Istanbul 2024!

Day 1 (and 2) LOOOONG travel day

When you travel halfway across the world, the long travel days and insane jet lag are part of the package deal. This summer's trip is logistically challenging for a number of reasons. We began by saving several hundred dollars by flying out of Seattle instead of Oregon. We rented a cheap car, drove several hours and dropped it at the airport before joining the lines and chaos that is part of summer travel. How random to have noodles laaksa in the airport. Pretty good though!

Luckily, the flight to London was smooth and we both even napped a bit. What was annoying was the nearly six hour layover in Heathrow. Ugh! It's hard to kill time when you're so tired. We found a an empty gate and took over some chairs for naps. Heathrow was just as chaotic as Seattle.

Finally our flight to Istanbul boarded and also went off without a hitch. Arriving in Istanbul felt calm compared to the other two airports. The airport is new, gigantic, and relatively quiet maybe because it was around 8pm. I did my research and found a legitimate bank ATM, bought an Istanbulkart for public transport and took a new flashy metro into the city for a couple of bucks. The airport is far from town so the journey took over an hour. We were relieved to finally arrive in Taksim Square and catch our first glimpse of the city.

Hotel check-in was easy, even despite the 66 stairs to get to our 4th floor walk-up room. The best surprise was the balcony overlooking the city. The small room was around $60 per night and even had a little kitchen. Home for the next three nights! I walked a few minutes away to a local kebap place for our first meal. This one was take-out as we were wiped and happy to eat in our little room and take much-needed showers.

Day 2. First Impressions of Enormous Istanbul

We heard our first call to prayer from a mosque in Taksim Square. It's so interesting and longer than I expected. After getting ourselves organized, we took our hotel's suggestion and found a nice breakfast place where we tried delicious menemen, kaymak (honey and cream), and Turkish tea for the first time.

A few of our first impressions on our morning walk.

We walked a bit further and stopped in for fancy coffee. We enjoyed talking to another mom and teen daughter from Italy.

Istanbul felt rather calm in the 8-10am hours. Streets were shady and uncrowded and we enjoyed a long walk across the Galata Bridge into the more touristy part of town. We saw so many cats and kittens along the way. They are all friendly and well-cared for. Literally, we probably saw over 100 cats on this walk. Many have little cat houses on the streets and there is food and water set out for them everywhere.

Finally we arrived at our first mosque, Yeni Cami dating back to 1597. The man at the door was happy to give us facts about the mosque. It was so beautiful and colorful! The tile work is incredible.

It was starting to get hot but we persisted through the Egyptian Spice Market. This felt very touristy with most shopkeepers trying to target us. We kept walking and didn't buy anything.

Finally the heat was starting to get to us so we stopped for lemonade in a park to rest. Gulhane Park was a nice place to wander in the shade and see our first cistern. This one was also an art exhibit. Istanbul has many underground cisterns that stored water for the city long ago. They are quite dramatic and many are now tourist attractions. We might visit a larger one later in the trip.

We continued to the edge of the European side of Istanbul. Istanbul is the only major city in the world that straddles two continents. For these three nights, we would stay only on the European side. When we revisit Istanbul later in our trip, we will explore the Asian side. It was relaxing sitting in the grass watching the water highway in front of us. The Bosphorus Strait has so many forms of boat traffic!

We decided to save our feet and take the bus closer to our hotel for a little shopping. Istiklal Street is home to all the giant brands you can imagine and offers up a long and pleasant pedestrian-only street (except for one cute tram). We popped in and out of nicely air-conditioned stores.

We stopped for a simple durum kebab lunch where I tried Ayran (salty yogurt drink)and cigi kofti. The latter was not my thing. A bulgar/tomato paste/spices concoction that was a little strange. But I liked the Ayran!

The hotel bed was beckoning so we took our tired bodies, nearly 20,000 steps so far, back to the hotel for a little nap.

I got up first and found a fun street for a happy hour beer. It's amazing how a nap can revive you! I loved watching people and realizing this is just day one of a very long trip ahead!

DD#2 joined me for dinner at a small place where we shared a meze platter. There were nine different dips to try. I would say we liked about half of them but enjoyed trying some new things. After a quick stop at the nearby bakery for baklava and rice pudding (delicious!), we called it a day. Whew!

Day 3. More Exploring and a Special Sunset Cruise

We woke up on the early side again thanks to jet lag. We didn't make it far before stopping in for tasty burek (cheesy pastry) and tea.

Even the morning was very hot. We walked to a trendy and air-conditioned coffee shop for a break before catching a tram back to the old city to explore more mosques. The Suleymaniye Mosque was incredible! The views from the top were amazing. The immense size of these things is hard to take in all at once.

We wandered a little further to Vefa Bozacisi. It is a very old institution (1876) that serves a fermented grain drink. It is so thick it is served with a spoon. The funny thing was that there was a news reporter and camera person there who was doing a story on the place. They actually interviewed me to ask my opinions about the drink. I was polite but I have to say, it was terrible! I can appreciate most foods but this one just didn't do it for me. Yuck! Still glad I tried it. I think it was $1.50 so no big deal.

We stopped at another mosque and this one had an even more dramatically painted ceiling.

The nearby ancient aqueduct was pretty neat too. Our bus drove straight through it!

Next we headed to the overrated Balat area. We were wearing thin by this point and feeling so hot and thirsty. We stopped in a cafe for drinks and but still weren't hungry even though we'd only eaten a small pastry hours before. Balat was known for its colorful houses. I think we would have enjoyed it more if we weren't so hot.

After another break in the room to cool down, we decided to try Georgian food for dinner. The giant beef soup dumplings were amazing. The pomegranate chicken dish was pretty unique and yummy too.

And finally for the highlight of our day - a sunset cruise on a yacht along the Bosphorus Straight! A Turkish American man ran the best tour explaining buildings along both the European side and Asian side of Istanbul. Wine was served and we were were happy feeling a cool breeze for the first time in a while.

We saw some incredible wealth along the cruise. This particular hotel is the 14th most expensive in the world with some rooms up to 40,000 Euros per night. The outdoor area was set up for a wedding. The wedding fees start at 700,000 Euros according to our guide. Ridiculous!

I thought it was fascinating seeing the giant cargo ships blast past us and all the other crazy boat traffic on the Bosphorus.

What a great way to end two very full days in Istanbul. We left some of the bigger attractions for next month when we will return to Istanbul for a week and DD#1 will fly in to join us. Now on to Cappadocia!