Index:

- How to keep an old building alive: Antwerpen Centraal
- Park Hilaria in August, Eindhoven
- Helsinki, Vappu Festival
- Nice devices: Notebook grill, air multiplier ...
- Nice advertisements: Knorr Dürüm, Financial times world ...
- Christmas Box from TU/e (tr=Bayram Sepeti)
- Rotterdam Centraal in the near future
- Tips on Istanbul
- Some hints for Eindhoven and the Netherlands
- Why you shall not buy an iPhone

Antwerpen Centraal

Antwerpen Centraal
Antwerpen is a rich city at Flemish side (north) of Belgium. I liked how the central station is kept it alive. Rails are moved to underground platfrorms. Two at -1st and two at -2nd floor. City gets rid of rails on ground which permits further development of the city center. The old building is still alive as it was before, not as a hotel. My friends in Istanbul have to take care of Haydarpasa Station.

Hilaria Park

Hilaria Park
Hilaria Park visits Eindhoven every August. It takes a few weeks to complete installation of the items and it is located on J.F.Kennedy laan. So the street is closed to traffic for two months. Personnel of the park stays in a caravan city located in the TUE campus (right).

Helsinki, Vappu Festival

Helsinki, Vappu Festival
This fest takes place on 1.May but there is no relation with labors day. This is the spring fest in Finland. White hats are for high school graduates. The working suits are traditional party costume for Finnish youth. The dirtier it is the harder you party. The next day is picnic in Kaivopuisto Park.

nice devices

nice devices
self explanatory :) 1-notebook grill 2-air multiplier

Nice Ad's

Nice Ad's
(Left most) Durum from Knorr. I bet none of the Turkish would eat that! (Center left) Solar Toy set, not for kids but me :) (Center right) German version of Lego Technic (Center bottom) Financial Times adv at Schiphol airport.

TU/e Christmas Box

TU/e Christmas Box
A very nice, fancy box, with a lot of useless items in it. Most people would prefer bonus instead. Still a good though.

Rotterdam Centraal in the near future

Rotterdam Centraal in the near future
Rotterdam Centraal is going to serve the passengers in the near future with its new face. This pic is not really interesting for Dutch people possibly but for Turkish? Since the public transportation still depends on buses mostly and streets are like hell to cycle. More overthe government did not spare budget to railways during cold war time and since then (since it implied communism to USA and our government is always suppressed by them). So such a central train station is just interesting for us, not possible to see an example of this in Ankara for at least 20 years. (Buses, tram, train station, bicycle shed)

Tips on Istanbul

You want to pay a visit to the 2010 European cultural capital. Wise choice but there are some difficulties traveling in this beautiful city. I will try to ease things for you:

1. Check your travel guide first. I am sure it is obvious that Istanbul is not a city to visit 2-3 days. Try to make your visit at least 4 days to visit the museums, mosques, palaces and also enjoy the city life.

2. Try the hostels close to Sultan Ahmet (The Blue) Mosque. This is the heart of the old city and tram connections make it easy to reach any point worth visiting.

3. Try to avoid using public transportation until 9 a.m. in the morning and between 5-8 p.m. in the evening. Istanbul is a populated city, and the public transportation is always busy. It is some times not possible to get in to bus or tram during rush hours. It is better to walk during these hours to avoid traffic jam.

3a. Unfortunately public transportation help on web is not good enough yet to help you. Try to understand the route before leaving your hostel. Otherwise you need to ask people and always double check the given information.

4. Try nargila/shisha at Tophane (next to the Tophane tram stop). These are quite expensive (7.5 euros). Generally this place is crowded and too much pop music. I do recommend you to take a sofa where you can see the mosque if you will go to this cliche place for nargila.
***Best places and best nargila is under Halic Bridge "Dersaadet" for mornings and "10" for nights. "Çorlulu Ali Paşa Medresesi" (very close to Beyazid tram stop) is the most peaceful and authentic among all. Try when the weather is nice.

5. Istanbul is a dangerous city but not more than London or Rome. Just keep your valuables next to you.

6. People will try to help you but foreign languages are rarely spoken fluently. If you are lost try asking for help with your map. This will make it easy for both sides.

7. Best thing you can do is to buy an Akbil (electronic ticket) for 15 euros. You can load cash to this tiny device. You will not need to care about stupid coins etc. anymore. Moreover this device provides a 50% discount on transfers in an hour.

8. Food is cheap mostly. Just make sure that you are adjusted to the taste before ordering any further. Do not get sick eating chilly or fat rich food :)

9. Do not leave Istanbul before trying deserts. Best is to order a desert if you liked the food. Try deserts based on milk. Turkish kitchen is rich of such deserts. These are lighter with respect to baklava, and you cannot find these in any other country. "Ozsut" is a well known and well spread chain where you can try most of the deserts.

10. Take a boat trip from Eminonu pier to travel from south to the north of the Bosphorus. Have a fish and drink raki at the final destination. Walk to the castle ruins to see Black sea and Bosphorus at the same time.

11. Do you want to see a non-touristic location? Take a boat from European side to Kadikoy. Walk to the tram and visit cafes at Moda coast. You will have peaceful time drinking tea and have time to observe more common Turkish living.

