After living in Istanbul for 3.5 months and being back in Singapore, I was certainly delighted to find a newly set up stall that sells kebaps and kofte in the Kopitiam just opposite my school. 🙂
It was the exact same feeling I had when I found chinese food in Istanbul after not eating it for two months. I haven’t had authentic turkish food for two months now and was certainly glad to find that this is legit!
Anyway, I had this list of places of interest typed out to a friend some time back and I thought I should share it before it goes missing somewhere in the net. I hope it is useful for anyone who’s planning to go to Istanbul for a vacation. Pardon my sketchy write-up and it was written in the Singaporean context.
european side: (i shall go by ferry landmarks)
• besiktas
– ortakoy: famous for kumpir (humongous baked potato), flea market (half an hour walk to besiktas)
– Rumelihisarı: a great wall of china looking fortress (take bus from besiktas/kabatas. the bus will indicate sariyer. depending on traffic half an hour to 1hour plus bus ride) it’s near the bridge after bosphorous bridge
• kabatas
– dolmabache palace (40TL for adult, 5TL for student with international card)
– metro to taksim. taksim is the orchard road of european side (must go)
• karakoy
– nice fish barbeque sandwiches sold on the streets
• eminonu
– same fish sandwiches
– galata tower (12TL)
– spice bazaar
• legoland of istanbul:http://www.miniaturk.com.tr/en/category.php?id=2
• can take the tram from kabatas/karakoy/eminonu to sultanahmet station
– sultanahmet station has the famous blue mosque, hagia sofia, topkapi palace, basilica cistern
• tram station after sultanahmet
– the grand bazaar (where skyfall was filmed)asian side:
• kadikoy: less touristy place. where i stay. i know all the awesome and cheap food.
• baghdad avenue: all the branded stuff. generally shopping in istanbul is not cheap.  (take dolmus that indicates kadikoy-bostanci)
– dolmus is like a shuttle/taxi/carpool hybrid that travels between two points and will move off only if it’s full capacity (about 10pax) price is fixed and indicated on a paper beside the driverremember to check opening hours of attractions, they don’t really have the usual mon-fri.
lovely diacritic? 