Religion in Turkey

Hi everyone!

We visited Istanbul this week! It was a really beautiful city, especially the mosques are impressive. There are some amazing buildings over there.

Religion has always been a touchy subject, it still is! So I decided to post something about the religion in Turkey.

Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion; the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience. There are three main religions in Turkey: Muslim, Judaism and Christianity.

Acording to latest data 71.1 million people in Turkey are Muslims or 98% of the total population. The majority of the Muslims are Sunni (85–90%) and a large minority is Alevi (10–15%). The highest Islamic religious authority is the Presidency of Religious Affairs, it interprets the Hanafi school of law, and is responsible for regulating the operation of the country's 75,000 registered mosques and employing local and provincial imams.

There are less than 100,000 minorities which follow other religions, mainly Christians, mostly Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East and Greek Orthodox and Jews, mainly Sephardi.

It’s always a good idea to check out Turkey’s and Istanbul’s official, public, national, regional and religious holidays before planning a trip or a sightseeing excursion. You don’t want to be stuck in a religious holiday when nothing is open and the traffic is horrific. You have to pay special attention to the religious holidays because they change yearly. I looked up the different holidays for our week but there was no need for panic! We avoided any hectic situations.

Here are this year’s religious holidays:

• ·         Saturday, 18 August: Sugar Feast’s Eve (Ramazan Bayramı Arifesi) – Religious Holiday – ½ day
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• ·         Sunday, 19 – Tuesday, 21 August: Sugar Feast (Ramazan Bayramı) – Religious Holidays – Three-day festival to celebrate the end of fasting (Ramadan) where plenty of sweets are eaten.
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• ·         Wednesday, 24 October: Feast of the Sacrifice’s Eve (Kurban Bayramı Arifesi) – Religious Holiday – ½ day
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• ·         Thursday, 25 – Sunday, 28 October: Feast of the Sacrifice (Kurban Bayramı) – Religious Holidays – Four-day festival where sheep are sacrificed/slaughtered and their meat is distributed to the poor

Lucky for us we weren’t there for any of them. I heard that things can get a little crazy during religious holidays. On the Feast of the Sacrifice, traffic intensifies dramatically. This is because during these holidays Turks visit their relatives all over the country.

This was a very interesting city both in a religious and cultural way.

To end my post i would like to share this video with you of a mosque we visited.

Blue Mosque

See you next time!!

Xoxo

Kimberley

Sources:

http://english.istanbul.com/about-turkey/religion 

http://www.wittistanbul.com/magazine/public-national-and-religious-holidays-in-turkey/ 

Sports in Istanbul

Dear followers,

Our trip has almost come to an end. After Istanbul we will be visiting two more countries and then we will head back home.

Istanbul is an enourmous city with over more than 13 million people. Because of the huge amount of people there are also many recreation areas and sport fields. After all that eating throughout the whole trip we could use a bit of excerice. We searched for different places to sport and learned a lot about popular sports and places in Istanbul. 

The most popular sport is football (soccer) just like here in Belgium. Out of 18, there are 5 Istanbul teams playing in the National Premiere League. Basketball is also very popular in Istanbul, teams are playing in the national league and they participate to European championships. A third popular sport that I didn’t expect is motor sports. In 2005 Istanbul Park Racing Track was built en since then it hosts Formula 1 races and other international motor sports. With a race track circuit that covers over 5 kilometers, Turkish Grand Prix racers can speed up to the total distance of close to 310 kilometers in 58 laps.  The track is 14 meters wide at its narrowest and 21.5 meters wide at its widest.  The track is designed by Hermann Tilke, the famed architect of racetracks.

As soccer is the most popular sport and Ali Sam Yen stadium is one of the biggest stadiums in the world we must visited this. This is part of Turkey’s efforts to clinch the deal to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.  A massive renovation was made costing over 120 million dollars. 

