Istanbul (Turkey) in 2024: the Grand Bazaar & the Tiphane neighborhood
Novotel Bosphorus
After a few days spent on the “Blue Mosque” side, we cross the bridge and spend a few days in the Tiphane neighborhood, which we know well because every time we go to Istanbul, we rent an Airbnb within 15 minutes max of this neighborhood. Since we’re only staying for a few days this time, JB books the Novotel Bosphorus for us (Booking link). First because we have Accor miles, but also because JB is still Gold and we might get an upgrade, and because the hotel has a very nice spa. We hesitated between Novotel and Marriott (JB still has his miles with American Express), but Marriott is twice as expensive.
We plan to take the Blue Mosque – Novotel route by Uber but no driver accepts the ride because it’s not worth it, the trip lasts barely 15 minutes, they don’t want it. We drag our suitcases to the nearest tram stop. Luckily, on this side, it’s fairly flat, not like the Galata neighborhood for example. At 11am on a Monday, there are fewer people, we don’t bother anyone with our suitcases, good!
Thanks to Gold status, we get the room right away (early check-in), and we’re upgraded by one category with a view of the Galata Tower. Add the usual perks: a complimentary dessert in the room, two welcome drinks, and late check-out on request.
We immediately visit the hotel spa: the men’s and women’s areas are separate. Each side has a sauna and a steam room. Then, the pool is mixed. The Turkish hammam is extremely beautiful but it costs extra. It can be privatized as soon as you book a “Turkish hammam,” no matter how many people. There’s a VIP room for those who opt for VIP treatments (from 200 euros), with a super super cute little VIP Turkish hammam too.
I’m bling bling but not that much. My favorite Turkish hammam, also all marble, is 3 minutes from here, so I prefer to go there rather than book the hotel’s one.
The Archer restaurant on the ground floor is convenient and good. The rooftop restaurant is in the Michelin guide; we’ve never tried it. JB tried the breakfast and wasn’t impressed.
I thought Novotel and Marriott overlooked the Bosphorus, but there’s a building separating these hotels from the sea, and only the highest floors have an ocean view from their windows.
We then access the promenade and discover that only the Peninsula hotel has a direct sea view, and they even privatize part of the promenade. Of course, we went to The Peninsula to investigate and take photos 😀 It’s a hotel that costs a monthly minimum wage per night, so obviously…
Staying at Novotel is a sort of well-deserved “mini vacation.” Every day, we go to the spa, and the sauna does us good; my skin is smoother, my blood circulation is better. Honestly, I wish I lived in a country where I could have access to a sauna like this every day.
The next street is full of restaurants. Before, these restaurants were quite expensive compared to other local restaurants, but they couldn’t raise prices indefinitely; they had to stay affordable because the clientele remained local. Thus, these restaurants, once very expensive, have become more affordable than those near the Blue Mosque, and you can eat well for 13 euros per person (Spanish prices, instead of Parisian prices).
While JB goes to his favorite dentist, I treat myself to a Turkish hammam at Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamam. This hammam is all marble, and since discovering it, I can’t be bothered to try others because I really like the service here.
For 61 euros (rate for returning customers like me, 73 euros for new ones), I get a scrub & wash & shampoo. Before inflation, the same treatment cost only 35 euros. The super beautiful hammam near Aya Sophia now costs over 100 euros, can you believe it!!! That’s too expensive. After 5 years, I find out that the hammam offers a free tea at the end of the treatment, but I never knew, so after the Turkish hammam, I used to go straight home ahaha.
As for JB, he will also go to Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamam, then a much more local hammam cheap, where he can get scrubbed and massaged for under 25 euros. Since we don’t know when we’ll be back in Istanbul, we try to make the most of the Turkish hammam, which is very different from the Moroccan hammam.
Grand Bazaar
We motivate ourselves to go to the Grand Bazaar. I try to find a handmade silver ring for my brother-in-law, but I can’t. There are only industrial designs, or antique rings with talismans engraved on them.
I want to treat myself to something, but I don’t know exactly what.
