📍Istanbul, Turkey 🇹🇷

Day 1: We landed in Istanbul around 9pm and took a taxi to our Airbnb, which was an hour and 15 minutes away. Total cost: $20-$26 dollars. I liked this place from the start. We met up with Robby and went for a late night dinner at F&B Culture.

Day 2: Erin, Robby, and I started our day at Lavender Cafe, which was around the corner from our house. Erin and I ate this egg dish which was soupy and delicious. Robby ate something else but wished he had what we did. #regrets.

The three of us took the metro to the tourist area Sultanahmet Square, where J met us. We stood in line for the Hagia Sofia (mosque) where Robby was called out for looking like a “rich American who would be an ideal customer for buying carpets.”😂

We walked to the famous Blue Mosque, but it was under construction so it was pretty underwhelming. Erin, on the other hand, did not disappoint with her look 👀.

We made our way over to the Basilica Cistern, which is basically a giant, old-school underground water tank.

We tried some Turkish ice cream and then had a late lunch at The Pudding Shop. They did in fact have delicious rice pudding for the record.

Ok, so…we have been traveling for a bit and we only have our backpacks. Our small luggage doesn’t leave a lot of room for “cute clothes” as I have explained before. Well, that hasn’t been a problem until this day. Erin had heard that the Four Seasons has a cool rooftop to have drinks so we went to check it out. When we got there, it was just Robby, Erin, and I because J wanted to see the smallest park ever.

We asked the lady that worked there for a table on the rooftop and she said it was currently full. Robby then suggested we get a drink at the bar, so we did. I had a feeling that the rooftop wasn’t full but that we just didn’t look the part. So, when J came to meet up with us, I told him to try to get a table on the rooftop and see what they say. 10 minutes later, I get a call. J IS ON THE ROOFTOP & HAS A TABLE.

We had asked our server if we could meet our friend on the rooftop and informed him he had a table for us. (Our server didn’t know we were previously shunned from being up there for being too ugly.) He not only okayed it, but kindly escorted us up there. What do we see? Many open tables. Talk about a confidence booster.

We had a few drinks and then went back to the house to get ready for dinner and drinks. “Getting ready” turned into hours at the house (sorry Erin!) and we didn’t end up leaving until midnight. Turns out, most kitchens are closed by then. I mean duh..unsure what we were thinking there. We found this place on the party street where the food was subpar at best. J and Robby ate while Erin and I never received our food. Can’t win ‘em all. While we were sitting there, the bar across from us was playing a random mix of Turkish and American songs and everyone was dancing at their tables. We went over to the bar and everyone began dancing in the street.💃 Turns out our night wasn’t a bust after all.

Day 3: We started our day with food at Namli. It was a mix between an eatery and restaurant and the chaos overwhelmed Robby, but the rest of us enjoyed our experience. To be fair, Erin and I let Robby and J handle the ordering and we just calmly waited at the tables 👑.

We then took a yacht tour along the coast of the city. Istanbul is in both Europe and Asia, so we did a quick stop on the Asian side of the city.

We got back and shopped around the busy area by our house. We had learned not to wait until midnight to eat, so we grabbed drinks at Mürver and then went to Ali Ocakbaşı for a nice rooftop dinner. Most of the bars around us were closed, which was a surprise, but you never have to convince me to sleep a little longer.

Day 4: J had to finish up some work, so Robby, Erin, and I went to the bazaar. It was in fact bizarre. It was a massive indoor market that consisted of two things: Turkish desserts and fake designer bags. The highlight was easily when one of the shop owners asked if he could “sell us some shit we definitely don’t need.” We walked around a bit, had some lunch, and then made our way to our hammam.

Cagaloglu Hamam was VERY different than our first. For starters, they explained how a hammam works rather than telling us to get into a towel, sweat in a room for an undetermined amount of time, and then waterboard you unannounced. Don’t get me wrong, we actually really enjoyed the first one, but it was just completely different. We sat down in a fancy spa while listening to the explanation, then we each had our own changing room where there was a comfy chair, a hair dryer, and other accessories for when our treatment was complete. We then went into the sauna room to sweat out our sins until one of the ladies came to get us. This hammam was also split up by gender so we were separated from the boys. We opted for a full body clay mask after the scrub which, by the looks of things, no one else decided to do as Erin and I were the only two idiots sitting there looking like brown naked avatars in the bathroom. Robby and J also optioned this so I’m sure that was a sight to see as well. (No cameras allowed so no avatar pictures, sorry to disappoint.)

The boys went to get some food while Erin and I went on our way. We got in a taxi and there was so much traffic. We did. not. move. Traffic to the point where the taxi driver took a quick nap. Traffic to the point that when we passed some street food, he ordered from the car. We hadn’t eaten so this was beneficial to us since I asked him to order 2 more and had a nice lunch in the back of his cab car. We bought some souvenirs—and by some, I mean Erin kindly bought another suitcase for all of our stuff to fit on her journey home.

We met back up with the boys for our final night together 😩. A few people told us to check out Ciragan Palace Kempinski so we went there for what we intended to be just a snack. A few drinks and a dinner later, we began looking up bars to go to.

Fail. Again. Every bar we found was closed. Unsure if COVID affected the nightlife or if Istanbul is just more quiet on the weekdays, but either way, our success rate was very low. This fail may have been for the best as Erin had a 5 am alarm for her flight and we were only a few hours after her. We said our goodbyes to Erin and Robby. J and I woke up the next morning and flew to Budapest.

Miss you, Erin!

This stop marked two months of traveling. Time freakin flies. Thanks for following along!

Love,
AK & J

Outtakes!