After visiting the stadium we went sporting. We did not one to do a regular sport so we choose to go climbing. As this was all our first time climbing we choose to go indoor. There is a artificial rock wall that you can climb right in the middle of Istanbul. Constructed as a part of Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing equipments shop, the rock climbing wall has 125m2 of climbing area and 1000 holds designed for all levels of climbers. It is open from 9:00 to 23:00. You can rent the necessary climbing equipment at Atolye. The Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing Equipment shop owners enlarged their shop this summer and now, just beside the new shop, they have opened the very first professional climbing wall in Istanbul. They will also be hosting various activities such as slide and video shows, as well as rock climbing and mountaineering lessons at Atolye. It was a very fun experience and we are planning to keep on climbing when we’re back in Belgium.

Shari

http://www.greatistanbul.com/sports.htm

http://www.simplyistanbul.org/ce/sports

http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/Europe/Turkey/Istanbul/

Night clubs, bars, restaurants

Hi everyone

Our next stop on our trip was Istanbul. I’ve been here once before because my father lived here for a year. What I remember most of Istanbul is Istanbul’s nightlife so we’re going to guide you through Istanbul’s nightlife.

There are many night clubs, pubs, restaurants and taverns with live music in the city. One of the hottest night clubs in Turkey, Reina, is actually a vast playground filled with bars, restaurants and dance floors that can welcome up to 2500 people. In the past few years, Reina has been becoming more and more “less local”. Yet, high-fliers, millionaires, celebrities and media moguls continue to mix and mingle under one roof. This has to do with its vast popularity and scenery, which have made it very famous worldwide and thus very crowded. It is located at the foot of the European side with a magnificent view of the Bosphorus Bridge.

Like I said before, there are many bars and restaurants too. Cezayir is a small casual cocktail bar in an upscale contemporary Turkish restaurant. Cezayir is located on the corner of the Fransız Sokağı -the so-called French Street. The three floored restaurant/bar features high quality finger food, main courses and original cocktails. The garden of Cezayir is open starting from April onwards and throughout the summer. The highly active management and team put all their energy into making Cezayir a unique, high-class, yet not snob bar&restaurant.

A must visit for tourist is Parkorman. Parkorman is an uncommon metropol paradise in Istanbul. A great place for activities out of city routines. It is located in a small forest in the middle of Istanbul. We’ve been there and we must say: Parkorman is a perceft choice for summer events with its big pool and beautiful forest sight.

We had a great time but you should visit and explorer Istanbul yourselves.

Until next week!

Celita

Sources:

http://www.qype.co.uk/place/1642350-Parkorman-Istanbul-Istanbul

http://www.nileguide.com/destination/istanbul/bars-and-clubs

http://www.timeout.com/istanbul/

Merhaba! Hi dear bloggers!

This time we went to Istanbul! My favourite city in the world and this visit confirmed that once again! Good weather, lots of culture, nice and friendly people are only a fracture of what this city has to offer. There is so much to do and see that I’m going to tell you more about places we visited. Istanbul, I love it, I can’t wait to go back!

Aya Sophia

This mosque was built in the 4th century. But in fact the Aya Sophia hasn’t always been a mosque. At first it was built by the Christians and so it was a cathedral. Only after the conquest of Constatninopel by the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmet 2, turned it into a mosque. Minarets were built, the cross on the central dome was replaced by a moon and Byzantine frecoes were covered. Only when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became head of Turkey he turned it into a museum. Nowadays people can visit it and discover its old history as a cathedral and its history as a mosque.

Sultan ahmet camisi - Blue Mosque

Sultan Ahmet mosque or the Blue Mosque is a replica of Aya Sophia and is built right in front of it.  In 1609 Sultan Ahmet 1 gave the order to build this mosque. People say ‘Blue Mosque’ because of the blue tiles that were used. An important difference is that it counts 6 minarets which is unusual. The Islamic world was a little offended by this because the most important mosque in Mecca also has 6 minarets. Sultan Ahmet 1 solved this by giving this mosque its 7^th minaret.

Muslims still pray there nowadays but it’s also possible to visit the mosque. You do have to be fully covered with scarf before you can go in.

