Merhaba world!
After 8 days of traveling and another 4 day of selecting and editing images, I finally can share the first part of my Istanbul journey. As I traveled there mid March the weather was still quite cold (8-12°C) and pretty rainy but still totally worth it walking around all day.
In this blog I will mainly share images and talk about my personal impressions and experiences about this City. Let's start in the Halic, the District where I arrived late in the night on my first day. After checking into my Hostel I pretty quickly went to bed to wake up as early as possible to explore the first parts of the City on the next day.
First Impressions
Usually the first thing I do when I arrive to a new Country/City is to just walk around without a big plan to get some first impressions of the people, the buildings, the different food smells and just everything happening around me. That's the perfect way to get to know a new place, especially when everything is foreign on the beginning.
Walking around Halic was a pretty good first impression as this part of the city is less touristic than others and it has a really nice charm with its old buildings. There are small shops all along the road with great little restaurants and small supermarkets where you can buy some snacks to keep your energy high.
Istanbul Transportation
Beside walking around I highly recommend you taking the tram and metro in Istanbul. These 2 are by far the cheapest ways to get around the City. What I absolutely not recommend is taking taxis! As I made the experience before in other countries - Taxis are most likely a big scam for foreigners if you don't speak the language. You will pay at least 2x or 3x the price of the locals so please, try to always avoid them!
Just as an example - I took the Metro from the airport to the district of my hostel and payed around 2$ for the almost 1.5 hour ride. If you take a taxi for this distance you would pay at least 60$. Of course it's way more comfortable taking a taxi but I just like to safe this money and spend it on nice food or in a tea house :)
Istanbul Food
As I'm not the biggest food blogger I keep this section short :)) - Still, I managed to take one picture without feeling to awkward, ha!
From my 8 day experience the way to go for food is buying food on the small shops on the road. They usually have a grill where they make fresh Kebab, Döner or other tasty grilled things. Also for vegetarians or vegans there is always an option with Falafel, which also tastes incredible!
For breakfast I recommend you to try out either Sucuk with egg or Meneme, which is a mix of eggs, tomatoes and a lot of herbs. And of course, always order a nice Turkish tea to all of your dishes!
At last I can say that food is way cheaper in small local alleys especially in the old districts. The more touristic the areas get the more expensive the food will be. Sometimes you just need to walk 5 mins away from big places and you pay not even 1/4 of the price you would have payed in the expensive areas.
Mosques and Architecture
Uh, the big Mosques and the Architecture in general of Istanbul was one of the things which excited me most before I started this journey. There are so many historical things to explore starting with the famous Blue Mosque, Hagia Mosque, Yeni Cami and hundreds of other Mosques around the city. Beside that you also have the famous Galata Tower and the Taksim Square.
But let me promise you one thing, the longer you walk around the more things and buildings you will discover yourself. It really seems endless and you would probably need years to see everything.
Streets of Istanbul
Beside the breathtaking Architecture you have the thousands of alleys I've mentioned around the city. There is always so much going on and you will get the very best experience of Istanbul walking through them. There are these cool looking colorful houses, Cats and dogs saying hello, People feeding the birds and just so many more thing you can discover.
Istanbul Scams
Um, yes. Even I love Istanbul and the kind hearted Turkish people, there are a few things which I just need to mention.
To start first - I'm usually the guy who will tell you that he never gets scammed! And I really believed it , until I came to Istanbul.. because.. I got scammed! Not once, not twice but 3 times! Well, at least 1 major scam and 2 smaller ones. After I got scammed, I googled and found out that theses scams are very common and typical for Istanbul since years.
- Shoe Shiner Scam: A guy walks in front of you, drops a brush from his cleaning tools, you, the kind hearted idiot pick it up and run behind him, he says thank you with glowing eyes and starts cleaning your shoes to thank you. Before you can say no he already starts cleaning your shoes. While he cleans he tells you about his 200000 children and how poor he is. On the end you have to pay a ridiculous price (15$) for 2 mins work and if you say no, you will have to fight about 10 other scammers which will directly come to support him.
- Metro Scam: Usually u can buy the Istanbul Card which you can refill for all Istanbul transportation. As It was my first day I just wanted to buy the other option with the 3 stop card for 2.5$. As the ticket machines are confusing, there are scammers looking for tourists to help. Long story short, the scammer comes to you, tells you to just give him the 2.5$ and he will open the gate with his card. Before I realized it, he payed for my ride but not the 2 others. That one was totally my fault but these scammers are really good at targeting confused people.
- Food price Scams: That one was totally on myself as well. In the morning people selling Simit (Turkish Brezel) and they always have the prices for the food on the side of their little shop (As I knew after the first day). Not knowing that, the owner charged me 3x more than the normal price was. So always check the prices!
And as I'm usually very aware of all kinds of scams I felt quite defeated and it reminded me once again that we need to always be cautious and aware. Not everyone is nice and that's just something we can't change but need live with. Even this doesn't reflect the absolute majority of Turkish people at all!
Istanbul ❤️
On the end I really want to mention again, that Istanbul is absolutely worth for everyone to visit. This City offers things to experience for everyone and please take you time, as this isn't a City where you can see everything in 2-3 days. Even I stayed there for 8 days I really have a feeling to come again to explore even more things.
As you can tell from my blog, its not a very typical travel blog where I go into detail about all the famous monuments and buildings but just shared my very own experience and feelings about this City. I still hope you guys liked this little virtual trip with me through Istanbul :))
Best,
Chris
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Great pictures, love them 😍.
Love Istanbul, been there twice and both times I had an amazing experience... it's such a lively city and so multicultural... no a huge fan of their sweets though 😅 (probably because being Albania I have eaten too many of them when I was a child and now I cannot even look at them 😂)
have a nice day 😊
Hi Aurzeq! Thanks for your nice comment!
Haha I can imagine - I think sweets like Baklava are pretty popular in Albania as well :D
Oh nice, you have already been there twice! I definitely have to make my second trip there one day as well!
Thanks, same to you! :))
Yessss definitely popular, my grandma used to make it almost every weekend 😂
I regret ot stopping in Istanbul for a few days as we transited through there on tne way back from Egypt. It is high on my list of places to visit soon.
Yeah, it's absolutely worth it - You definitely have to go! :))
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