0 - The End

Well, it had to end eventually. My last few days in Istanbul were great, although sad. I was able to say goodbye to most of my friends, and see some more of the city. The weather was awesome, and the city seemed to be doing it's best to show off before I left.

Since returning to Canada, I've got a much different perspective on things. The reverse culture shock is interesting. I now know what a Canadian/British Columbian accent sounds like. I'm also surprised at how poorly the average person dresses, how loud North Americans are, and how friendly and polite most Canadians are. It's really strange, I feel like a foreigner.

The one thing I really appreciate is the complete lack of traffic. There are no traffic jams on Vancouver Island, and it doesn't take you and hour and a half to get across town! But besides that, I really miss the energy of Istanbul. It's really quiet here. Nobody's yelling at you to buy a simit, and you can't hear any animated conversations in foreign languages...

One day (hopefully soon), I will return to Turkey to explore more, and visit Istanbul again. Until then I'll just be that annoying guy who starts all his conversation topics with "when I was living in Istanbul...".

1 - Kadıköy

Kadıköy is a large district on the Asian side of Istanbul. I only went there for a few hours on my second to last day in Istanbul, but it was enough to make me sorry that I hadn't explored it sooner.
The area is less crowded than the European side, and more cosmopolitan. With wide boulevards, nice architecture, and many great cafes and bars, Kadıköy is a perfect place to spend an evening.

In Kadıköy you can also find the "Champs-Élysées" of Istanbul: Bahariye Street. This avenue rivals Istiklal Caddessi as "the" street to shop, drink coffee, or find a nice bar.

If you have a few days in Istanbul, definitely take the time to tour Kadıköy, it's well worth it.

2 - Sarıyer

Sarıyer is a small fishing port-town in the Northern-most region of Istanbul, on the Bosphorus. You can get to Sarıyer via bus or boat. Whichever method of transport you take, you will love the trip. The towns alongside the Bosphorus North of the Fatih Mehmed bridge are picturesque and beautiful.

Sarıyer itself is a quiet, untouristed fishing town, where you can find great seafood restaurants, and some really nice, classic Ottoman homes.

From Sarıyer you can take a boat across the Bosphorus to tour Anadolu Kavagh Fortress. From here you can see both the Black Sea and South all the way down the Bosphorus. I highly recommend taking a day trip to check these places out.

3 - Rumeli Hisarı

Rumeli Hisarı is a massive fortress located on the same hill that Bogazici is on, only a stones throw from the campus.

This incredible castle was built by Sultan Mehmed II (The Conquerer), who took Constantinople. The fortress was built on the European side of the Bosphorus, directly across from Anadolu Hisarı on the Asian side, so that they could blockade ships (via cross cannon fire) coming through the Bosphorus from the Black Sea to deliver aid to the besieged Constantinople.


Mehmed wanted the fortress built fast, so he came up with a simple and effective plan: incentives. He gave the task of constructing each of the three main towers of the fortress to his top Pashas, stating that whoever finished their tower first would get a hefty gold reward (of course, the Sultan monitored every aspect of the construction to ensure quality).

The plan worked, and the fortress was completed in an incredible 4 months and 16 days.

4 - Vakko

I had to mention this company because it's just insane. Vakko is an elite ultra-expensive, luxury Turkish clothing company, which has stores in all malls, and boutiques everywhere.

Where they find enough ludicrously wealthy people buy their overpriced clothes I don't know, but they are doing well. In Akmerkez (a really high end mall near where I lived), the Vakko has a cafe - not to sell drinks, but to offer customers free coffee or tea while they browse.

In the Vakko pictured above, the store offers to close it's doors for an hour if you want to shop in privacy. The things people would rather have than money....

5 - Wednesday Football (Soccer)

One of the highlights of my stay in Istanbul was Wednesday football with the boys. We would play on a netted in turf field, surrounded by a barbed wire fence and guarded by guys with submachine guns (necessary? I think not...).

Playing with Europeans is definitely a humbling experience. I have only played casually with friends in the past, never competitively. Most of the guys I was playing with had been regularly playing since they were kids. My Dutch friend Rutger said he'd been playing competitively for 20 years.

Even though I was a bit outclassed, it was an awesome time, and one of the things I will miss most.

6 - Turkish Hospitality

I can't say enough about Turkish hospitality. I heard it was legendary, but I was still surprised at the generosity and kindness that was shown to me in Turkey.

