The last time I was in Istanbul was in 2015. I had planned to stay for five weeks but instead spent most of that time at Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up to you this time around; well as much as I can in two and a half days.
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I spend about half of September in Istanbul and the rest exploring remote regions of Turkey (with a couple excursions to Germany as well). I have never experienced a city like this before — 14 million people, terrible traffic, poor infrastructure and water that the locals refuse to drink. I had a blast. I came to admire and enjoy these charms as well as so many more – Turkish delights, nargile (aka “hookah” or shisha — smoked water vapor in a variety of fruit flavors), tea in place of alcohol in many social circumstances, the friendly, curious locals, the endless corners and neighborhoods to explore in this sprawling, cluttered, chaotic city. Istanbul is marketed to its tourists as a dichotomy of eastern and western influences – the only city spanning two continents, it is split by the Bosporus into a European side and an Asian side. I never made it to the Asian side — and I didn’t come close to seeing half of everything the European side has to offer — Istanbul is that large. But it doesn’t really seem large as much as busy. In most contexts your view beyond the neighborhood you are in is obstructed by buildings […]
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