I love how spontaneity can change the scale of things. It’s approaching the end of the year, and for a few weeks I’ve had a plan to go up to Scotland or maybe the Lake District on some sort of camping trip – one more adventure to end off the year. I get how that doesn’t sound like the optimal time for such an activity, and I agree to some extent. I don’t mind extreme cold or wind or snow. Rain however – yeh, not my favourite. So as I looked out the window at the continuous downpours that followed several months of drought, I thought – “maybe this isn’t a great time to go camping.”

So what do you do instead? I’m committed to visiting one more destination before the year is out, and anywhere in the wet UK seems to be off the cards for now – which leaves only 1 option.

Get onto Skyscanner and book a flight somewhere else.

At first thought, somewhere close by comes to mind. The likes of France, Germany, Italy perhaps. But there’s always some mental process running in the back of mind that calculates the overall worth of a trip by looking at the increase in cost against the supposed increase in value. Even though I’m looking for cheap flights (say between £100-150) to Western Europe, if I found a flight to Australia for – let’s say £600 – then I may well take that offering because the increase in value of going to Australia is worth that extra cost – despite it being way over my initial budgeting.

Does that make sense? Anyway, that’s my train of thought. So although a flight to Istanbul and back was around double the amount of my initial “allowance” I thought – hell, why not? It will be worth it.

Why Istanbul? Its perception as the gateway between East and West appealed to me. It seemed like a logical step as you begin to expand your horizons to different parts of the world, going further and further each time – from a cultural perspective at least.

So 2 weeks later I arrived – annoyingly at the “wrong” airport. It wasn’t actually wrong, it just wasn’t the one I thought I was landing at. I’ll always take a quick Google maps tour before going anywhere, just to a get a very brief overview of the area. Hover over Istanbul on your maps app and you’ll see Atatürk Havalimanı (airport) somewhere in the southwest. Big, close to the city centre, must be the main airport, right? Wrong. Scroll out a bit more and you’ll then see Istanbul Havalimanı towards the northwest – the new airway complex that serves as the main hub. (Atatürk was the main one previously so my logic wasn’t completely off-track).

Anyway, Istanbul airport is quite a bit further out and the train line that connects it to the city wasn’t finished, which left me with the choice of a bus or taxi. Now I’m usually pretty good with foreign transport systems, but these buses confused me. And being a good hour’s drive out of my destination, I really didn’t want to accidently end up heading the opposite way. So I settled on an offer from a local cab driver and just coughed up the increase in $$. In hindsight, I think all of those buses would have taken me somewhere near the city centre so I’ll at least I know for next time (or maybe the trains will be ready by then).

By the time I arrived it was late evening, so I only took a short walk around the Sultanahmet area where I was staying, coming back the following morning to begin my first full day.
Sultanahmet Square resides between two grand mosques: the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. I visited the former first, taking a few seconds to remove my shoes along with everyone else before entering. Unfortunately the entire building was under some high level of renovation or restoration and was caked in scaffolding both inside and out, so ultimately I saw very little (at least it was free entry).

Hagia Sophia was the much more interesting of the two, but since there was a very large queue at the time I decided to make it an evening trip and instead took a walk over to the other side of the Golden Horn (the body of water that splits the two European sections of Istanbul) and up İstiklal Avenue. This is a very busy, grand shopping street – paradise for all you clothes junkies out there – that encompasses a lot of the western culture you’ll find in Istanbul. Shops of all kinds flood either side of you as you walk up along the 1.4km stretch, with further streets and small alleyway markets spurring off at regular points. If you love shopping, you won’t be disappointed. Shopping wasn’t my priority on this trip by any means but I still ended up visiting this place each day just to take in the scale and try and see every nook and cranny it had to offer.

You’ll have to forgive me when I say shopping wasn’t my priority, because once I’d reached Taksim Square at the end of the avenue, I decided to catch a metro and head further out of town to visit the Cevahir shopping mall. You think the Bullring is good? Try this place. 6 floors of sparkly outlets to provide the wants and desires of even the pickiest customers, so much you’ll need to devise a well-thought travel strategy to ensure you cover all areas of this gargantuan complex.

Luckily I was travelling light and didn’t have any check-in baggage to take back, so I didn’t end up breaking the bank in the endless number of shops I had around me. Evening approached and once I’d had my fill on kebabs for dinner, I returned to the Hagia Sophia where the queue had now essentially gone.

Much in the same way we may find the stained-glass windows or sculptures of churches impressive, the grand domes and Islamic scriptures were a sight to behold. I’m no expert on architecture in any form, but despite feeling a bit “plain” from a certain perspective, it was a joy to experience from the inside. It was originally constructed as a Greek orthodox church but was later converted into a mosque about 600 years ago. Were my knowledge in historical religious studies somewhat more comprehensive, I’m sure I could tell you some really interesting stuff at this point – however that is not the case, so I can only advise those who possess such intellect or interests go and experience it for yourself and potentially be even more amazed than I was.

Day 2 took me over the Bosphorus Straight and into the Asian side of the city. Despite a further occurrence of incompleted train lines, I made it over quite easily. The boat transfers are plentiful – you just have to double check where it’s heading.

