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by John Ash
When did my obsession begin? It must have been at some point in the 90s. Certainly, I remember returning from Van in 1994 ladened with rugs. Both the rugs and the dealers I bought them from were Kurdish. This is an important point. Not all the rugs you will find in Turkey are, strictly speaking, Turkish.
by Beau Higgins
Clothes shopping in Istanbul can be something of a challenge, particularly if you’re both picky and cheap. The reason is simple enough: imported brands are expensive, and local brands have learned that, if they can produce similar styles and quality, backed by two dozen glossy magazine ads and a few billboards showing some judiciously placed skin, they can charge just about the same as the big boys. In business terms, that’s fair enough and quite savvy of them, but for the shopper intent on reasonable brands at reasonable prices, it’s rather demoralizing.
by Beau Higgins
At least since Lady Mary Wortley Montague in the 18th century, virtually every Western writer, including such other luminaries as Voltaire and Agatha Christie, at some juncture in their musings on the city inevitably comments on the streets, the commotion, crowds, colors and sound. Many also mention Istanbul's plethora of maze-like narrow winding streets. What they do not touch on, and for that matter, neither do most Turks, is the names of the streets. This may simply be because, since there are so many of them, no on can manage to remember their names.
