For over a decade, I have worked as a professional tour guide in Istanbul, sharing the beauty of this timeless city with curious travelers from around the world. Along the way, I began documenting my insights and experiences on my blog, Istanbul Clues, where I’ve published dozens of articles exploring everything from Hagia Sophia’s mosaics to the winding alleys of Fener and Balat.
As the blog grew, I realized something. Despite my best efforts — adding personal reflections, choosing evocative images, crafting carefully researched articles — I was still bound by a certain format. Writing about history often meant following a familiar pattern: names, dates, battles, dynasties. Even when I told the stories in my own words, they sometimes felt trapped within the rigid outlines of encyclopedic narration.
I began to wonder: was there a different way to tell Istanbul’s story?
That question stayed with me for years, simmering quietly in the background. I longed to explore history more poetically, more freely — not just as a sequence of events, but as a living memory, full of mood, shadow, sound, and spirit. But how could I do that in a way that readers would still find engaging and accessible?
The answer, it turns out, came from the world of fables. So now let me introduce you to my timeless fable characters, Alek, Misi and Rubi.
Meet Alek, Misi and Rubi
I created Alek, Misi, and Rubi — three animal characters who could say the things I couldn’t. Alek is a seagull who glides above the domes and towers, watching the centuries unfold from the sky. Misi is a black-and-white cat who curls around marble fountains and ancient stairways, attuned to the city’s melancholy heartbeat. Rubi is a small grey mouse who slips into forgotten corners and palace walls, collecting the whispers of the past.
Together, they became my voice in another dimension — one that isn’t limited by time, geography, or logic.
Alek can witness the founding of Byzantium in the 7th century BCE and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, all from the same endless flight. Misi can sit beside an Ottoman scribe one moment and sleep beneath a Byzantine arch the next. Rubi can eavesdrop on emperors and servants alike, slipping through cracks in the floorboards of history.
With them, I could finally tell the kinds of stories I had always wanted to share: not cold lists of facts, but fables — imaginative, atmospheric, and rich with metaphor. Through them, I found a way to describe Istanbul not as a sequence of monuments, but as a city of memory, emotion, and myth.
About Istanbul Stories Website
Of course, these stories had to find a place somewhere else, not on Istanbul Clues, the website of local guide Serhat Engul, who has been sharing his knowledge in a formal style for years.
As a result, I thought about the domain name that would most evoke our stories about Istanbul, and thankfully, I found it available. Alek, Misi and Rubi will now be sharing their stories on our site called “Istanbul Stories”, and you can visit it by clicking the link below.
Step into the whimsical world of Alek, Misi & Rubi
Follow their Istanbul adventures and read all their tales here:
www.istanbulstories.com
Here, you’ll find poetic narratives that blend historical truth with literary wonder, inspired by the timeless tradition of Aesop, La Fontaine, Italo Calvino, and Neil Gaiman. Each story is a doorway into a different layer of the city — one where animals speak, stones remember, and time itself becomes elastic.
Istanbul Stories is not a replacement for Istanbul Clues — it is a companion. Where one gives you the historical facts, the other offers the city’s dreams.
If you’ve ever felt that Istanbul has secrets it hasn’t told you yet, come meet Alek, Misi, and Rubi. They’ve been watching, waiting, and whispering for centuries.
Follow Our Fable Characters on Instagram!
As a side note, you can also follow Alek, Misi, and Rubi on Instagram by clicking this link here. Since the project is still new, the page isn’t very attractive yet, but you can expect to find plenty of images and stories in the coming weeks. Thank you for supporting us by following us!
Written by Serhat Engul
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