Wonderful sights, fantastic shopping and the friendliest welcome ever... (Istanbul)

Member Name: SapphireSunflowr

Product:	Istanbul
Date:	02/02/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything - food, people, jewellery, scarves, the history, arcitecture

Disadvantages: Flight costs at the moment for me, sadly!

Despite visiting Istanbul last in Summer 2007, I am very keen to add my voice to the positive reviews as I absolutely loved my time there and am desperate to return. While Inter-railing, my partner and I arrived in Istanbul on a 2 day, 2 night train journey from Budapest... now that bit I don't recommend! After my partner had his card swallowed in the station cash point, we stepped out into the heat to be confronted by hoards of milling people, haggling diners at kebab stands and the sight of a very large hill in the direction we were pointed. Shouldering our backpacks and pushing initial misgivings to one side, we set off to our Hostel, the Antique Hostel in the middle of Sultanamet, the main tourist area and Old Town. After a long walk the hostel was a welcome sight - and we were greeted like old friends by the owners, high speed internet and a water/coffee machine, fantastic! From then, Istanbul did not disappoint over the 5 days we were there. The historical sights are worth every bit of the hype, especially Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque (complete with friendly cats). The Grand Bazaar received a few return visits from us, and I can back loaded down with beautiful faux-lapis lazuli jewellery, some cabochon stones and (of course) some little evil eye pendants. We found the people to be wonderfully friendly - one store owner I spent a modest sum and a lot of time with gave us as we left a jade beaded bracelet for luck, in addition to the delicious apple tea we had been plied with! We visited the Sofa Café on a number of occasions for dinner, as their marinated chicken kebabs and seasoned rice were just too good to resist, and the owner, who had sat and talked with us on every occasion, presented us with Baklava (by then a new found addiction!) and apple tea on our last night as a parting gesture. This sort of kindness was typical, and really made our visit. We went across to the Asian side on the ferry once, but after the liberal European side of Istanbul I made a big wardrobe mistake and had worn a calf length skirt. My legs caused so much staring (horror and disgust from the women, another emotion entirely from the men...) we scurried back to the other side before going more than a few metres into Asia! Istanbul has now out-ranked Paris and Venice in my "Favourite Places in the World" list, and I can't wait to go back.
Go, now! And bring me back some of the wonderful hand painted ceramics - I was dying to buy some but we had another 4 weeks of train travel to go, and I don't think they would have survived...

Summary: Such a fantastic destination, please visit if you can.