many times due to earthquakes, it was ruled under different powers from Greeks to Persians and to Romans.During the Ioanian period...

Houses carved into caves, churches, monasteries. Caves, valleys and surreal landscapes. Welcome to one of the most interesting places on earth.The lavas, ashes and muds of the volcanic mountains that are no longer active, Hasan and Erciyes, form the rocks which are then shaped by rivers, floods and rains that form the canyons, valleys, curves, chimney and tower like formations during millions of years making Cappadocia a true open air museum. The main colour of the region is rust, a brick red...

Between Ephesus and Hierapolis is Aphrodisias, a beautiful ancient city dedicated to the Queen of beauty and love Aphrodite. It is listed among Unesco heritage sites in modern day Turkey and was unknown until late ‘50s.A Turkish photographer, Are Guler who was in the region as a photo reporter he sees locals using ancient grave stones, columns in their daily lives such as tables, playgrounds for kids, etc. He comes back and takes several pictures to be sent to Times magazine. The...

The historical urban district of Odunpazari, which is listed in Unesco’s tentative list, is located at the northern part of Eskisehir and takes its name being formerly a wooden market. The first Turks who came here, nearly thousand years ago were from different tribes. The first settlers were the Selcukis, then the Ottoman Turks came and they built mosques, schools, wooden houses which were well preserved until today. This neighbourhood still preserves the traditional Turkish neighbourhood...

‘Once upon a time in Taurus Mountains: Sagalassos’, the exhibition at the Yapi Kredi Cultural Centre in Taksim is about an ancient city that maybe few people know. Located in Southwestern part of Turkey, on the Mountain of Toros, the city of Sagalassos was long unknown. There were some travellers in eighteenth century who visited it but the archeological excavations only started in 1970s (led by Marc Waelkens for more than twenty years). The archeological site opened in 2010 and you can...

For foreign tourists the northern part of Turkey including the region of the Black Sea is somewhat less known and less visited places. Ancient Greek cities such as Ephesus or the first Christian churches of Cappadocia are among the first places to travel. The natural beauty of the Black Sea Region is incomparable to rest of the country, though. You may think that one would only find forests and lakes but once you are there you will appreciate the natural beauty of this region. Located about...

The best part of a road trip in the Aegean coast of Turkey is that you can combine a cultural visit to an archeological site with beaches. The cities of ancient Greece such as Troy, Pergamon, Ephesus, Sardis, Miletus, Priene that were once part of Ionia and Lydia are all located in this area and open to public visit.You may create your own itinerary with one of these places and a beach town, and while traveling you may visit the villages of the Aegean which are also known by their gastronomy....

Hills filled with look alike white residential houses, beach clubs, resorts, restaurants, cafés and bars, bays of the Aegean sea that guarantee you a perfect swim, pine trees and bougainvilleas, it is hard not to please someone in Bodrum. Compared with St Tropez or Hollywood for Turkish celebrities its fame comes from the top luxurious resorts that have opened in recent years but Bodrum has something for everyone.A big peninsula with various centres here is a brief about what to find and...

One of the finest example of archeological pieces in Turkey can be found in a silent room away from the tourist crowds. 18 mourning women surround the four sides of a sarcophagus in Archeology Museum of Istanbul; they look sad, some of them weep, some stands still- are they the wives of the King or are they some of the paid women to mourn in funerals as it was custom in Middle East in ancient times? This sarcophagus was found in Sadia in 19th century by Ottoman governors, an ancient city in...

Watching the view from the Galata Tower early in the morning is a good way to start your day in Istanbul. You will not only avoid the queue at the ticket counters, you will also enjoy calmly the view from its narrow balcony without the crowds. This medieval stone tower, cylinder shaped with a conical roof, dating from the thirteenth century stands still today at this bohemian neighbourhood offering a 360 degree view of the city including the Golden Horn, historical peninsula and the Bosphorus...

Cappadocia has been the land of many civilisations from antiquity to today. History books tell us around 3000 B.C. Assyrians lived here, then the Hittites came around 1750, following them Phrygians and Lydians, then Persians, Macedonians and the Pontus Kingdom ruled these lands. Around the first century it was already under the rule of Roman Empire. Many churches that were built around eleventh century have Greek words on it. When the Turks arrive around the thirteenth century the names of...

