Hello friends,
Today, I am going to tell about The Galata Tower.
Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi in Turkish) is a stone tower in Galata district of Istanbul. The nine-story tower is 66,90 meters tall and was the tallest structure of the city when built. The tower was built by Genoese in Byzantine Empire time. The tower was built as Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) in 1348 during an expansion of Genoese colony in Costantinople ( an old name of Istanbul).
In Ottoman Empire period, the tower was used for different purposes such as to hold captives, space observations and observation for spotting fires. The Galata tower also destroyed by fire as well as being a place to spot the fires. Galata Tower was restorated several times in Ottoman Empire period. Read more »
The Galata Tower
September 2nd, 2009 
admin Ramadan in Istanbul
August 29th, 2009 admin Hello friends,
About Ramadan
We are in the first week of Ramadan. Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) is a holy month for muslims. In these days, muslims fast and have extra deeds to be better muslims and take care of their actions. Fasting is a total abstinence of food and liquids from dawn to sunset during the entire month of Ramadan. Married muslims also have to refrain from intimate relationship from dawn to sunset during this period. Muslims can still enjoy all of these things during the night time, from sunset to dawn. We usually eat a meal right after sunset called “Iftar” and another light meal right before dawn called “Sahur” (Sahoor). The purpose of fasting is to acquire the concept of Taqwa. Taqwa might be defined as self control, self-restraint, self-discipline, self-obedience, self-training, self-consciousness, self-education and self-evaluation. Read more »
Sultanahmet
August 23rd, 2009 admin Hello Istanbul fans,
I would like to write about Sultanahmet since I first launched this web-site and before yesterday I went to Sultanahmet to experience it again. Of course I went to Sultanahmet for many times before but I must have gone again to see, observe and feel before write for you. I am going to start to tell you from Haydarpaşa Train Station. Haydarpaşa Train Station is one of the symbols of Istanbul in Turkish people’s mind. It has been a meaningful place for most new comers due to being a greeting face of Istanbul, as the railways was used more often in the past. Haydarpaşa ( Or Haydarpasha for you) station building is historical and it has a different style of architecture. That is why it was built by Germans in the time of what good relations occured between Sultan Abdulhamid and Wilhelm II. In 1908, it began to service and still is main station of TCDD (State Railways of the Republic of Turkey). Haydarpaşa Station has a great location and is sorrounded by Marmara Sea in its three sides.
Pharmacy in Istanbul
August 16th, 2009 admin Hello,
When you are on your pleasant Istanbul trip, you might need to buy anything from a pharmacy. I hope you wouldn’t, so I am going to tell about pharmacies in Istanbul.
In other coun
tries drugs may be bought from different places such as markets, supermarkets but in whole Turkiye, you can buy medicine only from pharmacies. Pharmacy (drugstore, chemist’s, chemist’s shop) is a shop that only sells medicines and health related products. Also, keep in mind that there are pharmacy shops in the shopping malls too, in their own shops. Pharmacies have easy to recognize visions and all nice, clean and decent shops. All drug stores have a sign “E” as a standard, like the image on the left, that can be seen from afar and “ECZANE” or/and “pharmacy” Read more »
Sea, beach and Sun in Ağva and Şile
August 4th, 2009 admin Hello guys!
Nice to meet you with a new post.
I would like to mention about my short trip to Şile (maybe you pronunce it like shele or shela) and Ağva. I always want to share something with you about places that I have recently visited. Those places are far from the center of Istanbul. It was my first travel to there and I actually went to Ağva via Şile, I am writing on the day after I came back. Ağva and Şile are very close places to each others and they have beaches, nice sea, restaurants, hotels, and lodges. So, I must tell you that a foreign Canadian young couple on our bus inspired me to write this post. Because they had a little trouble. To sum, driver of the bus doesn’t know english and they don’t know turkish too ( normally ) and it was their first time to Şile too, so they did not know when to get out the bus. Read more »
