Tour and Talk Turkey with your guide Oguz Kosebalaban

Your host and tour guide Oğuz Kösebalaban

Oğuz Kösebalaban has been working as a tour guide for many years, now he is working on his guide book of Istanbul  ,  part of the content of which can be viewed at his  İstanbul travel information blog , http://mristanblue.wordpress.com/ that had  over 7000 (*) visitors within two years, with popular historical, cultıural, and archaelogical commentary on Istanbul and Turkey.

(His name Oğuz is pronounced as in  ‘kudos‘ or,  ” he owes you a tour ” .  )

He escorted many visitors including state guests including Madame Freiberge – President of Latvia , visiting ministers, , tv crews like CBS, Friends of Museum of Art of Hong Kong. He also escorted top veteran generals of the US – members of AHAC , on an official visit to Turkey held in cooperation with the US Embassy. During President Bush’s visit to Turkey after “the gulf crisis” , 1991 , as a young tour guide, he was a driverguide for the nurse and military ataché of the President.

(*) google search for ” first love letter of the world + Istanbul ” , ” better Bosphorus cruise” , and an article on the cuisine ( for a delicasy called İclikofte in Turkish) – “sentimental meatballs” will lead to his blog within the first page search results among top three links. his sense of humour is also clear in the first page first link photo result of a google photo search for ” bitter Bosphorus cruise” .

Photography & Journalism

Oguz Kosebalaban is a former photo-journalist of the first Turkish parents magazine with various photos published in countrywide media including covers of the magazine. If you google “Kartonsan” – an art & culture prestige magazine , along with his name “Oguz Kosebalaban” , you may see one of his works as a cover.

Sample from his recent professional photography works are available on his facebook photography pages, Bitter Almond Photography.

Oguz Kosebalaban films documantery short movies , a semifinalist in Istanbul Festival short movie contest, his name is also on the Turkish short movie directors listings. He is at the stage of filming his demo program for a personal and communal development program, designed to to be published on internet and tv.

Talk Turkey & Experience Istanbul just like the Movie “Going Back To Future” with your tour guide Oguz Kosebalaban :)

Authentic Istanbul. Cultural Istanbul. Charming Istanbul:

Let me take you through my Istanbul time tunnel, and your informative day in Istanbul will be much fun and great experience just like the movie “going back to future”. Or you may choose the wrong tour and end up listening to a guide repeating a text like a tape recorder;  Do not risk your Istanbul days with another tour, sign up for my tours while supplies still last 🙂

I will be glad to be your guide & host while you are exploring the unique aspects of truly impressive Istanbul. We will also include little detours as a flavour of small and well hidden gems of Istanbul. You will be welcomed at a number of charming places not available to large tour groups, we will take the benefit of being a small tour group, and agree once more, as in this case, less is more 🙂

I have suggestions for a better experience of Istanbul; may it be a walking tour of the old town, Topkapi Palace, Asiatic Istanbul with the first mosque of the world designed by a woman, a better Bosphorus cruise experience, 1-2 hr tour of highlights of the Archaelogical museum with some of the most impressive artifacts of the world including Alexander The Great Sarcophagus, First love letter of the world, the Jewish heritage.

Lesser known but the most juicy Byzantine legends are waiting for you on my tours as we walk through the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern, and talk Turkey.

In Grand Bazaar we will not only skim the surface merely as shoppers, but have an experience of Turkish, Ottoman, Byzantine, Armenian, Jewish, Russian, Middle Eastern art products ; as I offer a brief highlights of the Bazaar tour, while we are also getting familiar with the art of negotiation.

In Spice Market – Egyptian Bazaar we’ll nalso smell best of saffran, sample the better Turkish delight, sip Turkish coffee and apple tea but we will also hear centuries old stories lying behind them, ignored by most tours. We will also cover some of the lesser known side streets for fond surprises. Rustempasa & New Mosque, as well as Pet, fish & produce market are also in this area for those who have the interest for a brief or in depth  detour.

A nice compliment I received on a tour was “A Renaissance Man in a Byzantine city”. In Istanbul, all in one city you will find yourself in a city, that is; Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Republican Turkish, western, eastern, modern, conservative, Moslem, Christian, Jewish, romantic, intriguing, vibrant, mysterious, timeless, extremely scenic, the arena for some of the most impressive events of the world history.

After many years of guiding in Istanbul I am in the process of writing my own guide book of Istanbul: I think, because of being in the field I get a chance to see what lacks in the guide books written by foreigners. I am a blogger and my  Istanbul travel info got popular with over 6000 hits so far. I am a former photo-journalist of the first Turkish parents magazine; almost all the photos I use to introduce my tours on toursbylocals.com are from my tours or my work.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences as well as my guide’s licence. I film documentary short movies; In 2007 International Istanbul Festival I was a finalist. My travel articles are also popular among my colleagues. I will be glad to provide samples, and I am sensible enough to adjust the info level on tours; or else too much or too deep information over the dose kills the joy.

Some of the guides are lecturers; they keep on telling and telling an article like a text taken from a book; they add enthusiasm into this lecture as well; but if they lack in interacting; visitors end up nodding for too much ‘impressive’ information too much too digest.

Your tour guide should be a very good dose planner; to differentiate between a good medicine and the poison. On a private tour you have the comfort of doing what you like, but your guide should be a very good advisor: May it be deep into the incredible history, or Istanbul as a dynamic city; I wish you an incredible Istanbul Experience!