“Though it’s dark I’m singing”, this is the theme of the 34th Sao Paulo Biennial, which is held in Ibirapuera Park, at the Niemeyer designed Pavillon, in late Autumn 2021.The title of the Biennial is taken from a poet of Thiago de Mello. The Amazonian poet wrote ‘Though it’s dark I’m singing, because tomorrow it's a new morning’. The poet said once, between ‘the apocalypse and the utopia, he chooses the utopia’. Dark times, as well as the need for hope suits well the universal atmosphere of...

The Filipino artist Kidlat Tahimik’s exhibition is as interesting as his life story. The artist, whose real name is Eric Oteyza de Guia, voluntarily changes his name to Kidlat Tahimik that means ‘silent lightning’. He studies Economy and Business in the US, works in finance in France; until his life takes a different path; being disappointed by the capitalist system he starts to work as an actor, film producer, performance artist and writer. Today he’s a renowned artist whose works won...

B.C. Founded in the 3rd century AD during the Attalid Dynasty, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon between 281-133. Bergama, one of the important cities of the ancient age, is located 26 km inland from the sea, in today's Bergama province of modern Turkey. The ruins can be visited in two parts as Asclepion and Acropolis, and there are other ruins of the ancient city in the Pergamon Museum in the city center. The city of Pergamon is a UNESCO World Heritage site that has survived...

The recent history of South Africa cannot be said to be very encouraging. In the center of the city, the District 6 museum is one of the places that best explains the bitter reality of apartheid history.The museum has been established in this building, which has been serving as a methodist church for over 170 years, in the area called District 6, to tell the history of apartheid and the stories of ordinary people during this period since it opened in 1994. Guided tours are held at certain...

I leave the District 6 Museum and walk to Iziko Slave Lodge, two blocks away.The most important institution of the Dutch colonial period, the East India Company, colonized South Africa at the end of the 17th century as a supply stop on the way from Europe to India, and began to bring slaves from East Asia to this region. Mostly, slaves brought from India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique were brought to the Cape of Good Hope by ships, and from there they were placed in the city's second...

Zeitz Mocaa South African Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 2017. Located on the V&A Waterfront, this imposing building was a 57-meter-long historical granary. The building, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, has dozens of galleries spread over nine floors; in the middle of the building there is a cylindrical cavity inside; gigantic black leaves sway gently from top to bottom (this is actually a work of art, Joel Andrianomearisoa's temporary exhibition 'Five continents of All Our...

The red hop on hop off tourist bus offers free walking tours to its passengers at certain times every day. You can get off at the Long Street stop and join these tours. However, this street is said to be a bit dangerous to walk on your own. Walking tours start from this stop and end at the same place and take ninety minutes. Most of the walk takes place in the 'Muslim Quarter' called Bo-kaap. It is perhaps one of the most photographed places in Cape Town with its colorful houses and streets...

If you are traveling with the red bus, you get on the blue line, go upstairs and the road lined with trees gives you the signal that you are going to a very beautiful place. Really it is. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is a place that makes you feel like it must be a piece of heaven.The seventh largest botanical garden in the world, one of South Africa's ten botanical gardens, is located in Cape Town on more than five hundred hectares just below the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The...

Constantia in Cape Town's center and one of the vineyards of Stellenbosch and Franchoek, which are about 50 km from Cape Town, a visit to one of them during your visit in Cape Town, is a great opportunity for a traveler to spend time outside of the city as they take you to a fairy tale world. The mild weather, the aesthetics of the vineyards lying in rows in the fields, the beauty of the villas with big gardens, the gardens, and spending pleasant hours in the sun.The wine tram in Franchoek...

There are two things you always see in Cape Town: the ocean and Table Mountain; all outdoor activities become more beautiful with the meeting of these two amazing things. Canoeing, climbing, biking, boat tours, which one would you choose?Let's start with canoeing in the ocean. You can join canoe groups that depart daily from Anchor Beach in Sea Point. In this two-hour activity, your arms need to be a little strong as you have to row constantly; Watching the city over the water is a wonderful...

Cape Point, the most southwestern tip of the African continent, is the name given to the cape at the Southwesternmost tip of the African continent, approximately fifty kilometers from the city center of Cape Town. Actually, this area consists of two headlands (Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point) and is part of Table Mountain National Park.The Cape of Good Hope, is located at the intersection of two main ocean currents. The cold Benguela current from the west coast and the warm Agulhas current...

Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Devil's Peak and 12 apostles, these mountain names are the geographical formations that give Cape Town its skyline and make Cape Town Cape Town. The name given to all these mountain groups, together with the main mountain, Table Mountain, which is just over a thousand meters above sea level, is actually the name given to all of these mountain groups, with Table Mountain National Park and Devil's Peak, and the Lion's head about three kilometers long from one end to...

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is one of the most visited places in South Africa after Table Mountain and Kruger National Parks; it is frequented by almost 24 million visitors a year. It is also the place where many visitors to Cape Town prefer to stay. The reason for this is that it offers a safe and sheltered area for visitors, both day and night, with options from every kitchen and suitable for every budget, eating and drinking alternatives and shopping materials. The oldest port of the...

One of the most beautiful routes in the world, Chapman's Peak Drive (named after John Chapman, the captain of an English ship that ran aground here in 1607), located between Hout Bay in the north and Noordhoek Beach in the south, is an engineering marvel. This nearly 'impossible' project, which took seven years to complete, ended successfully in 1922.This nine-kilometer-long road with one hundred and fourteen intersections starts in Hout Bay and ends in Noordhoek, offering stunning views...

Cape Town is a place where European visitors like to go, especially in the Southern hemisphere summer months. It is a beautiful and easy-going city with spectacular views; long walks and road trips by the ocean make it a memorable destination.A taxi from the airport to the hotel costs between 300-400 rand. Since credit cards are preferred everywhere in the city, you do not need to carry a lot of money. If you want to pay in USD or Eur, most places don't accept it - except maybe a few tourist...

This is my last day in Kyoto and my destination is the west side of the city called Arashiyama District. Because it is farther away from the centre, I decided to take a bus instead of riding my bike. The buses operate perfectly just like the trains here. After stopping at each stop, we arrive at the riverside. It is starting to drizzle and the mountains surrounding the river look more enchanted in the colours of autumn. My first visit is to a zen temple, Tenryu-ji. This is the main temple of...

The most enjoyable activity in Bogota is to take a graffiti tour and stroll the streets of the old town La Candelaria.The graffiti tours take place every morning and afternoon starting from the Journalists Park and walking through the streets of la Candelaria and lasts about 2,5 hours, guided by qualified guides who give you all the details about the artists and their works. You are expected to tip at the end. It’s fun and educational. Graffiti, im Bogota, is more than a street art, it is the...

The city palace built on the eastern shore of Pichola lake; not a single palace, but a complex of buildings composed of many palaces. One can find both Rajastani style and Babur style in its architectural design. It is a group of buildings also influenced by the architectural styles of Europe, Middle Age, and China. We are again back in the 16th century: Having defeated by the Babur Emperor Ekber, Maharana Uday Sing ordered the construction of a city that will immortalize his name here,...

Standing at the Bosphorus Shore in Besiktas neighbourhood, the Dolmabahce Palace is a waterfront palace and residence of the last six Sultans of the Ottoman Empire who lived here in the late nineteenth century. It is symbolically important for Turkish citizens as the founder of the Turkish Republic, Ataturk lived here for four years and passed away in this palace in 1938. Every 10th of November you will see people paying a contribute to him and the avenue is lined up with his pictures.Made by...

A big underground water reservoir from the 6th century built in the Byzantine era in order to arrange the water supply for the city. It was built during reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian. The cisterns, a Roman-Byzantine invention, were used to store and distribute the waterThat was obtained from the historical waterways; the first of which was the Hadrian’s Pipeline which carried the water from the north of the city in today’s Belgrad Forest. Later the Ottomans built monumental...

It was built by the Knights of St Jean for protection against the growing Ottoman domination in the 15th century. The cross and knight crests, Chapel and animal figures on the gates inside the castle are from this period. The castle, which was defended by different nationalities such as British, French, Italian and German for about a hundred years, could not withstand the Ottoman siege and came under Ottoman rule with the islands Kos and Rhodes. This complex, which can be accessed through...

There are hundreds of underground cities of different sizes in the Cappadocia region. These cities, which have a history of about three thousand years, dating back to the Hittite period, were built by deep carving of soft volcanic tuff and used for protection. Some of them are large enough for thirty thousand people to live. Kaymaklı, Özkonak and Derinkuyu underground cities are among the most visited.When we say underground city, we can talk about a real city; It is possible to talk about a...

