Long layovers are not always bad, especially when you don’t need a visa to be in the country. On my way to Amsterdam and back, I had the opportunity to spend 8 hours exploring Istanbul. Since these were just layovers, my bike stayed at the airport. I tracked my time and dashed out to explore the city.
Half an hour in line at passport control, a stamp in the passport, and there I was, heading on the metro directly from the airport. To pay, I had to buy a single trip ticket, although it’s better to get an Istanbulkart and load it with money for unlimited rides, just like a Troika card.
The metro is somewhat reminiscent of those in St. Petersburg or Barcelona.
Entries and exits to the metro resemble those back home. The slope is intense.
A very pleasant street.
Golden means very cool!
A rapid tram runs through the city. You pay for the ride like you do for the metro, entering through a turnstile.
These are French Alstom trams, like the ones in Barcelona, Paris, or Jerusalem.
Entrance to the Grand Bazaar.
Inside, it’s nice, but they sell various random items.
I don’t know what palace it is, but the gate is beautiful, especially with a large canopy.
Underground containers.
Corn vendor.
I haven’t been to San Francisco, but this reminds me of San Francisco.
In the distance, you can see the Sultanahmet Mosque. And in the foreground, familiar fences.
Inside the mosque, it’s cozy, with carpets everywhere, and people leave their shoes at the entrance or carry them in a bag.
Hagia Sophia is a very cool and monstrous structure, definitely worth a visit.
View from a window.
Even more elaborate gate design.
Navigation.
It’s nice to walk down an old street with old cobblestones.
The terrain slopes sharply downward, and buildings are adapted to it.
Cafe tables on terraces.
Sometimes, you’re amazed at how people in the past put in effort to create such small beauties.
A tree grows right in the middle of the street, so trams and cars gently go around it.
The tram stops are squeezed into narrow old streets.
It’s so tight that the platform even stands on a bend.
Something on the tram tracks.
The greatest charm of Istanbul is the close contact with shopfronts and cafes, which literally spill onto the street, making you constantly want to peek inside.
A sign warning about a winding turn.
Istanbul’s waterfront has issues. Most of it consists of piers, highways, or the cheapest and most dysfunctional landscaping. The park spaces that do exist are spaced apart, and the only way to get from one to another is to dash across several streets and go around a couple of blocks.
Everyone just sits on the granite edge until a ship sails by and blocks the view.
Meanwhile, the entire waterfront is occupied by fishermen.
View of the Bosphorus.
On multi-story ferries, you can cross from the European part to the Asian side.
One of the main bridges has a dedicated tram line running down the middle.
There’s no need to paint a zebra crossing to indicate a pedestrian path.
A climb up a charming street.
Tram cafe.
Beautiful combination.
Because of the terrain, staircases often form on sidewalks, so you have to go around on the road.
You can ride down from the hill on a funicular.
No visit would be complete without kebab.
A retro tram line runs along the local ridge, moving slowly through a pedestrian area. You can (but shouldn’t) hop on while it’s moving, and pay for the ride on the surface transit fare by tapping your card on the validator.
From the window, I noticed a charging station with a Studio Artemy Lebedev hat design.
Children play in the middle of the road.
In Istanbul, like in Moscow, sometimes you find yourself on a route that leads to nowhere, forcing you to suffer.
How do you even walk here?
There’s a lot of cool street art in the eastern part.
You can get to the Asian side not only by ferry. Under the Bosphorus is a tunnel with a local train. The underground stations look like and essentially operate like a metro.
Here’s the tile design.
Another interesting form of transport, which, along with trams, metros, and electric trains, forms a single coherent whole—BRT. In the middle of highways, circumventing half the city, runs a dedicated line for fast buses, with platforms like those for trams or metros. These buses, like separate carriages, ride between stations, quickly transporting people.
From above, it looks like this.
To reach the platform, you must use an overhead crossing, and the road itself, without traffic lights, stands in wild congestion. Just the way we like it.
Transfer to the metro.
The Turkish flag beautifully decorates the street.
And the sky.
The city is not well-suited for cyclists, so one of the few cyclists I encountered was some adventurer on the highway. In some ways, Istanbul reminds me of Vladivostok.
Behind him was a boy roller-skating right down the road. Nearby on the sidewalk stood a man with a fishing rod, with a baby lying on the sidewalk two meters from speeding buses. Don’t ask.
On the waterfront, there’s a cool idea with vertical restaurants. Each floor acts as a basement.
If you are tired of the chaos and noise of the city, it’s the perfect time to hop on a ferry and have one of the most beautiful experiences in Istanbul.
The large ferry loads up, and people sit in the audience waiting for the performance.
Then for 20 minutes you sail into the sunset, blown by warm flavorful air surrounded by a flock of seagulls catching food on the fly.
Pier and the water swirl from the propellers.
In total, over two layovers of 8 hours each, I managed to see a fairly large part of the city and even drive around the outskirts a bit. Istanbul is a very pleasant, accessible, and reasonably priced city. An excellent place to visit for a weekend!
Güle güle!
Leave a Reply