Here’s my advice for you to make your stay in Istanbul more pleasant.
My travel tips & tricks for Istanbul
Wake up early
If you want to discover the real Istanbul without all the tourist buzz, you should wake up early and start exploring this beautiful city while the sun is rising. It’s silent, has the most gorgeous light and it feels like the city is all yours!
You will also be the first in line to visit the famous monuments, so you’ll be able to take pictures without too many people standing in your frame.
Be friendly, but assertive with a smile
As soon as I walked out of my hotel on the first day, a guy approached me to ask me all sorts of questions. Where am I from, where am I going, if he could help me and sharing information about the Blue Mosque which was only 200m away from my hotel. I just kept walking, answering his questions short but politely. Of course this ended with him asking if I could join him for a drink, which I refused firmly and then he walked away. I encountered similar situations many times in Istanbul. After 3 times you don’t answer them any more and you give them a smile and just move on. But there are some others that are more persistent and they won’t stop following and bothering you. Then it’s time to raise your voice and say that if they don’t go away, you’ll scream. This worked for me everytime, because other people in your surroundings start looking at you and will be aware of your situation.
At the Grand Bazar everyone will try to lure you into their shops, waiters will try to convince you to eat at their restaurant, but if you just smile and say “no thanks” they stop insisting and smile back. Be nice and treat everyone with respect.
Wear appropriate clothes
Even though Istanbul is a very modern city I decided to wear maxi dresses. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to walk around in shorts in a city (also depending on the length of the shorts), they are for the beach. You can wear dresses that aren’t too short, but I wanted to be respectful towards the city’s culture. Also it was very easy to enter the mosques. I only had to cover my head and shoulders with my scarf, which I always took with me. Otherwise you get to wear scarfs and robes that hundreds of other people wore before you. (I didn’t like that thought)
Take socks, a scarf and a plastic bag
Like I wrote before, I always took my own scarf with me to cover my head in the mosques. Other items I always took with me are socks and a plastic bag. The socks are for preventing to walk on the carpet in the mosques where thousands of people already stepped on with their sweaty or dirty feet. I don’t have mysophobia, but the thought of sweaty or dirty feet just makes me uncomfortable. The smell at the mosques at times is just awful, so I was very happy to wear socks. (I think some tourists have never heard of soap??? Simply disgusting!) At the big mosques plastic bags can be found to put your shoes in. But at the lesser known small mosques, there are no bags. That’s why I always took my own plastic bag.
Visit the small lesser known mosques
I visited the most famous mosques like the Blue Mosque and the Suleymaniye Mosque, but I also discovered some pretty small ones. Don’t hesitate to just enter the unknown. Soon I’ll post more about the smaller ones!
Enjoy the call of prayer
The best place to experience the call of prayer is probably between the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia on a bench. The “muezzin”, the one who calls/sings for prayer, of the Blue Mosque starts, then the one of the Aya Sofia follows and then it switches again. It’s almost like a battle and so amazing to experience! When they are both silent for a few seconds you can also hear the “muezzin” of other mosques in the distance. The call of prayer always gave me goosebumps. I thought it was so magical. The first time I even got tears in my eyes.
Experience Ramadam
The 4th day of my stay was the start of Ramadam. Now this is special! I never forget the sight of hundreds of families sitting at the tables at the square of Sultanahmet with their food packages, waiting for the sun to go down, so they could start to eat after the cannon was fired. Incredible! Also at every call of prayer, men close their shops, take their little prayer rugs and run to the mosque. There they all pray, even on the street in the rain, because the mosques aren’t big enough to cover them all. Now that’s dedication!
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