Photos from my life

Sometimes I get the question about my origins and me. I collected here some images from my life and described them.

Istanbul

I lived here until I was 19. According to the Turkish Statistics Institute the population grew from ~6 million in 1985 to ~16 million in 2023. I am used to discover new urban landscape every time I visit my family.

A view from Topkapı Palace to Bosporus – 2010 Sep

The sultans of the Ottoman Empire used to reside in the Topkapı Palace. It was built on a high hill with a mesmerizing perspective to Bosporus.

Bosporus is one of the first views that I show to my guests. Even I lived about 13 km away from this place, my school İstanbul Lisesi was nearby and I used to hang out with my friends in the proximity.

Another view to Bosporus from the old and tight streets – 2010 Sep

Whenever I accompany a guest in Istanbul, I usually like to walk in the old streets of Istanbul.

Hagia Sophia Mosque – 2010 Sep

A church built in the 6th century that was converted to a mosque after the Ottoman Empire conquered Istanbul in 1453.

It is a smart and conserving idea to add minarets to a church, even many other parts were also removed during its conversion.

Fish bread and pickle drink in Eminönü — 2010 Sep

Balık ekmek means fish bread. The yellow text advertises that pickles cure everything from cancer to ulcer.

Fish is a significant part of my family’s diet. My mother used to come home from work with fresh fish many times per week. However she would not let me eat much white bread along with fish 🙂.

A view from the shore of Ataköy – 2022 Feb

I lived in Ataköy which was built by a state-owned bank as affordable housing. The section where I live was completed around 1990 but cannot be seen on this picture.

The picture shows the developed housings and hotels which were developed in 2010s at the shore which are quite expensive.

A view from Bahçelievler – 2022 Feb

This is a view from my grandparents’ home in Bahçelievler-Soğanlı to Ataköy’s tall buildings. When I was a child they used to live at the same place in a three floor house that they successively built and let the bottom floors to others. It had a garden and a barn with animals. Then they sold the whole land to a contractor who built two ~6 floor buildings and received some of the apartments for free. This is a common practice in Turkey.

The density in this suburb is very high and there it is hard to find any recreational areas. Ataköy and Bahçelievler are connected by a bridge and one can immediately see the contrast between two suburbs, e.g., you would see street vendors in Bahçelievler even in the late evening but almost none in Ataköy.

My secondary school – İstanbul Erkek Lisesi – 2002 Jun

I spent the four years before the university exams here. The building used to be the Ottoman public debt administration from 1881 to 1923, but was handed over after the Turkish Republic was founded.

İstanbul Erkek Lisesi from inside – 2003 Mar

I used to hang out here during the breaks and meet friends who were just standing by along the aisle.

Atatürk’s picture, national anthem and Atatürk’s Address To Turkish Youth – 2002 Oct

The picture is from a classroom in my secondary school İstanbul Lisesi. In every class I visited, three frames were always hanging on the wall. The national anthem is on the left, and we used to sing the first stanzas every first and last day of the week. On the right is Atatürk’s address to Turkish youth. In the elementary school we had the student oath hanging instead of Atatürk’s Address To Turkish Youth. We also used to recite the student oath every day before the class. Apparently since 2013 the student oat is not used anymore.

School gathering for the national anthem on a Friday – 2010 Sep

The gathering was also used for public announcements. You notice the school uniforms.

A view to Bosporus from a cafe – 2022 Oct

You see the typical tea that people drink in Turkey. My friend on the right has a hookah in his hand.

On the left is the primary inlet of Bosporus into Istanbul.

The Grand Bazaar – 2010 Sep

Apparently it is regarded on of the first shopping malls of the world. I often used the market to get the daily exchange rates for dollar and euro when I used to work in a shop of a silver manufacturer in early 2000s. Looking up in the internet or calling the exchange office was probably more costly then sending me over.

The prices tend to be directed at tourists and I can hardly remember buying something there from anonymous stores. I used to haggle there a lot when I helped my guests to buy there a souvenir, as foreigners get other prices compared to natives.

A street vendor selling fresh pomegranade juice – 2010 Sep

In Istanbul one can meet many street vendors.

In my childhood I would often see street vendors walking by parks to sell sweet stuff or toys to us.

A stray cat – 2021 Jul

This is a cat from a nearby small private shelter that made itself comfortable on my seat cushion while preparing some questions for an exam.

There are many stray cats and dogs on the streets of Istanbul and we never thought about adopting a private cat or dog in my family. Many people in Istanbul feed and care about them well. One time I met an older woman who spent most of her monthly pension for nearby stray dogs’ meal and veterinary costs.

