Istanbul (Turkey) in 2024: a lost paradise

Our return to Istanbul in 2024 only confirms one thing: the Istanbul we loved no longer exists…

Part 1: Travel Journal
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Journal

We have a Franco-Turkish friend who owns an apartment in Istanbul and goes there often. We get news about Istanbul, one of our favorite cities, through him. During our stay in 2023, we already sensed a certain unease among the locals, but K. tells me it has gotten worse. He shares some prices from the Asian side: over 20 euros for a breakfast we used to pay barely 7 euros for 5 years ago.

JB has had a toothache for a few months, so we decide to go see our favorite polyglot dentist in Istanbul (Asli, whom we highly recommend), just before her trip to Vietnam!!

We arrive from Sofia by train, so the journey is long (with a wake-up at 1 AM for passport stamping and baggage scanning), but we don’t have the stress of arriving at the huge international airport in Istanbul. We order a yellow taxi via Uber. The driver arrives with a cigarette in his mouth. I manage to convey through subtle gestures that it bothers me, and luckily, out of two lit cigarettes, he only smoked half and threw the rest… on the road. 30 minutes in a car that smells like cigarette smoke—this is not a good start. Bulgarians smoke a lot, but Turks smoke even more!!! Must be the stress.

Arriving at our first hotel (over 8 days, we stay in 2 hotels), we are welcomed by an extremely warm and friendly team. This hotel is right next to the Blue Mosque. I want to be in this area because each time, we’re on the Karakoy side (the other side of the Bosphorus, still in Europe) and I don’t know the Blue Mosque neighborhood well.

I quickly change to get rid of the clothes that now smell of smoke, and after a long shower, head down to eat at the hotel restaurant. We discover we get -10% on the bill as hotel guests plus some small gifts, which makes the bill easier to swallow, because prices are now aligned with French ones: 16 euros per dish!!! Ouch! Gone are the days when 7 lira = 1 euro. Now, 37 lira = 1 euro. It’s hard for us to survive here with such an exchange rate, so imagine the Turks! In 5 years, their wealth has been divided by 5. Thus, people queue up at currency exchange offices—it would be crazy to keep your money in lira. You have to convert it either to euros or dollars.

Faced with the crisis and radicalization, Turks seem desperate and discontented… They hate Arabs (contrary to what some think, Turks are not Arabs), and the influx of Syrians, Afghans, and even Arab tourists from the Middle East seems to bother them enormously. We notice, just like them, that there are more and more veiled women, and more and more women covered from head to toe. We ask if they’re just Syrians, but no, even Turkish women are becoming more radicalized. Now, with my hair blowing in the wind, I get stared at much more by men than before. I’m not sure how to interpret these looks, but it’s not very pleasant and it’s never happened to me before in Istanbul. I don’t feel very safe and cling much more to JB for security.

Another thing: to get to the dentist’s, we’re far now and have to either take public transport or a taxi. It’s impossible to find a taxi that doesn’t try to rip us off. They don’t use the meter and ask for payment in euros, which is x4 or x5 the normal amount. We see many taxis with the green light on but occupied, a sign they charge whatever they want. We even had a driver who accepted our Uber ride before negotiating the price via the app’s chat—we’ve never seen that! We have to opt for public transport and spend 1.5 hours total (instead of 30 minutes), combining tram, walking, then metro. On a weekday, when people are supposed to be at work, it’s completely packed. We’re told there are 80 million Turks, with 20 million already in Istanbul hahaha. Before, when it was crowded but people were kind and cheerful, it was okay… now being surrounded by people with grumpy faces like in Paris, in a gloomy and desperate atmosphere, is far less cool. I must say I tolerate public transport less and less, being used to often being in the city center and walking everywhere. I much prefer places where I can take transport autonomously, like a scooter, or opt for a taxi when it gets too much. But here, it’s more stressful to find a taxi.

