Nicholas Andriani Rankin

Tag: Europe

  • On Arabic Sweets and the Middle East: Kunafa – NICHOLAS ANDRIANI

    All of these things are true… I had been in Jordan for several weeks and my love affair with Arabian sweets had reached a lofty peak. In fact, I would begin and end each day with a platter of pastries, smothered in honeys and syrups that would flood through heaps of pistachios on my plate. Then it happened… I……

  • Sketching Sights: Istanbul, City on the Edge (Art. Travel. Writing. Islam. Architecture)

    The Bosphorus splits Istanbul in two parts. A rift in the madness of Europe and Asia, drifting between bodies of fresh and salt water cooling the heated passion of a most ancient urban jungle. The hot, hot, heat of human movement generates organized chaos as this great strait, this rift, cushions the blow, keeping this…

  • Sketching Sights: Galata Tower (Istanbul, Turkey)

    Like a great minaret, the Galata Tower represents so much more than meets the eye. Built in 1348 as the re-imagining of an earlier structure the tower has gone from hosting inmates, as a prison, to holding great secrets as an observatory for the astrologer Takıyeddin Efendi. What’s more, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi the 17th century aviator… if you…

  • Sketching Sights: Hagia Sophia

    Istanbul, Turkey Stay tuned for next weeks post on my visit to the Hagia Sophia. A little history, modern romanticism, photos… all that good stuff. Yallah, bye!

  • The Strait of Gibraltar: Part I

    Despite the spell Marrakech cast on me (I fled the city only to return on several occasions) I managed to break away one night on a whim, buying a ticket for the overnight train to Tangiers, only leaving myself 2 hours to prepare. I bid farewell to new friends and set out on foot hoping to…

  • From Greece to Istanbul

    We had gotten lost so many times on the island of Crete that we decided to wake up and leave extra early for the airport, “just in case”. Our superior traveling skills got us there on time and although we were sad to leave our oasis behind at the cottage of Eleonas, we were decidedly…