Family

Sometimes I am not sure about whether something is Turkish. I can at least tell what I experienced in my family.

Breakfast with my parents and sister in our summer flat – 2021 Jul

Internationals are astonished when I say that I like to dip raw parsley into olive oil and eat it for breakfast. On the table you see from the very bottom to top: Cheese (in plastic bags), tahini & molasses spread, nuts, jam, tomatoes, cooked beetroot, mix of greens like parsley & mint & dill & purslane, cucumber, a bread, olive oil with thyme for dipping the bread, pepper.

The photo is from the balcony of our summer house where I regularly spent my time during the long three month school free time.

A birthday party with my close relatives

Our family with other relatives used to always gather on my birthday.

You notice again the typical Turkish tea glasses. The meals from left to right: Stuffed bread called poğaça, a usual birthday cake, Turkish bulgur salad kısır, an ordinary salad with carrots and greens.

My mother still bakes poğaça on the last day before I leave Turkey so that I have something to eat the first days when I arrive in my home country.

Bike trip from Deggendorf to Cambridge

I had to opportunity to participate in an English course in Cambridge in Aug 2021. It was towards the end of COVID, where I also had some unusual thoughts like others. Instead of flying I wanted to minimize my carbon footprint and experience how people traveled when flying was not common. I chose to travel to Cambridge by bike & ferry. On the return journey to Deggendorf I additionally used the train.

Approximate path that I took

The trip took ~1300 km and about three weeks with longer stays in between.

Bike caravan – 2021 Aug

This was the most interesting vehicle I saw on my journey. I find it incredible that e-bikes made it easier to travel like this. She posts about her journeys on her Youtube channel.

She told that people would typically support her whenever she needs to charge the batteries to needs a camping place.

Dog in the bike caravan – 2021 Aug

She even took her dog with her.

Leaving a friend’s house – 2021 Aug

Here I am leaving the house of a friend near Würzburg.

I did not think that I would come so far with so much to carry, however the key was consistency rather than efficiency.

Presentation in Cambridge – 2021 Sep

As part of the English course we had to hold presentations.

I feel a bit shame a bit when I look at this picture – I simply look like Robinson Crusoe 🤦. However the look is part of the performance 🙂.

During my trip I was searching for freedom but understood that I am actually already free in my cage at home.

Moving using train and bike

Since 2013 I do not own a car and I hope I don’t have to in the future. Here are some of my experiments for moving goods between homes using my bike and the train.

Moving from Munich to Deggendorf 1

Moving from Munich to Deggendorf 2

Transporting a ski

Here I felt myself like a knight with a fixed long sword.

Deggendorf

I worked for five years in Deggendorf Institute of Technology, which is a Fachhochschule — a German higher education institution that focuses on professional education in applied sciences. The town Deggendorf has ~35000 inhabitants as of 2024 and was the smallest town that I lived before.

My first students – 2019 Oct

This was the first day with my international students.

City market – 2019 Oct

For the first time in my life I had to opportunity to live in the city center. My small 26 m² room apartment did cost about 225 EUR without heating and electricity in 2019 which was pretty affordable.

I especially liked the weekly market where you could find many producers. Fresh vegetables from the market used to stay fresh for a longer time than the ones you buy in the supermarket.

Pecularities in a rural area – 2020 March

This moment is from a business trip to an industrial partner.

Electronics and computers

Interning at Philips – 2010 Dec

At Philips I discovered my passion for FPGAs. On the right side of the desk there is a AMD ML-605 FPGA board where I tried to implement a computer that can process data from 10 sensors that could deliver 1 Gbit/s in parallel. I found it fascinating that FPGAs can achieve such computing tasks using custom computing circuits that the programmer implements. Moreover I find searching for simple implementations of an algorithm very rewarding — something that one must very often do on an FPGA.

My two lovely Romanian friends helped me a lot with my outfit. However in the coming years I got much more casual.

Preparing a stack of FPGA boards for remote access during COVID – 2021 Feb

During COVID I tried my best to provide the students with remote infrastructure.

This is how typically my desk looks like. I like hardware.

Stacks for a course on algorithm acceleration on FPGAs

This is the end result of the former picture.

The students could login on the boards and compare their implementations regarding speedup through the FPGA: one executed on the CPU and one implemented on the FPGA+CPU.

A board for switching off TVs – 2009 Sep

As a student I designed and etched printed circuit boards. Above is the TV-B-gone which scans through codes of popular TV brands. I also had my fun remotely switching off TVs in an electronics store. On the bottom is my compact redesign of the original circuit board design.

The design uses a programmable computer with just eight pins — I am fascinated by simple and tiny computing machinery that can interact with its environment.