you also see them in Rome and in Paris too bad never in Istanbul



http://k43.pbase.com/u7/geminigeo/upload/1303392.scan0325PaintingtheSeineweb.jpg

When I painted Istanbul´s skyline (oil) I often wondered why are there no artists on the Galata Bridge? In Prague you do notice them on the Charles Bridge.

Why do foreign tourists hate Russians on holidays?
A recent research published in the Netherlands revealed that many foreign tourists, particularly the Dutch, prefer to stay away from Russian holiday-makers in Turkey and Egypt.
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/16-06-2008/105517-russian_tourists-0

No Russian neighborhoods

Russians who settle in Turkey are different from British and German residents. They do not live together in sites or blocs, and there is no Russian neighborhood in Antalya. Russians mingle with locals and try to speak Turkish with almost everyone. They are eager to learn Turkish to run their businesses effectively.


http://www.turkishforum.com/content/2008/07/13/a-new-generation-of-russian-women-in-turkey/

The Kremlin in Antalya





The biggest struggle now for the Turkish hotels is to find enough staff members who speak Russian. Those in the tourism industry who had mastered German and English are returning to language school. “Everybody is studying Russian now,” said Suat Esenli, a worker at the Kremlin Palace Hotel, which has more than 800 rooms and opened in 2003, just as Russian tourism began to soar. Typically, about 60 percent of the hotel’s patrons are from the former Soviet Union, with the rest from elsewhere in Europe. Still, the effort to make Russian guests feel comfortable can go too far. For a time, one of the hotel restaurants served the sort of dishes — borscht, blinis and the like — that should have brought joy to a Russian’s heart. The restaurant had to scrap the menu. It turned out that the last thing that the Russians wanted was the food they could get at home.

The New York Times reports about a water aerobics class at a hotel in Antalya, Turkey, built for Russian tourists to resemble the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral


Azade, I recommend you read this article
"Dancing with the New Tsars"

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/12/new_tsars/index.html

and I found this quite interesting, have a look at the Kremlin Hotel picture in Antalya
Free and Flush, Russians Eager to Roam Abroad

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/world/europe/15russians.html

glad we stayed in Sultan Ahmed district!

Residents of 15 districts in Istanbul, one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world, are subjected to noise levels that are vastly above 70 decibels, the maximum level that most people can endure without permanent hearing loss, reported daily Sabah yesterday.

According to a recently produced noise map of Istanbul, residents in 15 districts, including big and crowded areas such as Bakırköy, Şişli and Kadıköy, are victims of striking levels of noise pollution caused by traffic, klaxons, music and other daily activities. Noise in these districts often reaches 75-85 decibels and hits 90-100 decibels every three minutes.

The level of noise is recorded as 115 decibels in Tuzla shipyards and 85 decibels in certain spots along the E-5 highway in the neighborhood of Sefaköy around the Atatürk Airport, and the entrance of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge on the Bosporus. The noise level in Sefaköy even reaches 100 decibels during the takeoff and landing of airplanes at the nearby Atatürk Airport.

Humans can function when the noise level around them is measured at 60 decibels at most, said Emin Ağaç, general manager of Tekno Endüstri, the company that carried out the mapping process. The rate of hearing loss from urban and environmental noise is 3 percent worldwide, but it has likely increased to 10 percent in Turkey in recent years, added Ağaç. As highlighted by the noise map, the historic neighborhood of Sultanahmet is the quietest part of the city. On the other hand, a person who spends one hour in the district of Mecidiyeköy is at risk for hearing loss during the next five years.

RADİKAL

Turks pay $600 million to Russian prostitutes

Around $600 million a year makes its way to Russia via Russian women engaged in prostitution in Turkey, an expert claims.

The amount of foreign exchange Turks send to Russia by Russian prostitutes working in Turkey is almost half the amount of the foreign exchange entering Turkey through Turkish workers in Germany, said Professor Hurşit Güneş at a conference in the eastern Anatolian province of Erzurum, as reported by daily Hürriyet yesterday.

Güneş said there are around 500,000 Russian prostitutes, 10 percent of whom work in Turkey. He claimed that each Russian woman engaged in prostitution in Turkey sends around $1,000 a month to Russia. “That makes $50 million a month. It means we send $600 million abroad in payments for prostitutes,” said Güneş.

Güneş said that Turkish economists calculate the foreign exchange coming from Turkish workers abroad and claim that there are still deficits in the economy. “They count the foreign exchange sent to Turkey by workers abroad, but not the money sent abroad through Natashas (Russian women engaged in prostitution in Turkey),” said Güneş.

Güneş also claimed that given that the fact that around $75 million worth of drugs pass through Turkey each year, is the reaseon there is an excess of dollars instead of euros.

RADIKAL

Their behaviour leads much to be desired,they were out of control when I witnessed them pushing and shoving at Ataturk´s passport control.

The speed with which many of the world´s cities are growing affects their social and physical structure dramatically. The five cities featured in this section - Cairo, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles and Shanghai - are experiencing growth at a different pace, and absorbing it in different manners: some are growing upwards, others are growing outwards.

The speed of urban change is fuelled by natural increase as well as rural-to-urban migration, with people flocking to cities in search of jobs and social opportunities. Some cities, like London, are managing this change with planned strategies for growth. Others are overtaken by informal development processes that completely transform their scale, texture and character.

In many cases, the social and urban landscapes of these cities are being rapidly transformed by the speculative commercial development of business parks, commercial districts, shopping malls and housing enclaves. These changes directly affect the lives of existing communities and new city residents; the way in which they are managed is central to the creation of more balanced and inclusive cities in the twenty-first century.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/globalcities/speed.shtm