Topkapı sarayı - Topkapı Palace

Topkapı Palace was the first residence of the Ottoman sultans. It consisted of four courtyards and lots of other small buildings. The palace also contained several mosques, a hospital, bakeries and lots of other things. It was possible to live there and not to leave it because it could function as a city on its own. Finally sultans left Topkapı Palace to go and live in Dolmabahçe Palace because this palace was more luxurious and modern.

Dolmabahçe sarayı - Dolmabahçe palace

As already said Dolmabahçe became the royal residence after Topkapı Palace. This palace has kept all its grandeur of ancient times. Inside the palace you can find the biggest chandelier in the world. It weighs 4.5 tonnes and contains 750 lamps. It takes 6 months to clean all of this.

Also Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, one of the most important people in Turkish history, lived there the last years of his life. His room is now part of the museum tour.

In order to keep its old grandeur there are a lot of rules during your visit. You have to wear plastic covers around your feet in order to protect the floors and carpets. You cannot touch the banisters while walking down the stairs and in fact you cannot really touch anything. You also cannot take pictures inside the building. If you don’t obey these rules you have to leave.

Kapalıçarşı – Grand Bazar

 

if you want to relax a bit you can go shopping. The Grand Bazar is a covered Bazar which contains hundreds of litlle shops. You can find everything there. Clothes, jewelery, scarfs, handbags, herbes, food,... You can wander around for hours in this Bazar and still discover new places.

It was fabulous! Çok güzel iyi idi!

Ilse xxx

Sources:

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

http://www.turkije-info-site.nl/blauwe-moskee-istanbul.html

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmabah%C3%A7epaleis

Transport in Istanbul

Hello there!

Couple of days ago we’ve arrived in Istanbul and it was quite a day! It certainly a whole difference with the other countries we’ve visited but it was again a great experience.

I’m going to talk about all the possibilities of transport you can use in Istanbul. One thing’s for sure, it’s a quite hectic city. Besides all the hustle and bustle, there are a lot of different possibilities how to get at your destination.

We searched some possibilities at forehand and tried the difficulties that were highlighted on the internet. The public transport for example is, as mentioned on the internet, indeed not such a great way to get somewhere, certainly at 5’o clock pm, then starts the rush hour which concedes until midnight.

Besides using the public transport you can also use a taxi to get at your destination, these are yellow and there are a lot of them. The costs are rather low than expensive and it’s handy to get somewhere fast. Be careful again in the rush hour, you better walk to your destination then.

When you want to use something different, you can travel with a ferry-boat, which is again rather low budget.  We went with a ferry-boat and it was nice to do certainly because the weather was also not that bad and at least you get a great view.

We’ve travelled with the ferry trough the Bosporus and went almost until the black sea. We enjoyed the trip very much, certainly because the ferry boat stops at different ferry stops and there we could discover the little villages. Certainly a recommend. This kind of travelling  is very cheap, we’ve payed about 5 euro’s each.

At the other hand you can also travel under the Bosporus which is something new since 2011. The project is called Marmaray. Marmara stands for ‘sea of Marmara’.

Something that is known for everybody is the station travelling, which is cheap and doesn’t has any problem with rush hours. Another thing which is familiar in our ears are the slackenings of the trains. This is to me I think something that they know in every country. The station in Haydarpasa is an intercity rail station which only travels in the country itself.

Transport is very important when you visit a foreign country. When you’re on a trip you probably want to go out of your hotel to discover the city its nature, culture and much more. Therefor it’s important to take a look which possibilities you have in a certain country. I’m glad we did that at forehand so we knew what the positives and negatives were.

We enjoyed the staying in Istanbul, it’s a nice country to discover but at the other hand I prefer going to other countries.

I hope these hints of transport in Istanbul might onetime be necessary for you.

Hear you next week with a lot of new discoveries in another country.

Xxx

Melissa

http://www.youropi.com/nl/istanbul/article/openbaar-vervoer-in-istanbul-832
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanboel
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus

Hong Kong Architecture

Hi everyone!

This week we visited Hong Kong! Can i just say WOW!! We have visited a lot of Asia and I half expected to see another ‘forbidden city’ or temples with a century old Budha in it. But no… This city is so modern, it’s unbelievable.