My first thoughts having arrived on this side were the clear differences with how this felt like much more of a “locals” Istanbul. Not necessarily “more” Turkish, but just more of a normal day-to-day feel with less of the grandeur you get from the European side. Like the difference between London and another major British city. It’s the famous landmarks and red phone boxes and black cabs that make London feel notably British, but Manchester is no less British just for lacking these things by comparison – it’s just more “average”.

But from a traveller’s perspective, the more “average” side was no less interesting. Once more you’ll find thousands upon thousands of market stores cramming into every available space – out on the open streets and down the tight alleyways that connect them. This was in and around the Kadiköy area, the cultural centre of the Asian side that’s packed with stores, bookshops, cinemas and bars. The Kadiköy over-ground metro runs a ring throughout the neighbourhood and is a great little way to quickly get around (if you can fit in the small cabin space that is). Plenty of small cafes populate the quieter areas if you need a break from the crowds at any point.

I found such a café in the area – and despite my incorrect assumption that an item labelled as “toast” would just be toast and not a full toasted sandwich meal with salad – I had a great (double) meal there.

You’ll find dedicated fresh food alleyway markets dotted around the place as well, accompanied by numerous restaurants selling the produce. I wouldn’t say (based on my short trip) that the food was the most amazing aspect of Istanbul but what they did have to offer certainly seemed fresh at all times. I wouldn’t make a full judgment on Turkish cuisine just yet though.

Unsure of what time the boats ran until and wanting to avoid being stranded on the wrong side, I headed back early evening time and took another stroll up İstiklal Avenue, having a good look around some of the more obscure shops and mini alleyway markets. My eye caught a nice leather wallet that was priced at 250 lira. Bargaining is an essential tool to have in Turkey but sometime it isn’t necessary. I held off purchasing the wallet until the next day and for some reason it was then 50 lira less! Prices are clearly made up on the spot around here so don’t always just pay the first price you get given.

It was also a good time to take a trip up Galata Tower and see night-time Istanbul from a height. I got some great photos from here and you should definitely take a visit if you’re in the area.

First spot for the last (full) day was the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, two major Kapalıçarşıs (covered markets) back on the European side. You’d have thought I’d had enough of endless markets by now, but no – now I get to combine an endless number of shops with some sort of real-life escape maze game.

The place is huge, and if you intend on leaving via the same spot you entered, all I would say is – “good luck”. Indoor streets criss-cross everywhere you go with stalls of all kinds no more than 2 metres away from you wherever you stand. Take one wrong step and you’ll either end up walking into another person or a different shop. The concept is fairly simple when shopping here – you get quoted a price for an item that’s probably 10x its actual value, then you get your negotiating hat on see how low you can get.

There’s a balancing act here, obviously you don’t want to end up being ripped off but at the same time you (hopefully) don’t want to be scamming a hardworking guy making a living. You’ve got to use your own judgement to determine the value of things, but it’s unlikely you won’t be able to haggle down from whatever the starting price is. It’s fair to say I’ve got some improvement to do in this area.

The Spice Bazaar (also known as Mısır Çarşısı or Egyptian Bazaar) is located just a bit further up towards the Galata Bridge crossing and is the home of Turkish sweet delicacy and spices. If you want to spend a morning trying every flavour of Turkish Delight, flavoured nuts or tea under the sun, then look no further. Hundreds of stalls line the indoor market; a multitude of colourful food displays presenting each one – it truly is fascinating.

I got invited into one particular store as I wandered around aimlessly, trying to work out what even half the edible displays actually were. As soon as I sat down I was showered in flavoursome offerings including pomegranate tea, pistachios and Turkish Delight rolls. One after the other as the nice man did his best to get me hooked on at least 1 tasty item. Many different varieties of tea were offered to my nose for a test and approval, most of which I could not quite audibly understand the flavour of. Still, it was all very nice stuff and I can’t fault the overall experience.

Having left the store with a few kilograms of goods (ask me if I misread the price on those), I had to return to the hostel to drop off the extra weight before heading back out for a final “loop around” consisting of the Galata area and İstiklal Avenue again, where I then got the metro to the Balat neighbourhood – apparently renowned for its colourful houses.

Now… I’m not sure if I just didn’t find the exact right area or if the limited evening light just made it not look as good as the photos, but I wasn’t amazed by this part. It did seem a bit run down to a certain extent and there just wasn’t really much around (apart from plenty of horrendous hills to walk up). I barely saw anyone in parts of the area, with the most scenic part being some random but well-decorated café. Oh well. Maybe I missed something, but I carried on into unknown territory and just headed back towards the Sultanahmet area.

En-route I came across another local street market – and when I say local, I mean it clearly wasn’t a tourist area, which is fine. Makeshift tents plastered either side of the street and it was a wonder how both people and vehicles were able to use it at the same time. Produce was more or less the same as what you’d find in the more inner-city markets; your clothes, spices, fresh food etc. At the end of the street – another grand mosque towered over the skyline, seemingly acting like a central hub for the local residents as everyone from market-goers to school kids made their way across the square surrounding it.

And that sums it up. Besides a lengthy walk back into the inner city and through Sultanahmet Square, my only actions left were to pack my bags and get a (somehow significantly cheaper) taxi back to the airport. I’m now convinced that British airports need to up their game a bit, as I don’t think I’d be able to walk into the Heathrow departure lounge at 5 in the morning and find pizza, Subway, KFC and Popeye’s all readily available for me.

The last trip for 2022 – let’s see how far east next year’s destinations will be!