ELEVENEVELE 11:11: The Istanbul Trip

"Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah"

This trip did not call to me like those of the past. This trip did surprise me in many ways and I can safely say that Istanbul is a city full of awesome history and rich culture. A culture that will sting you repeatedly if you let it. But those are always the best ones. Constant safety is a boring venture. I want to explore and find the pulse of a place and you can't do that exclusively from the 7th floor of the Marriott.

Rather than any plans, I booked my flight (w/ return), and my hotel for one night when I landed. That has got to be the way to explore a city as big as Istanbul. Force yourself to find a place to stay, even if it's a shit-hole you survive the one night and move on

Night one I touched down at about 2:30am and texted my prearranged hotel shuttle driver. I asked to go to the hotel as I was bagged from the 16 hours of travel I had just completed, and realized I booked the hotel down the street. From the other airport. On the other side of the city.

I flew into SAW, my hotel was next to IST

I was so tired I took the private shuttle across the city of Istanbul (it took about an hour and 15 minutes with little traffic). Costly mistake for sure, but not the end of the world. I made it and the hotel was perfect to crash in and figure it out the next day.

Sick ride though

This trip turned into a series of excellent lessons on how to travel alone. It wasn't the most difficult destination to figure out, but it wasn't the easiest either. The tourism thing is heavily developed but the money makers in Istanbul know how to hustle you out of any extra cash floating around your pockets. There are some obvious scams, and some that are not so obvious. It seems like everyone is concurrently both into developed sales pitches while also just trying to earn some Turkish Liras and get by. The further away you get from the touristy old-city, the more chill the people get and the less everything seems to cost.

First Sunrise

Anyways I woke up, ate some breakfast and got a ride to the airport I did not fly in on so I could reset and figure out where I was to go in this massive city first. I took the metro from the airport directly into Taksim Square, which seems like the natural starting point into the heart of Istanbul.

First class public transportation

Pano of Taksim Square

I quickly found a seedy hostel to lock my backpack up so I could walk around. The street I touched down on, Istiklal, was packed as I'm sure it is most days/nights and I just wandered down it and through the many side streets for hours until I was tired enough to crash. This is when I regretted going cheap on the hostel as I was stuck in a room with several drunk Iranian dudes who were not quiet when they clambered in at about 3:00am. And then I got stung by a rogue mosquito about 17 times during the night. Needless to say I didn't sleep a bit. Didn't care really.