When you visit someone, if for an hour or a couple days, they treat you like royalty. Every time I visited a Turkish home I was offered tea, treats, and incredible meals.

When the term ended and I had to leave my dorm, I needed to stay somewhere for three nights. Without hesitation, two of my Turkish friends offered to put me up - making beds for me and even giving me awesome dinners and breakfasts. When it was time for me to leave, my friends came with me on the hour long trip to the airport, carrying all my heavy luggage for me, and kept me company until it was time for my flight.

I've learned a lot about hospitality and generosity from my stay in Turkey, and will now try to make more of an effort be hospitable and open to visitors in Canada.

7 - The Spice Bazaar

Although touristy, the Spice Bazaar (Egyptian Bazaar), in Eminonu is awesome. Full of rich and exotic smells, and offering great photo opportunities, the bazaar is well worth visiting. The shops in the bazaar have been in the same location since it was built in 1660.

Unfortunately, the shops in the original Bazaar building are pretty much oriented towards tourists alone. If you want to get the real bazaar experience you have to go behind the main bazaar complex to where real people come to shop. Here you will find an incredible assortment of spices, teas, meats, cheeses and preserves.

If you continue to head further behind the bazaar you will see the non-tourist shops where Istanbullus go to get everything from coats to tools, to kitchen wares. Wander through these backstreets of Eminonu, and you will get the real "Bazaar" experience.

8 - Street Food

There are many excellent restaurants to eat at in Istanbul, but if you want something cheap and delicious, you can't beat street food.

Street food is incredibly diverse in Istanbul. You can get many different types of snacks from mobile vendors wheeling around and bellowing out their sales pitches: "Taze Simit! Taze, Taze! Sicak Simit!". When it comes to snacks you've got roasted chestnuts, grilled and boiled corn on the cob, popped corn, cups of corn kernels, simits (sesame covered bread pretzel thingys), muscles with lemon (potentially dangerous), and various other goodies. Drink wise, you can always get çay and ayran, and depending on the season, salep, boza, and sweet sherbet.

Meal wise, you can't beat "Tost", which is any kind of sandwich tosted in a panini grill. My favorite is Ayvalik Tost, which is packed with hotdogs and ketchup and even mashed potatoes.

Of course, you have your doner, which is best found in Besiktas (get it in a pide, with fries), and you have to try wetburgers when you are drunk in Taksim.

Of course, for me, the king of all street foods is the humble Balik Ekmek: The grilled fish sandwich. For only 2.5-3 lira you get a fillet of fresh grilled fish, sprinkled with salt and lemon, and nested with slices of onion between two crispy halves of french bread. It's awesome. Buy it from one of the small boats docked in Eminonu. So good!!

9 - The Ortaköy Mosque

Probably the most elegant and picturesque mosque in Istanbul, the Ortaköy mosque sits on the Bosphorus itself, with the massive Bosphorus bridge arching across the channel behind it.

Comissioned by Sultan Abdülmecid, and built from 1854-56 by the Armenian architect Nigoğayos Balyan, the Ortaköy mosque epitomizes Neo-Baroque style.

10 - The Galata Tower

One of the major landmarks of Istanbul is the Galata Tower.

Dominating the the hill in Beyolu, across the channel from the Golden Horn and Eminionu, the Galata tower has stood for 660 years. In 1638, an early (earliest?) aviator/inventor, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi, strapped homemade wings to himself, and reportedly flew from the Galata tower across the Bosphorus to Uskudar (a long ways away). The Sultan Murad the 4th initially rewarded him with a purse of gold, but, fearful of the man, exiled him to Algeria where he later died.

Used for everything from storing coal to holding prisoners, the Galata tower now serves as a restaurant and tourist destination.

(view from the tower - looking towards the Golden Horn)

Walking around the tower, 66.9 metres up, you have incredible 360 degree views of the city.

11 - Fishing the Bosphorus

Istanbullus really like fishing. Almost any time of day, in any weather, there are always dozens of men lining the bridges and walkways of the Bosphorus, long rods in hand, catching tiny little fish.

They stand there for hours, bringing in these sardine-like fish, which they fill their buckets with. I guess they are good eating...

It's quite impressive how determined and intrepid they are. I once walked across the Galata bridge (most popular fishing spot) on a snowy January day, when it a sharp wind was sending cuttingly cold snow almost horizontally, and was surprised to see quite a number of guys wrapped up in scarves, pulling in their tiny little fish.

