chiswick, london's hidden gem by the river thames

on a very hot summer day, chiswick riverside, around kew bridge (i believe they call it the strand) towards east, one can feel like they are in southern france.. the whole ambiance of the neighborhood is not only so pretty but also so peaceful to wander. great architectural elements meets with english lifestyle and good old history and river thames’ wild nature. i love this city even more with all these little wonders that pops out from every corner of it! if you wanna experience some local london experience, i urge you to stroll by the riverside of this neighborhood and move on to kew gardens later.

hope you enjoy the visual stroll that i hand picked for you!

covent garden in spring..when london blooms

in a sunny day, one should not ever miss the opportunity to wander on the streets of london. covent garden in the spring is one must visit location even for the locals. not only all tourist attractions are beautiful but also all hidden gems of london will be all blossomed and ready to be in your memories to last forever.

this was my covent garden moment on a sunny, yet cold, april day. chelsea flower show by the corner, covent garden is already celebrating spring at its best. all stores, restaurants are covered with flowers, the market place is prettier than ever, street performers at their bests; you can easily spend hours at this beautiful land mark of london.

make sure to wander in every corner of it and grab a coffee or tea at least and enjoy the sun while watching the street performers or classical musicians. my favorite stores are kikki.k design and whittard of chelsea!

london

london has always been nice to me. even in its cold autumn days.. it still is pretty and offers lots to take good snaps of! more to come soon from this beautiful city..

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!

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