St. Anthony of Padua Church

St. Anthony of Padua Church is the largest church of the Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul. It is located on İstiklal Avenue (see notes 1) in the historic Beyoğlu (Pera) district, the social and cultural center of Istanbul. It is also known as the Sant’Antonio di Padova Church, S. Antonio di Padova, St. Antoine, or locally as Sen Antuan.

Olympos ancient city (Antalya, Turkey)

Olympos is an ancient Lycian city, its ruins lie at the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, in the borders of Antalya province, in a river valley near the coast. It was presumably taking its name from nearby 2,375 meters height (7,792 feet) Mount Olympos (or Mount Olympus – Turkish: Tahtalı Dağı, Timber Mountain), one of over …

Maiden’s Tower

Since the medieval Byzantine period, 200 meters off the shore of the Salacak district in Üsküdar, at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus, a tower lyes on a small islet: The Maiden’s Tower (Turkish: Kız Kulesi). It is also (mistakenly) known as Leander’s Tower (Tower of Leandros), which comes from one of many legends about …

A bike ride on a sunny but windy day

1st day of April… It was windy but sunny and warm. I jumped on my bike and ride it to the North, to the Black Sea. Rumeli Lighthouse (Turkish: Rumeli Feneri, aka Türkeli Feneri), a historical lighthouse still in use, is located on the European side of Bosphorus‘ Black Sea entrance in Istanbul, Turkey. Rumeli …

A bike ride on a chilly, sunny Sunday morning

Another Sunday bike ride in Istanbul: I started as early as 6:00 in the morning, first headed to South (Ortaköy), then climbed up to Maden (Sarıyer) and went to Rumeli Lighthouse village. At the end of the ride, I covered 83 km and climbed 921 meters in 2:54:38 (avg. 28.50 kph)Then I returned back to …

A bike ride in Istanbul on a beautiful morning

It’s March now and March is the month of misty, chilly mornings in Istanbul. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the roads were empty. A perfect day for a bike ride in Istanbul! The roads would be crowded soon, so I hurried to ride my bike for an hour or two. It was really chilly …