Another cistern smaller than the Basilica Cistern is located in Çemberlitaş. The Şerefiye Cistern is one of the five other cisterns built in the fifth century during the reign of Theodosius to meet the city's water needs; Şerefiye was named after the neighborhood where it was located during the Ottoman period. The building on this cistern, which was almost hidden due to a mansion built on it for many years, was demolished and opened to visitors after renovation.The cistern is descended by a...

A city may host several attractions but actually there is a unique reason to visit a place for devoted travelers.For Assisi, we can say that this is the inspiration we get from the life of Saint Francis.The city of Assisi, a place of pilgrimage for Christians, is located in the Umbria region of Italy. It is twenty kilometers from Perugia, the capital city of the region, and can be easily reached with a two-hour train ride from Rome. A wonderfully preserved postcard little town built on top of...

We reach Perugia, the capital of the Umbria region, located north of Rome, by a two and a half hour train ride from Rome.It's like a place that hasn't changed since the Middle Ages when it was founded, and with its stone walls, narrow streets, bridges between buildings, pastel brown color, it is a place that takes you inside the moment you first start to name the city. The city is home to its fourteenth-century university and another foreigners' university; It is known as a student city and...

One of the most lively and animated places in Rome during the evenings is the Trastevere neighborhood; a warm and friendly place that welcomes you with its easy-going vibes.Situated on the other side of the Tiber river, to the south of the Vatican, this district used to be a workers' quarter, but today it has turned into a bohemian neighborhood known for its colorful streets and nightlife. What Le Marais is to Paris, perhaps Trastevere is to Rome.There are nice walking routes to Trastevere....

Val di Noto, the valley of Noto, is located at the southeast of Sicily, it is where the latebaroque citiesincludingNoto, Monica and Ragusaand other are and since 2002 they are named as aUnesco heritage site. They can be visited from Siracusa by train as day trip visits or by renting a car.Noto is the most visited and famous one as it is half an hour trip by train from Siracusa. It was home to the aristocracy during the16th and 17thcenturies; though most of the buildings we see today are built...

The ‘Grand Voyage’: big trip- I wish I could visit Taormina in the18th centuryduring my Grand Voyage in Southern Europe and come here on horseback from Catania the same asGoethedid. It must have been quite different from the today’s town visited by hundreds of tourist everyday. It is still beautiful however the smallness of the place and the tourist groups from cruise ships that come and go make it a bit ‘too’ crowded during day time.The main attraction,The ancient Greek theatre (Teatro...

An open air museum in Siracusa, the archeological site of Neapolis is a fifteen minute walk from the train station of Siracusa. Meaning the new city it was built during the reign ofHieron the 2nd,the lasttyron of Siracusa in Greek period,3rd century B.C. The roman historianCicerodefined it‘imposing and very beautiful’during his visit to one of the most important city of the antiquity.Built as the urban and architectural project of Iron the 2nd the archeological site today consists of four...

I like places that have a historical heritage yet are still lively. Siracusa’s Ortigia island is one of them. Instead of making a day visit stay a couple of days to truly enjoy this place, explore the narrow streets, enjoy the various colours of yellow and pink of the façades of the buildings, walk along the sea side, swim in the Mediterranean. You may spare your days to visit the nearby cities as well likeNoto, Modica, Ragusa.Separated form the main land with two bridges Ortigia island is...

Whether you plan a trip to Thailand on its own or as a stopping point on your trip to another Southeast Asian country, Bangkok is a lively, interesting, and dynamic city that you should see at least once in this region.Bangkok consists of 5 separate districts: Rattanakosin, Dust, Chinatown, Siyam, and Sukhmvit. Historical buildings are generally located in Rattanakosin (the area where the Grand Palace and Wat Phonon are located).An ideal three days in Bangkok would be one where you would...

This house, where American businessman Jim Thompson spent part of his interesting life, is today one of the most popular tourist attractions in Bangkok.Jim Thompson is an interesting personality who was born in the USA as the son of a textile manufacturer, studied architecture, later abandoned it, joined the army, and served in the US mission in the Far East with the aim of protecting Thailand from Japanese occupation. While continuing his duty in the army, he embarked on some business...

Chiang Mai is a city located in the northern region of Thailand, famous for its temples and the oil lamp festival held in November. Different from the chaos of Bangkok and the atmosphere of the islands, it has become one of the cities most visited by tourists with its mountains and serenity, both in nature and cultural importance.Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom for about three hundred years, then transferred to Myanmar, then captured again by the kings of Siam, and had an...

