Turkey - Istanbul

Istanbul is an extremely beautiful city. It´s certainly a city for all of us who enjoys photography. I spent many hours just walking around, getting lost and at times a little scared thinking will I ever find my way back to a place familiar. Getting lost in a new city and do things out of your comfort zone surely makes travelling even more fun.

I managed to visit one of the Princes´ Islands (Kizil Adalar) an hour from Istanbul with ferry. Interesting and charming is the fact that there are no cars nor motorbikes on these islands. The only method of transportation was either to rent a bike, get around with a horse carriage, walk and some of the locals were using e-bikes or scooters. I managed to have patience to stand in line for the Galata Tower in order to enjoy the view of the amazing Istanbul.

One surprising thing I discovered was the young generation was not able to communicate in English as well as I would have expected. Even though the Turkish kids in Istanbul start studying English in elementary school and the city is full of tourist probably all year around, it´s was always a hassle trying to ask for assistance or directions.  The reason might also be laziness. Surprisingly, the older generation such as the taxi drivers were always excited to practice their English and were even asking me to teach them something new.

What I already knew was going to be very irritating was the constant nagging from the vendors. “Hello madame, come and have a look, Gucci prada Michael kors, what are you searching for?”. In the past I have been able to shut this noise out totally, but this time around I couldn´t stand it. I didn´t buy a single thing from Istanbul, and that´s certainly not how my trips usually end up. 

In general, my trip to Istanbul was very successful. The weather was great, the taxis cheap and food was delicious. I think something that could have made my trip better was company from a friend. I´ve visited many places and not felt the need of company, but Istanbul would definitely been more fun with someone to share everything with.