I guess a love of fishing is one of those border-less, universal guy things that men have in common.

12 - The Nargile

The nargile, or hookah, is an intrinsic part of Turkish culture. It's been used forever, and continues to be a central social element.

Nargile cafes are very popular places, where Turks come to relax, play tavla (backgammon), drink çay, and smoke nargile.

The tobacco used with the nargile comes in many different flavours (my favourite is Kavun - melon), which is the main reason it's so popular. You don't have to inhale if you don't want to. Smoking nargile is more about enjoying the flavour of the smoke, rather than getting a buzz from the tobacco.

As the smoke is filtered through the water in the nargile, it's very light and soft - nothing like cigarette smoke. It also doesn't linger on your clothes, so you don't have to worry about that nasty tobacco stench you can have after coming home from a bar.

The nargile looks very exotic, and is one of the few ancient Ottoman traditions that still exists to this day in Turkey. It has not changed much in the hundreds of years it's been around.

13 - Turkish Busses

The bus system in Turkey is awesome. Waaay better than anything we have in North America.

You can go anywhere in the country for for very little (an 8 hour trip might cost you 30-40 YTL). The charter buses are comfortable, clean, and offer great service.

There are bus attendants who walk up the aisles with carts, just like on an airline, offering you tea or coffee and snacks (all complimentary). Some of the better charter buses show movies as well.

If you want to see Turkey, buses are the best, least expensive option.

14 - Kanyon

One of the most impressive modern architectural buildings in Istanbul is the Kanyon mall, in Levent.

It's called Kanyon, because it is a canyon. Four levels of stores rise above a winding stream below. The entire complex looks as if it's been sculpted.

The business in Kanyon are just as impressive as well. Most of them are so upscale you can't afford to buy anything, but go in anyways just to check out the decor. Some of the fanciest restaurants can be found in Kanyon, as well as an excellent movie theatre. They even have tv screens above the urninals and in the toilet stalls so you don't miss anything during the film.

(pictures taken from the Kanyon website)

15 - A Bosphorus Cruise

Probably my favourite thing to do in Istanbul is taking a cruise on the Bosphorus. You can catch a public transit ferry from one of many docks in the city (Eminonu is the best, in my opinion), and go up the Bosphorus, or across it to the Asian side.

It only costs a lira thirty, and offers the best views in the city. From Eminonu I grab a Balik Ekmek (grilled fish sandwich) for three lira, jump on a boat to Uskudar (on the Asian side), and take a seat on the top deck.

There is nothing more pleasurable than standing on the back deck watching the sun set over the Suleiman Mosque, while drinking hot çay.

16 - Cats and Dogs

If you have ever been to Malaspina College or the University of Victoria, you know about the bunnies. There are rabbits everywhere - its insane.

At Bogazici, there are almost as many cats as there are rabbits at UVic. Cats and dogs. Wild. Everywhere. In the halls, on the steps, crawling over you when you are trying to eat, even in class! People take care of them, leaving food and water out.

In Istanbul, wild dogs and cats roam the city at will - packs of dogs running through the streets. It's been this way since Ottoman times. I think it has to do with Muslim principles of caring for all of God's creatures. The city of Istanbul rounds up all the dogs every year and gives them shots so they don't get diseased, then lets them go again.

They are all quite tame and friendly...I've never felt worried about being bitten or anything. It's quite a culture shock though, seeing wild dogs in a cosmopolitan, European city.

17 - Bebek

Down below the Bogazici campus is a waterfront district of Istanbul called "Bebek". Bebek in Turkish directly translates to "baby". This small area is home to many a Gucci sunglass wearing Istanbullu. It's hard to walk through Bebek and keep a straight face. The people are trying SO hard to look cool. Dressed in the latest shades of black, trophy wives in arm, they walk from one overpriced cafe to the next - or cruise the main strip in their Ferrari's and Porches (going about 5km per hour due to traffic).

The best part of Bebek, and the whole Bosphorus strip for about 15k North and South, is the wide boulevard to walk on, and the beautiful view. One of the best things to do in Istanbul is just walk along the Bosphorus from the Fatih bridge to the Bosphorus Bridge, passing through Bebek, Arnavutkoy, and Ortakoy. Go on a clear night when the Bosphorus bridge can be admired changing colours.

Although you may object to the company, Starbucks has the best location in Bebek. Get a hot beverage and sit (literally) on the water with the rest of the beautiful people, taking in the view.