It came to me like that, thinking it would be good for me to buy a silver cup. Actually, I was sick in Sofia and I thought that if I had a silver spoon, I could have recovered faster (according to a Vietnamese method that absolutely requires a silver spoon). And where there’s a spoon, there’s a cup, because buying just a spoon for that isn’t worth it, why not a cup that also matches the spoon? ahaha Silver has always been considered a healing tool in traditional Vietnamese medicine. Having a silver bowl or cup will create silver ions in my tea, a way to prevent health issues (anyone who has done a colloidal silver treatment knows what I’m talking about). I spent a long time on an auction site before realizing that silver used before 1925 in silverware could contain lead, thus toxic. That sterling silver wasn’t that pure (92.5% silver) and absorbing copper ions (7.5%) wasn’t really my goal. So, after long research, I came to the conclusion that I needed pure silver (99.9%).
I searched for “silver” to find shops selling silver at the Grand Bazaar and mostly saw wholesale silver jewelry sellers. It was in the “Antiques” section that I saw a shop full of silver tableware, brand new!
I ask around and they tell me it’s sterling silver (92.5%). The price is determined by weight and according to the manufacturing method (handmade or machine-made), the price per weight varies. They offer a machine-made sterling silver cup (105g) for 250 euros, and a handmade one for 300 euros. Both cups are too simple. Honestly, if I were motivated, I could have made a roughly similar cup with 2 solders myself. So I tell myself that maybe I deserve a more crafted, purer, heavier cup (I’m aiming for 250g-300g)… and it will cost me less to buy it in Vietnam. To be continued…
However, at the antique shops, I found an old watch. My Tissot watch is dead because I took it e-foiling. I’m always afraid of stumbling upon a possessed object at antique shops, so I buy this kind of product with great caution. The saleswoman tells me it’s a brand new watch from the 1960s. Phew. It’s mechanical, meaning it needs to be wound every day. I’m so unaccustomed to using a mechanical watch (it’s my first!) that the next day, when it completely stops working, JB discovered that I didn’t know how to wind it properly. Doing this mechanical gesture every morning is so archaic but I really love it… It’s like a moment you take for yourself to appreciate the time that passes.
There’s another watch that I really like; the second hand is shaped like a horse, and as the horse travels around the dial, it reveals the signature of a former Turkish president. It was a watch created for his political party, and I think the idea is brilliant! But JB finds it too gold, too bling-bling, so we didn’t buy it.
At the jewelers, there are tons of bling-bling jewelry, but. It’s not really my thing because it’s only 14k gold. I like to wear at least 18k, preferably 24k. It’s maybe my apprentice-jeweler reflex. The purer the gold, the more malleable it is. Since my hands aren’t very strong, I like when the metal offers little resistance. I also like the idea of being able to melt down my jewelry when I’m tired of it and create new pieces. And that’s better with 24k gold.
Anyway, I’m like a fish in water. I love looking at designs and wondering how I would have made them if I had to create them myself, whether such-and-such ring was difficult to make; whether such-and-such stone was heated. And the Grand Bazaar is definitely made for window shopping!
There’s a section I really like: the fur section. I get cold easily, so I had a small rabbit fur coat (to wear when it was -2° in Paris), which I had to resell, unfortunately. They have a beautiful collection at the Grand Bazaar, but the sellers seem to lack customers, so I show no interest or they’ll jump on me.
There are tons of fake bags. And you can tell they’re fake; they’re way too poorly made. They have neither the right size, nor the right leather, nor the right color… They’re on open sale, in plain sight. It’s not like in Dubai where sellers have to discreetly grab customers’ attention. In Istanbul, you’ll see plenty of veiled women with a fake Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci scarf… we know where that comes from.
We end our stroll by heading to the Spice Bazaar. It’s a small building, well located, and always crowded. That’s where I was sold fake saffron. I didn’t know what real saffron looked like, so I got scammed, but never again!
Once you’ve used real saffron, I think you can recognize the real thing just by smell, because the fake has a somewhat unpleasant smell, not as refined as the real one. Since then, I’ve gotten my hands on saffron from Iran and Morocco, and I find Iranian saffron longer and more red in color than Moroccan. We even got to buy Afghan saffron at the World Expo in Dubai.
The days fly by too quickly, and it’s already time to leave Istanbul for Athens. We’re too afraid of not finding an Uber like last time, so we opt for a private service from Istanbul to the airport. It’s still a 45-minute drive. The fare is 35 euros, but for 5 euros more, we get an ultra-spacious van.
JB makes us wait in a lounge at the airport (IST), the worst of our lives… where there’s hardly any free seats, and the plates aren’t even cleared. Luckily, this lounge was included with our Priority Pass, because some people paid $100 for it!!! Anyway, I don’t recommend it.