The Architecture of Hong Kong focuses on Contemporary architecture, especially Modernism, Postmodernism, Functionalism, etc. Due to the lack of available land, few historical buildings remain in the urban areas of Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong has become a centre for modern architecture as older buildings are cleared away to make space for newer, larger buildings. Although the newer buildings are amazing and spectacular, it’s sad that they have to destroy older buildings to make room. All that history just lost, no way to get it back.

Hong Kong has more buildings above 35m (or 100m) and more skyscrapers above 150m than any other city. Hong Kong's skyline is often considered to be the best in the world, with the surrounding mountains and Victoria Harbour complementing the skyscrapers.

But Hong Kong wasn’t always such a vision of glass, steel and marble.

Like most of Asia, Hong Kong was a colony. Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War. Prior to the British settlement of Hong Kong in 1841, architecture in Hong Kong was predominately Chinese.

After the British established the entrepôt of Victoria City (now Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island), the local population increased substantially, and as a result Tong Lau began to appear. These were three-to-four storey buildings, tightly packed in city blocks, and combining Chinese and European architectural elements. The ground floors were typically shops, with apartments and small balconies upstairs. These buildings had stairs but no elevators, and sometimes had neither toilet facilities. These Tong Lau remained the cornerstone of Hong Kong architecture until at least World War II; a number of these building survive to!this day, although often in a abandoned state.

Tong Lau 

So all is not lost. Although Hong Kong is one of the most modern cities in the world they do have a few colonial buildings left. It’s always nice to see a piece of a city’s history, to know how people used to live.

I found this video of an architect in Hong Kong who rebuilt his tiny apartment so that he could fit 24 rooms! AMAZING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-iFJ3ncIDo

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Hong_Kong 

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/attractions/architecture.html 

Religion in Hong Kong

Hello dear followers,

We just landed in Hong Kong. I’m getting exhausted from all the traveling and will take it easy this week. The ideal moment to learn something more about the beliefs from the local people here.

Hong Kong has a multicultural population with Chinese, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus with each their own beliefs and philosophy. Today I will try to explain a bit the popular religions from this city. The Chinese have three primary religions:  Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

First of all I am going to explain shortly the Buddhism. More than 300 million people in the world believe in Buddhism. The word “Buddhi” means “To awaken” and has its origins about 2500 years ago when Siddharta Gotama, known as Buddha, awakened himself by a tree. Some people consider Buddhism is really a religion because some think it’s a philosophy “ a way of living”.

It is a philosophy because philosophy 'means love of wisdom' and the Buddhist path can be summed up as:

(1) to lead a moral life
(2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions
(3) to develop wisdom and understanding

Second religion you will find in Hong Kong is Confucianism. I must admit that I had never heard of this before. Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. There are around 6 million Confucians in the world. About 26,000 live in North America; almost all of the remainder are found throughout China and the rest of Asia. Confucian ethical teachings includes the following values:

Li: includes ritual, propriety, etiquette
Hsiao: love within the family: love of parents for their children and of children for their parents
Yi: righteousness
Xin: honesty and trustworthiness
Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others, the highest Confucian virtue
Chung: loyalty to the state

Taoism is the last one I am going to discuss. Neither have I heard of this term so I looked up a defenition: “Taoism [is] the way of man's cooperation with the course or trend of the natural world, whose principles we discover in the flow patterns of water, gas, an fire, which are subsequently memorialized or sculptured in those of stone and wood, and, later, in many forms of human art.“ (From Tao: The Watercourse Way). In short, Taoism is a way of life which tries to accommodate the tendencies of nature. It’s haracterized by an awareness of man's close relationship with nature and the universe

Personally, I don’t believe in anything (until it is proved) but I think it is something beautiful if people find strength from a philosophy, as long as they don’t exaggerate.

Shari

Sources:

http://www.marimari.com/content/hong_kong/general_info/religion/main.html

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/hong-kong/hk_religion.htm

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm

http://confucianism.freehostingguru.com/

http://www.religionfacts.com/taoism/beliefs.htm