Turkey (Istanbul) trip.

So as i've promised , here's the second part of my Turkey trip.

For those who missed out my post on Cappadocia, you can read up here : https://nurfaosman.wixsite.com/blog/post/turkey-cappadocia-trip

We arrived at Istanbul on Friday late afternoon and checked in our Airbnb in Beyoglu.

I love this apartment we stayed in - Leon Apartment in Beyoglu.

It is an entire serviced apartment for 2 guest with 1 bed and 1 bathroom.

It has all the basic necessities and most importantly, it is modern and clean.

The apartment is ideally situated on a quiet street adjacent to the British Consulate and just a few minutes walk to Istikal Street. If you're in Istanbul, you do not want to miss out Istikal Street. Istikal street host great nightlife, has wonderful restaurants and give you a cosmopolitan city feel.

Now lets talk about Istanbul.

Well, I dont even know where to begin with. We were in Istanbul for 3.5 days and 3 nights. Our mode of transport was the Istanbul Metro and travelling by Metro was one of the easiest and affordable way. The metro connects the Asian and European side via a rail tunnel under the Bosphurus which allows you to access to the Old Istanbul City as well as the New Instanbul City without a hassle.

I recommend you to buy just 1 Istanbulkart. Yes, you read right. Just 1.

The Turks taught us that as long as there is value in the card, you can have multiple entries and exits. So make sure the last person to enter/exit is the one tapping at the machine.

We took the underground metro from Taksim to Kabatas and changed to another metro to get to the old instanbul city. From Kabatas, there are alot of stations you can get off to go for your sight seeing.

• Kabatas station - Dolmabahce Palace, and connection to go to Princes Islands and Kadikoy.

• Tophane station - Museum of modern art in Istanbul

• Eminonu station - Spice Market and Bosphurus (make sure to try the fish sandwich!)

• Sultanahment station - Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, Archaelogy Museum.Beyazit station - Grand Bazaar

These are the stations to note if you are taking metro as your mode of transport in Istanbul. And these are the places that we frequently visit to shop for souvenirs and have our lunch/dinner.

One of the flaw for planning this trip was overthinking how it was impossible to visit most attraction places is Istanbul within 4 days and that is why we thought that splitting Istanbul into two parts was a good idea. But let me tell you, 4 days is more than enough to be in Istanbul. Or else, you'll just get bored of the city.

On the second day, we've covered The Blue Mosque (imma put a pin on this and give you a bonus tip later), the Carpet Museum, the Grand Bazaar , Istikal Street (cheap shisha here!) , and also had ample time the next day to just laze around in bed . But ofcourse we got hungry and decided to head out to Sultanahment for lunch and Bosphurus for dinner.

Now time to unpin, if your are visiting the Blue Mosque make sure to enter from entrance B and exit at entrance A. Make sure to stop in front of Exit A and look forward. You will see the incredible Hagia Sophia. It is an incredible view but we couldnt stay long enough to take a photo because of the crowd. I wished we had visited Hagia Sophia but the queue was madness. So if you would like to visit Hagia Sophia, be sure to start queuing as early as 1000hrs to avoid the long waiting line.

On the last 5 days, after our Izmir trip, we headed back to Instanbul again (you know, thinking that we couldnt finish the whole sight seeing in 4 days). We spent 2.5 days in a hotel near Taksim (again). Now , I have a story to share, while we were at Izmir, i got a notification stating that my reservation was cancelled. Imagine checking out tomorrow and trying to book a room in Instanbul with all the hotels being fully booked. They cancelled not because of insufficient amount but i was told that because i opted to pay at the hotel instead they have the right to overwrite my booking and there was a guest they wanted to prioritise. I was furious so i called booking.com to help me resolve my issues because I was freaking out about not having any place to stay and that is why we had to settle for any available room for us.

I am not keen to share with you details of this hotel but i had the worst hospitality and the worst experience. We were told prices was inclusive of breakfast, but there was none. No water heater and the bed sheet has stains. Yes, stains. I told my husband that i felt like the hotel was meant for one night stand kinda place. Gross. But thankfully it was just for 2 painful nights only.

Let me just let you skim-through on what we did on the last 2.5 days in Istanbul Old City ok ?

We went to get our souvenirs at Grand Bazaar, visited the Galata Tower, watched a live show & exhibition on Dervish Experience, took a night Bosphorus cruise, went to Aga Hamimi Spa (traditional Turkish bath & spa) and moved off to another hotel near the airport.

The last 2 days in Istanbul, we stayed in Royal Inci Airport Hotel in Sefakoy.

And thankfully, the hospitality was so much better. It gets a little bit noisy (well, i cant blame the hotel, it situated near the airport, Duh!) and the area is basically, non-touristy.

But we loved it. The stuffs are soooo much cheaper compared to the ones at Istikal Street. We manage to stumble upon a mall which is apparently an Outlet Mall somewhat like Vivo with all the same brands in Istikal Street and trust me, we shopped like there is no tomorrow. How can you say no to tops/bottoms at 20Lira? let me do the conversion for you. SGD 1 : 3 TL. Thats $4 for a top/pants guys. So yeah, we literally splurged all of our remaining cash at the outlet mall. #noregrets

The food is also way cheaper around Sefakoy. After 13 days of Kebaps and Fish Sandwich, we finally digged in burgers and steaks. While a roll of kebap in Sultanahmet/Istikal street can easily cost you 12TL (SGD 2) we can actually get a kebap at Sefakoy for 4TL (0.90) . Thats how cheap a meal can cost you in Sefakoy.

Thats all for Istanbul. I'll continue my post for Izmir on another post some other time!

Hope you've enjoyed my post and i hope my post can help you to plan your trip at Istanbul!