In short, we conclude we won’t be returning to Istanbul for a very long time. So we must make the most of this stay and visit everything we loved or wanted to see.

Hagia Sophia is only 3 minutes from our hotel. It was a mosque, became a basilica, became a museum, and now it’s a mosque again. If we go in during prayers, we can access the ground floor and it’s free. It’s reserved for Muslims, and we don’t quite fit the profile. Otherwise, we’d have to buy a ticket (25 euros) to only access the first floor. We visited Hagia Sophia when it was still a museum, then when it turned into a mosqueAnd we prefer Aya Sophia because it’s better preserved. Being turned into a mosque damages the building enormously (because it’s more crowded). The only advantage of having Aya Sophia as a mosque is the call to prayer. Since Aya Sophia is close to the Blue Mosque, the two men who chant the call to prayer take turns. One sings the first phrase, the other continues… it’s magnificent! We can hear this duet even from our hotel, and it’s beautiful, so beautiful! There’s magic in these chants, it moves me every time.

Across from Aya Sophia is the Blue Mosque. Only its minaret is under renovation. We’re delighted because for the first time, we’ll be able to visit the mosque in its entirety, without being bothered by construction.

However, the interior disappoints me a lot. I thought the Blue Mosque would be much more special than this. In the end, we’ve already visited bigger, more beautiful mosques. Compared to Aya Sophia, the Blue Mosque isn’t that special. Okay, its huge columns are impressive, but other mosques, especially the New Mosque, are almost as beautiful. It must be acknowledged, though, that the stained glass here is more numerous and more beautiful.

It’s packed and smells like feet 🙁

We flee and walk through the nearby streets. Today is the Istanbul Marathon, so many streets are blocked, the tram is no longer running, so we have to walk a lot.

Yeni Camii

Finally! The Yeni Camii is also no longer under renovation! It’s one of my two favorite mosques, along with the Suleymaniye Mosque. These are the two mosques that are ultra-visible from the bridge crossing the Bosphorus (from the bridge, you can see neither Aya Sophia nor the Blue Mosque). For me, these two mosques are like Blue Mosques, but with fewer people 😀 and without the unpleasant odor. Of course, you have to come outside of prayer times. A quick check on the internet makes it clear that it’s better to come in the morning because there are fewer prayers in the morning (just two, around 8 AM and 1 PM).

When leaving the mosque, we hear a guard humming a melody that resembles the call to prayer. It’s magnificent! He sings so well!

From the Yeni Camii, you can see the Spice Bazaar (packed) and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque in the distance.

The Rüstem Pasha Mosque has two entrances, but they are hidden, so you must not lose sight of the mosque, squeeze through the pastry vendors, and as soon as you see a sign saying “mosque” or “camii”, climb the stairs.

The mosque is very small but very pretty.

This mosque is famous for its ceramics. At one point, we’re so tired that we sit on the floor (with the thick carpets in mosques, it’s very comfortable). People, like sheep, think the view from this spot is better and jostle to be in the same place as us to take photos – when two meters away, they could take better photos. It cracks me up. I don’t know if it’s because they follow like sheep, or if this particular spot in the mosque is full of energy. Because indeed, after sitting for five minutes, I felt much, much better. And I’m surprised at myself for being so interested in a small mosque, not necessarily the most beautiful one in the neighborhood.

From then on, I hate Istanbul a little less… and I decide to cross the bridge. I’ve always loved crossing the bridge and seeing a hundred fishermen (who do quite well, even though they’re numerous). From the shore, you can see the Galata Tower, which I’ve already visited and recommend visiting.

As I told you before, from the bridge you can see very, very well the Suleymaniye Mosque. It has only 4 minarets (the Blue Mosque has 6), but it represents Istanbul to me because I usually stay on this side of the Bosphorus, and when I cross the bridge to go to the center, it’s always the Suleymaniye Mosque that I admire first.

