Istanbul - Where Continents and Cultures Collide

It's been a wild year, and between the general upheaval and federal employee firings we hadn't planned many trips (let alone an international trip). We finally decided to keep living life and booked a vacation to Greece, starting with a few days in Istanbul. Unfortunately, the trip started out on the wrong foot - with a cancelled flight to Istanbul while we were waiting at the gate. Since there's only one flight per day from Atlanta to Istanbul, we were delayed an entire 24 hours. Rolling with the punches, we went home, got some shawarma (to commiserate not being in Turkey) and waited 24 hours to board our new flight. Fortunately, the next day's flight was uneventful, and we landed in Istanbul on a Saturday afternoon. We took the newly constructed metro line into the city (in general we used transit frequently in Istanbul).

Paul visited Istanbul for a few days way back in 2003 while he was studying abroad in Cairo and loved it, and David had never been, so we were excited to explore the city. To prepare for the trip, David read a book by the Turkish Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk (recommended by a colleague). The book, Istanbul: Memories and the City was semi-autobiographical and gave insights and perspectives of city overflowing with what the author described as Hüzün (a Turkish word for a deep, communal melancholy, often described as a unique blend of sadness, longing, and a sense of shared, dignified suffering). Pamuk, who was describing Istanbul from the 1950s through about 2000 painted a wonderful picture of the importance of the Bosphorus to the İstanbullu, the sense of unease with the Cold War and the general mix of optimism for the new Turkish Republic and gradual decay (financially and psychologically) due to the loss of the Ottoman Empire. He also described periods of unrest, like the Istanbul pogrom in the 1950s, which was a state-supported effort to displace the city of its substantial Greek minority. If you're interested in learning more about Istanbul's history told through stories, David would highly recommend this book. Despite our best effort, we weren't able to personally identify the city's Hüzün as outsiders in 2025, but maybe we weren't looking hard enough.

Our AirBnB was right in the heart of things in Galata, on a pedestrian street a block from the Galata Tower. Our delightful host Neriman met us (it was her birthday!) to pass off keys and give us a tour. We spent the first night in the city walking around, starting with the very busy pedestrian shopping street (İstiklal Avenue) up to Taksim Square, taking the underground funicular down to the water, and walking around the upscale Galataport area. There was a Turkish cultural festival in Galataport, and we listened to the live music for a few minutes before walking to the adjacent Karakoy neighborhood for dinner. We sat outside at Kapi restaurant, which luckily was covered by an awning because it started raining while we ate. Our food was good (which was generally true of places we ate in Istanbul), especially a delicious yogurt, tomato, and eggplant dish. We did a little poking around in shops on the way back, grabbed some Turkish delight, and then went to sleep to prepare for a busy couple of days. 

Sunset views during our first few hours in Istanbul.

Our AirBnB.

Our AirBnB was a block from Galata Tower, with this great rooftop.

Can't beat a view like this from your rooftop!

Tourists packing on to the tram.

The İstiklal Avenue shopping street was very popular.

Just a cat in the funicular station. There are cats everywhere.

People fishing on the waterfront.

Catching some music at the Turkish cultural festival, a unexpected surprise.

Karakoy is a cute area.

Adana kabob!

Nighttime views before bed.

On Sunday we slept in until after 10am, thanks to both the time change and exhaustion from the red eye flight to Istanbul. Paul went up to the roof for an espresso (there was a coffee machine up there), and had some leftover birthday cake for breakfast (thanks Neriman!). Looking at the weather forecast, this was the one day of guaranteed good weather, so we decided to ride some roller coasters. Since traffic was light, we took a taxi to Vialand, which was about 25 minutes away. Vialand is Turkey's premier theme park. It's quite nice, although not too large. It's part of a larger entertainment center with a shopping area. Paul went into the park and got the coaster credits, which took about an hour, while David went to a cafe and walked around the outdoor shopping mall. From there we took another taxi to the Mall of Istanbul to go to the small amusement park inside, where Paul got two more coaster credits. 

Cake for breakfast? Sure!

Nefeskesen ("breathtaker") was an excellent coaster.

Great views of the city from ViaLand. Istanbul is hilly.

The shopping area.

We drove by this massive residential building.

The Mall of Istanbul. David forgot to go to the Pull and Bear.

Paul trying to be a cyclops.

Mall of Istanbul has a surprisingly good custom spinning coaster.

Just Paul and a bunch of Turkish kids enjoying their day at the Mall of Istanbul.

After Paul got his fill of roller coasters for the day (if such a thing exists), we decided to head towards the historic part of the city. We took the metro back into town to Siekeji station, where there was a large pro-Palestine protest. We ducked into Gülhane Park to avoid the crush. The park turned into a nice relaxing stroll to Topkapi Palace. We had a pastry snack from a kiosk before entering the palace. It was quite crowded - in general, Istanbul was packed with tourists and many things had lines. We walked around the palace for a couple of hours, enjoying the architecture, museum exhibits, and views. 

Gülhane Park on a sunny afternoon.

