santorini , oia travel guide

probably one of the most visited island of greece, santorini provides the infinite feeling of the beautiful mediterranean. on a very hot june weekend, while visiting for a wedding, i get to discover the colorful northern part of the island, oia. this small island welcomes so many tourists that it is very hard to find empty spots to enjoy. but yet i have managed to find my way into this cute town and manage to experience both the hot morning and the breezy afternoon with great sunset view. being a volcanic island, the dark texture of nature meets beautifully with the neat pearl like man made architecture. the one and only pedestrian street of oia is enough to discover the iconic view of the island. blue domed churches, rustic bells, the colorful cliff view and the sunset.. 

because it is a very popular island i highly recommend you to do all your reservations way earlier than usual. the airline fees are very high, hotels are relatively expensive compared to what they offer and restaurants are always packed during dinner time. so plan very ahead. i stayed at family own the flower pension at the very entrance of oia which was walking distance to the main street with a parking lot! which is a lifesaver! i have always liked greek food and the restaurants we have been were also very nice to dine at. candouni, a very small restaurant with live music and nice atmosphere, is in the inner side of oia streets but if you wanna have the view and dine strogili was also a good choice to dine with the sunset. santorini is a destination for everyone. a bit harder with kids with strolling reasons but it can be romantic, adventurous, calming, artsy... you name it. if you give at least of 2 days you'll get to see plenty. but i highly recommend to stay 3 days to see the most of it. 

i hope you'll enjoy the photos as much as i did while taking them! more of the greek island photos to come soon too! and also big thank you to dilara&gokalp from puciwed for taking my portraits too! <3

travel dairies: ghent, belgium

after being to belgium three times it was the time to visit ghent finally! and with luck it was a great sunny day! and my lovely friend carina was my guide! ghent is a lovely small artsy city where you can enjoy it in a day. having a canal ride then have a walk around and definitely stop at saint bavo's cathedral to see the famous ghent altarpiece by hubert van eyck, which was stolen during the world war II by hitler's army and was brought back from the mines of austria later at the end of the war. if you wanna know more about the story i recommend you to watch the movie the monuments men.

next time i am hoping to visit brugge to see another marvelous city of belgium. hope you enjoy this picturesque little city! oh and big thank you for carina for taking my portraits ^_^ <3

oxford, united kingdom in february

so it was a great february day and i took a walk in this beautiful city! on a sunny day like this, oxford gets even more beautiful! all the history and nature together is just peaceful.. 

the city offers you wonderful ranges of shops, antiques, cafes, parks, gardens, colorful houses, nice people and many more!

start with new college lane with the famous bridge of sighs (hertford bridge that connects new college and hertford college) and follow the st. helen's passage to reach to the hidden beautiful historic turf tavern. then walk through holywell street to see houses with colorful doors and windows! from there you reach to the high street where you can enjoy shops and cafes with both great interiors and exteriors. like my favorites sweaty betty, toast, podarok (where everything they sell is handmade or designers) and many more. take a round tour at radcliffe square.. if it is a sunny day like mine you can enjoy a take away coffee or a little bite on the banks of the square and watch people passing by. and then definitely get lost in covered market and have a cookie from famous ben's cookies which was originally from oxford! you can also eat at different and traditional pies at cute pieminister!

oxford is a university city where there is no one big campus instead the whole city itself serves as a one huge campus! there are 38 colleges around the city in which you can see most of the historic buildings. i haven't been into any buildings yet but to their parks or yards. museum of science and history is also a great stop to see einstein's blackboard that he used during his visit to oxford and archeology equipment of lawrance of arabia (t.e lawrance) and many more historical scientific tools. there is also the famous castle in which you can experience the old. this town is more than 1000 years old there is no chance for you to miss a history there.. 

i just love this city and i still have more to explore.. polite people riding their bikes, enjoying sunny weather outside; the nature.. everything about it is just magical.. i hope you all enjoy it as much as i do!

european wedding congress in the netherlands

it was a great march day for northern europe and it was a gorgeous castle in north of holland. we drove to this gorgeous place with my lovely friends carina & david from belgium to attend this year's european wedding congress that was  hosting internationally known guests,  mike larson, jana willams, lawrance chan and Vanessa van Wieren of alchemy fine events. and of course to i had the chance to meet with other great photographers and videographers from all around europe.  first day it was the conference day for everyone and the second day it was time for the action. to learn and experience more from famous mike larson. below photos are taken during his workshop which was created by talented people like katie larcombe make-up remix, don florito flowers, covers couture. i cannot thank them enough for creating us this opportunity for us! it was such a pleasure to meet with all those talented people and i feel so blessed to be a part of this international organization. hope you all like the photos as much as i did! enjoy! ♥

paris, my love in march..

i love paris. we do have some sort of great love story going on between us. no matter what time of year it is.. well funny thing, i have always been to paris in march and for now it has been very well! i cannot get enough of this beautiful city. esthetics is the word and concept that defines this city. my dream one day is to be able to wake up to a parisian morning carelessly and enjoy the city at its bests! well hoping to fill this blog with more paris photos in different seasons through out the years. these are from very beautiful march weekend in which the whole public transportation system was also free due to over dose particles in the air causes pollution. from the cities i am living in turkey, this weather is nothing close to pollution ofcourse. so i enjoyed it very much with one wedding, one engagement and one anniversary shoot of beautiful people! which will be on the blog soon too! from the jardins du luxembourg to louvre, from monmarte to pantheon here is beautiful paris.. 

antwerp with my photoglove <3

it was my first time in belgium.  and guess what; i did enjoy it very much! despite the fact that it is a very small country compare to turkey but it has it's own way of attracting people. antwerp especially drawn me into it! i did enjoy every bit of it! of course discovering it with locals helped me a lot to love this city! but i can assure you that there are so many beautiful things to be discovered. small coffee shops with great coffee, designer stores, which i still have some left to visit, peaceful streets and amazing street art that adds color to dark northern europe weather.. antwerp should be in the list of must see europe if there is a such list ^_^ i hope you enjoy the photos and feel like visiting antwerp soon!  | belçika için avrupa'nın minik bürokratik ülkesi diyebiliriz ama antwerp için daha fazlası gerekiyor sanırım. sehrin kendine has bir enerjisi ve dokusu beni içine çekmeyi basardı. sokakları, restorantları, kahve dükkanları, özellikle sokak waffleları, tabiki bisikletleri (benim için bir sehrin guzelligi bisikletle ulasım saglayabilmekle neredeyse dogru orantılı) ve en önemlisi sehri birlikte gezdigim ve gezerkende tanistigim güzel insanları antwerp'i benim için özel yapmaya yetti.. umarım fotograflarımdan sehri siz de gezme istegine kapılırsınız!

this lovely woman is like my sister now! our story has started in a strange way but turned out great for both of us (i do hope that she feels the same way too tho ^_^ ) i spent 16 great days with her and lovely family and i am hoping that they have enjoyed it as much as did! - i know she did but i am not sure about the kids (!) =D carina thank you for sending me that very first message! i am so glad that i had the privilege to wonder around the streets of antwerp, brussels, paris and drink good coffee, talk over wine with great chocolates with you! you made these 16 days amazing for me!
 

and david, thank you for putting up with this two crazy lady! you are one amazing patient man! =)

pigeon photobomb!

photo by beyond lovely carina gyselinck