I live in Feneryolu, Kadiköy. If you want the sea view and wish to be close to the crowd look for hotels at Kadikoy Rihtim (harbour). I saw a boarding house in Fenerbahce on Trudy's list which may be interesting. (Pansiyon means boarding house).

Fenerbahce is a very pleasant place to spend time. It has a nice coast. It is mostly a residential area and it is a lot calmer than the European side. If you are a barfly, the bars and pubs in Bahariye, Kadikoy in walking distance. If you walk to Bagdad street (probably the nicest street in Istanbul with lots of fashion stores etc.) you can hail a dolmus to Taksim. If you are not doing that in the rush hour, you will be in Taksim in 15-20 minutes. There is of course Beyoglu there and all the night life.

Six kilometers or so to the East from Feneryolu, there is Bostanci. There you can take a boat to the Prince Islands. It is an archepelago consisting of 9 islands (5 larger and 4 very small ones). The trip takes 40 minutes or so (depends on the boat). You could rent a bcycle on the islands. It is very pleasant especially in the spring. There are also many beautiful mansions and nice looking old buildings there.

If you go to Buyukada drink a glass of tea at Madam's Café to the left of the pier and go to the bcycle rent shops 200 meters up from the main street just after the little clock tower. After pedalling a while you will see a square with many horse carts parking on one side of it. You will see a very steep road climbing all the way up to the highest point of the island. That point is called Aya Yorgi (Hagia Gheorghi). There is an old church up there. In the back of the church there is an open air restaurant. There you can see the sea in all directions. The view is breath taking. Wait until the sun set if you have time. Order meatballs (if you are not a vegeterian) and a glass of the monk's wine as they call it. (Actually the wine is brought from Bozcaada which is another island in the Aegean).

When you are back to Feneryolu, take a taxi to Camlica and don't forget to bring along your camera. You can take postcard like photos of Istanbul and Bosphorus from Camlica tepesi which is one of the highest points in Istanbul.

In every writing, there are some exageration, some drama, some tragedy and a host of other writing techniques. In other words, I am offering you a beverage distilled from my human feelings. It is a bit condensed and stronger than the real thing just like wine being stronger than grape juice and cognac being stronger than both of them. The purpose is getting you to drink it.

It is impossible to establish a complete control over all the aspects of life. It is in man's nature to have a desire to use opportunities. If you find an abandoned newspaper on the bus, you would like to read it. If you are a very rich person, you'd spend a poor worker's annual income on a dinner party and that would be perfectly normal to you.

No matter how much you complain of the way governments and media use the coercion they have; they will always be in place and running on their own natural paths.

When you study society in a wider context, you will notice how archaic it actually is. Just like myriad layers of sediments forming in a lake, the traces of bygone years are perpetually recorded in the muddy waters of society. If we could drill through all these sediment layers and reach the end of it, we would probably find a caveman there who is responsible for all that mud and blur.
Generation after generation people did their best to destroy the caveman by constantly improving all the aspects of society. Yet the caveman is still with us. We took the axe in his hand and gave him a-bombs to nuke tens of thousands of people in one go.

As a matter of fact, patriotism is very much like the love you have for your family. You love your country, and your identity. If there is love in your family chances are that there is love in you too. You open up your eyes to the beauties of this world then. Because you are a love child and you know what love is. Your parents loved each other and you learned from them. Similarly, if you love your country and feel that you can do whatever sacrifice to save it just like you would if your family were in danger, that will not do any harm to anyone. It will indeed make love prevail.

Here is the magic formula: love yourself, love your family and friends, love your country and love this world that we all live in.

I am in love with this world. I thank million times to the unknown creator for the oxygen it gave us, for the sun that heats and energizes us, for the abundant foods and all the other riches we are given.

Everyone has a different view of certain concepts. For example, what is regarded as a religious requirement by some can be seen as an act of barbarism by others. There used to be people who sacrificed their lives with all the best intentions in sake of communism but to some others they were just a bunch of bastards whose heads had to be crushed.

If your understanding of patriotism is more in the lines of chauvenism then you probably see no difference at all between patriotism and nationalism either. This kind of a misconception is very much like my regarding a dentist as a torturer no matter how useful in reality a dentist is.

So, The Empire Strikes Back!
Let's put the record straight. You insulted me in a private message and when I complained, you said it was a private message. Then I sent you a private message and asked whether it would be OK if I called you "a bitch" or "a slut" because it was just a PM.

You also publicly accused me of sending you vile PM's in which I insulted you. Being in suspicion I found and posted the originals of those messages to prove that they did not contain any insulting words. Then you accused me of violating your privacy by posting messages sent to you in the public forum.

Now are we facing yet another lie Ms. Aenigma?

Dead sea is a geographical term describing a part of the sea with a very narrow opening to the main body of the sea. On account that they are very calm and isolated from the main water they are called dead seas. We have one in Fethiye and I suppose there are hundreds more around the world. Ours is quite famous too by the way. I suppose the reason why you remember the one in Israel is because of the Qumran scrolls they found in the vicinity of a dead sea there.

Varlik has following connotations:

assets, resources, existence, presence.

Varlikli means wealthy.

Some examples:
Varligin beni mutlu ediyor.
Your presence makes me happy
Varlik icinde yokluk cekiyoruz.
We are suffering from poverty/shortage of something whereas we have all the resources (probably due to mismanagement).

Varoluş = existance
varoluşÃ§uluk existentialism

Sammy Davis Jr. ( 1925-1990 )

I would like to unofficially declare the week of Sunday 23, as the week of rememberance for Sammy Davis Jr. for the Turkish Class community.

The observance of The Rememberance Week activities is neither obligatory nor does it involve anything more than just a few mouse clicks at Youtube.

I believe you will enjoy the relaxation you will get from listening to this past master who was highly acclaimed in his day, for his singing, dancing and acting.