We brave the wind to go to the Fish Market on the other side of the bridge. There’s a small restaurant, Karakoy Balik Evi, that serves seafood, including the famous grilled fish sandwich (the fish freshly caught from the Bosphorus, I believe?). Inflation has reached this side of the Bosphorus, but it’s still acceptable, especially since JB has a fish soup that’s very generous with fish for less than 4 euros.

At the Fish Market, we see huge oysters, but we’re not sure how to eat them because there don’t seem to be tables, and the restaurants inside the Fish Market don’t seem to offer cooking/table service.

On the street, JB finds his favorite stuffed mussels , but the price has gone up again since last time. Now it costs 10 TRY for a very small mussel (instead of 2 TRY!), but he’s still happy, it’s so good!

We return to the center. The marathon still isn’t over, and a hundred people are jostling to get onto a platform to cross the road. It’s chaos. We prefer to go around at the finish line area, which adds a good 1 km to our journey.

We visit Archaeology Museum because I hope to find beautiful jewelry there, but in the end it’s just a cheap copy of the Topkapi Museum. If you can only visit one museum, Topkapi will suffice; it’s my favorite! The prices are in euros, but you have to pay in lira, at the day’s exchange rate.

What I really like about the Archaeology Museum is the presence of cats inside the museum itself 🙂

Here you can find the first written copies of the Quran…

And a ton of Qurans, each more beautiful than the last, illuminated and written by the best calligraphers and illuminators…

I particularly love their bookbinding techniques. I’ll draw inspiration from them for my next bindings.

This one was stolen and put up for auction at Christie’s in London in 2017. Luckily, the London police noticed and returned it to Turkey.

They have a lovely collection of rugs, but I have no interest in rugs—they attract dust, not my thing.

And as we left the museum, surprise: we got a very satisfying view of the 6 minarets of the Blue Mosque (one of which is under restoration).

To recover from several kilometers on foot, we settle in at the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At Sultanahmet. There’s a group of Asians there. Of course, where there are luxury hotels, there are my Asian friends ahaha. I highly recommend their hot chocolate—it takes 15 minutes to prepare, but it’s real chocolate! Their restaurant prices are barely higher than the local restaurants, so go for lunch; plus, the setting is nice!

Current reads

It was while waiting for JB at our Turkish dentist’s that I saw his books in the waiting room. I look at the titles: lots of Paulo Coelho books, including a biography “Conversations with Paulo Coelho” (Amazon link). I’ve always found his style simplistic, and for me, he was in the same category as Raphaëlle Giodano, who wrote “Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One.” These are authors who can write self-help bestsellers, with plenty of phrases you can recycle into Pinterest quotes, but without any literary talent. But reading this book makes me think the guy has a genuinely interesting and complex past, and a master (Jean) much smarter than him, hence the novel The Alchemist , which owes its success to Jean’s teachings. But I don’t stop there, because this book is more or less dictated by Paulo; he can pat himself on the back as he pleases, since the book is almost a transcript of discussions with Paulo.

Next, I read a more complex and objective biography by Fernando Morais, “The Wizard of Light: The Extraordinary Story of Writer Paulo Coelho” (Amazon link), Brazil’s best biographer, and the few positive points I find in Paulo Coelho completely disappear. He always has a fascinating story but a shitty personality. I’ll go into more detail in another article.

Tomorrow, we’ll switch sides, we’ll head back to Karakoy, but to a hotel this time.

Part 2: Practical Tips

• Our hotel: Blue Zerzevan Konak (44 euros/night/double room), Booking link. -10% on the ground-floor restaurant
• Right next door is the restaurant Palatium Cafe and Restaurant with a wood-fired oven, which I also recommend.
• Restaurants: about 600 TRY/dish in this area, so 16 euros. For steaks, count more like 1200 TRY, i.e., 32 euros.
• Public transport: 20 TRY/ride on tram or metro. Buy a 3-day pass at the machines, or get the Istanbulcard, available at metro stations or newsstands.