12. You can have a walk from Moda up to Bostanci from coast. This is a huge park that continues for kilometers. You will see Moda Marina, Fenerbahce stadium (all people on Asian side supports them), Kalamis Park and many nice villas.

13. Do not forget to enjoy a breakfast near Rumeli Hisari (North gates of the Bosphorus at western coast).

Nargile and black tea at Tophane

Nargile and black tea at Tophane

Some Hints for Eindhoven & Netherlands:

TRANSPORTATION:
- Before you buy a train ticket: if you know your address, pay euros 55 and get a 40% discount card as you arrive!
- Trains are vital for transportation and it is better you also check the connections of your journey. http://www.ns.nl/
- All the bus start and end at the train station. You can get the bus schedule from http://www.oveindhoven.nl/
- The bus stripes (nationale strippen kaart) are valid in all cities, as the name implies.
- if you have a residence permit you do not need to carry your passport with you. if police asks for identity and you are cought without, they may fine you by euros 400. take care!
- after receiving the residence permit card, carry your passport if you travel outside the netherlands (even in eu states).
- biking is a must in the city. everybody has one. it takes about 10 minutes to travel 3km's. if you are not able to paddle you can get a scooter. it is also recognized as a bike here, and you do not need a driving license to drive one.
- bike prices start from euros 100 up to 1000. ride it to check gears, breaks, comfort and paddling easiness before you pay.

SHOPPING:
- Hopefully you do not arrive on Sunday. All the shops are closed. You will have to survive with fastfood until Monday!
- 1st Sunday of each month is the shopping Sunday and the shops are open.
- On Friday shops are open till 9pm in Eindhoven. This may change from one town to other.
- During weekdays shops are open from 9 am to 18 pm.

FOOD:
- If you are not good at cooking or you can not spare time for preparation, take a look at http://www.ah.nl/recepten. Also the ready to cook vegetable bags shortens cooking time.
- Select a nearby AlberHein (luxurious super market) from http://www.ah.nl/albertheijn/winkelinformatie to check the dates and time it is available for shopping.
- Even though, alberhein is a nice market, it is expensive. you shall take advantage of lidl or small markets (ie. turkish markets in Kruisstraat)

PHONE:
- If you talk to abroad it is better to get a paycard like Lebara for your mobile. It costs euros 0.40 to talk to Germany and euros 0.30 to talk to Turkey. This is much cheaper than T-Mobile rates (about euros 0.50)
- However it is better to get a contract if your communication is mostly in the Netherlands. Mostly in a few months this will be the case and you shall switch to a contract. (about euros 10 only simcard, euros 30 with the phone)

KEEP IN MIND!!
- Get an agenda! Everybody holds one and you have to be accurate if you want to survive!
- It is never summer here :( It might rain any time. Do not hesitate to carry an umbrella or raincoat with you. You will never regret! Also check the website http://www.weeronline.nl/ for extended 5 min accurate weather forecast.
- Addressing system is totally stupid. You may see an address like Morgenstraat 1011!!! Do not worry the street is not that long. There are no apartment numbers, which means every flat has a number. Just check google maps. thus the numbers on the apartments across the road will not match. yes odds are and evens are on different sides, but the numbers do not follow them due to mentioned stupidness.
- Everything is planned for once which is never the case anywhere else. large pedestrian ways, bike lines... lots to learn here.
- traffic lights are totally waste of time. all the lines and pedestrians are stopped sometimes for half a minute. you may drive crazy. however even the dutch pedestrians started to cross road if there are no cars. hopefully cars will not do the same.
- all the dutch woman/girls put on the same clothes, seldom with different colors. there is no style for individuals. a common style for everybody, ridiculous.
- thursday nights are for students. cheap beer is offered on this day.

Why you shall not buy an iPhone?

1- I cannot download any data from my PC. No pdf or doc file can be transferred. I have to e-mail it to my self to be able to preview on my phoene.

2- If I really want to load some files I shall connect my iPhone to my PC via wireless network. (Then you have to use an application like Discover(free) or purchase a more complicated one)

3- You want to use bluetooth for sure???Even the application does not exist yet, so you need to wait for it. I am sure you will need to pay for it.

4- You cannot basicly select a melody from your library ‘cause you have to download it from iTunes! However there is a trick you can follow on www.theappleblog.com

5- Battery ends up at most in 3 days if you go to flight mode at night and do not use wi-fi. 3G is alway operating. In time it will surely decrease.

6- Changing battery is euros 70!!!! So when the battery life is over it is better to get a new phone.

7- Why did I get an iPhone? Easy answer: good contract from T-Mobile. I will sell it for sure as the contract ends.

8- Camera mode may stuck the OS. (added on 12.01.2009)

9- Multiple pause/play operations from headset controller may cause the OS to stuck and screen to go black. In the both cases 8 and 9 best is to reset the phone by holding Home and power buttons about ten seconds. Idiot machine! Needs too much testing before released to market.

10- Why it is not possible to save google maps and use it offline? Do I have to buy an application and more over pay extra for data roaming when I am abroad?

12 Ocak 2010 Salı

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