Phuket, Thailand's largest island, located in the southwestern Andaman Sea, has served as a commercial port for merchants between China and India for many years. This commercial port, which was used by Portuguese, Dutch, and French merchant ships since the 16th century, began to attract more visitors after the country's currency devaluation during the economic crisis in Asia at the end of the 1990s. Today, it is one of the most visited tropical islands in the world, with its economy based...

Bangkok's two famous places to visit are located on opposite sides of the river.Wat Arun, which means Temple of Dawn, was built in the 17th century. The reason why the names of the temples you will see in Thailand always start with Wat is that Wat means Buddhist temple in Thai. (92% of Thailand's population is Buddhist). The difference between Wat Arun and other temples is that Wat Arun is completely covered with ceramics and porcelain.The Grand Palace is located on the opposite side of the...

If you are interested in photography, this museum is for you. Located in the Ebisu district, adjacent to the Ebisu Garden complex, is the Tokyo Museum of Photography, one of the few museums in the world that focuses solely on photography. The entrance hall of this building, spread over four floors, invites you inside with black and white photography covering the entire wall on the right side and black and white square stones on the floor.During my visit, the exhibition titled 'Leap before you...

You can devote one day in Tokyo to Ueno Park and its surroundings. Ueno Park, Japan's first designed park, is a large complex consisting of museums, a zoo, a pond, and walking areas. Exit the Ueno subway station and start walking through the entrance gate of the park. This large park hosts many important museums. The Tokyo National Museum, which is considered the most important museum in the city, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most important art museums in Tokyo, are...

This district of Tokyo is known as the heart of contemporary art. This is a justified definition because many museums and art galleries are located here. Tokyo National Art Center, Mori Art Museum and Suntory Art Museum, called the Roppongi art triangle, are some of the well knowns. Additionally, the 21 21 Design Sight,which focuses on architecture and design as you see in the photo, is another museum definitely worth visiting with its architecture and design-focused exhibitions and its...

It may be too touristy for some of us who are skeptical of digital art, but I think it is a very fun activity, especially for children. Teamlabs Planets is an interactive digital art space in Tokyo's Toyosu district.You enter the museum, which is divided into a garden and water, by taking off your shoes and socks. They have created a pleasant area where you walk in the water and get lost among the flowers. You lie on the floor in a living room and watch the falling flowers as if you were...

One of the most beautiful viewing points of the Hong Kong view is the observation deck located on the shores of the Tsim Sha Tsui district, overlooking the island. I buy a token from the Central Ferry Pier and jump on the Star Ferry (plastic blue tokens cost 4 HKD). In this short, five-minute journey, we leave the island behind and approach the mainland. The ferry is packed as always.When you leave Tsim Sha Tsui Pier and walk, the clock tower you will see on your right and the distinctive...

The tallest pine trees I've ever seen in my life. The black roofs of the temples that appear as you walk into the forest are lined up one after another on the slopes of the mountains. The visual effect created by the temples integrated with the nature pattern around them, huge trees, and the sound of flowing waters magically engulfs me.Nikko is a wonderfully beautiful place located in the Tochigi region northeast of Tokyo, which you can reach with a two-hour train ride. Although most visitors...

Les Halles, the center of the 1st District, which is considered to be the very heart of Paris, used to be the food market of the city. The vegetable and fruit market, which dates back to the 12th century, was used for this purpose until the end of the 1960s. In the 1850s, it was an area consisting of twelve markets where you could find all goods, such as wheat, corn, meat, vegetables, fruits, and leather. Les Halles district has become a modern art and shopping center today.It is a large area...

If you are visiting Rio de Janeiro, we recommend that you spare a full day in the historical center of the city, called Centro, to breathe in the historical atmosphere of town and visit two very important museums. One of them is the Museum of Tomorrow, and the other is CCBB.CCBB museums are some of the most visited museums in Latin America, and they are spread across four Brazilian cities: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Brasilia. Supported by the Bank of Brazil, which is the...

Opened in 2004 in the former Karaköy warehouse, now known as Galataport, the Istanbul Modern Art Museum is Turkey's first contemporary art space. It is the most famous museum dedicated to medieval art and was listed in the NYT's '52 places to visit' in 2023. The current version of the museum is a new building, opened in 2023 under the signature of the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. It is one of the most popular places to visit in the city due to its popular location in Karakoy district...