The entrance to Topkapi Palace.

Topkapi Palace architecture.

Just a palace cat chilling.

View from the palace, which is on a hill overlooking the Bosphorus.

Look! It's us at the Bosphorus!

David in the harem part of the palace.

Throughout the palace there are cool paintings.

A fruit mural. 18th century art was...fun.

A reception space for the Sultan.

There were lots of creepy wax dudes around the palace showing you traditional garb/activities. David did not like these and sometimes thought they were real people.

We then went to Hagia Sofia, perhaps the most famous site in Turkey. It started as a church in the year 360 (when Istanbul was Constantinople and ruled by the Romans), and was a spectacular engineering feat, holding the record for the largest brick dome for over a millennium. It later became a mosque, and then a museum, and then a mosque again. Unfortunately, since it's an active mosque they've covered some of the historic frescoes and mosaics with fabric. For tourists, there is a pathway that leads to the upper levels and lets you see some of the Christian art from the 4th Century (and later). To visit the main area you need to enter the mosque, which we did not do this time. Whether it was a good idea to return this landmark to an active mosque is hard to say - the reinstitution of mosques from museums or historic sites has been happening across Turkey in their ongoing return to Islamic conservatism.We'll leave our commentary at that.

The impressive main dome of Hagia Sofia.

Main domed mosque area of the Hagia Sofia.

Golden mosaics.

Some of the early Christian art is covered with these fabric pieces so its not visible from the Muslim prayer area. Don't worry though, even if you can't see him, Baby Jesus, just like the Wizard of Oz, is still judging you quietly from behind the curtain.

Hagia Sofia at sunset.

Next we walked around the adjacent former Roman hippodrome area, had a simit for a snack, and generally enjoyed the nice early evening weather. We went into the Blue Mosque, yet another architectural landmark, and saw the obelisk and old twisted Roman column in the square. The area was quite lively with tourists, and it's generally a cool place to just linger, being surrounded on all sides by impressive Ottoman and Roman architecture.

Paul eating a simit in front of the Hagia Sophia.

The courtyard of the blue mosque.

Paul in front of the Blue Mosque.

Inside the blue mosque.

An Egyptian-Roman obelisk and minarets.

Full moon with a minaret of the Blue Mosque.

Next we walked to the site of the old Roman forum, not too far away. There's not much left, just one big column, but you can generally see the outline/shape of the forum. We walked near the Grand Bizarre, which is closed on Sundays so the streets were quiet. Continuing on our walk, we stopped in a random mosque (Nuruosmaniye) and a cat came running up to David on the steps. We then had dinner at Resto Food and Drinks, which was decent.

On our way back to the AirBnB we walked by the "new" mosque, Yeni Cami, which opened in the 1600s. We walked across the bridge back to Galata, which was extremely busy. We would pass through the small square next to Galata Tower many times on this trip since it was so close to our AirBnB, and at night it was always absolutely thronged with people coming for the views and restaurants. Paul got some absolutely delightful ice cream at Peyra (rose and milk flavor) and David got a pastry from place near the Airbnb. We ate on our roof. enjoying the view before bed.

Tram passing by the old Roman Forum.

So many mosques around the city - this one was "only" from the 1800s.

This cat loved David...and why wouldn't it?

Some cool architecture.

Dinner time!

Yum!

The new mosque at night.

The fish restaurant boats on the Bosphorus.

Galata Tower had a projected show on it.

Yum!

Nighttime view of Galata Tower from our roof.

That wrapped up a whirlwind first day and a half in Istanbul. A few things we noticed about the city:

• There are cats everywhere. They're adorable and very well cared for, with people leaving food and water out for them and some even providing cat houses! We'll do a separate post with cat photos, so don't you worry!
• Istanbul is hilly! It makes for some really awesome views and scenery, but also makes for lots of hiking up and down. Our AirBnB, near Galata Tower, was up a huge hill from the waterfront, which we got to trudge up and down every day.
• There are lots of transportation options in Istanbul, making it fairly easy and cheap to get around, although some of the metro lines have odd layouts and long walks underground.
• There are unfortunately a lot of smokers, and it was impossible to avoid cigarette smoke anywhere in the city. Smoker's cough is a serious thing here.
• Things are somewhat expensive, thanks to insane inflation over the past several years (we're talking north of 50%/year), but that didn't stop the tourists. Everywhere was packed, and yes we realize we're part of the problem.
• Generally the city is high energy with lots to see and do, and nice little surprises everywhere.
• There were metal detectors in a lot of areas, to go in places such as the mall and theme parks. Even the entire Galataport neighborhood was protected by metal detectors. We saw them in the metro too, although those weren't being used. It gave the impression of security theater.
• You will randomly see groups of foreign men that just had hair transplants wandering around the city - this is a thing people fly to Turkey from all around the world to do. I guess it's like a "boy's night out" to go to Istanbul with a group of your balding friends, have surgery and then do some fun stuff with your head wrapped in bandages before getting on a plane home.