#istanbul Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

August 2, 2026August 2, 2026

Notes on Istanbul

Most Of you know at least something about Istanbul. I just want to add some of my experiences. These are my Notes on Istanbul. I have a preference for where I stay and it’s near Taksim Square. Buses from either of the airports leave very close nearby every 30 minutes and there are quite a few hotels in the area which you’re not that expensive and which are well equipped. And you also have a good bus hub as well as the metro right nearby. The one thing you need to watch in this area it’s really geared towards the incoming and outgoing tourist which means most of the people who come to these shops in this area will never show up again. And that creates a very touristy attitude which is not typical of much of anything outside of Istanbul. Here I will give you some examples.

LamB fritter Notes on Istanbul — Then they brought something very tasty made of lamb and offered it to me saying, “it’s free”. Even though I didn’t need more food I accepted it. I also enjoyed it.

TEa Notes on Istanbul — Next they brought some tea saying, “it’s free“. You should note here that every restaurant in Turkey except for Istanbul brings tea after the Meal as a service, no charge. The total of what I ordered was 800. The bill was 1000. So obviously either the “it’s free“ was not really the case or as some people on Google maps reviews have indicated they like to charge a “service fee“ which in two months in Turkey I have never come across. But this is the tourist treatment. I didn’t complain about the bill. The food was delicious and the service was very good and the people were very nice so I didn’t mind the extra 200. But this is just one case of the tourist situation here in this small area. Almost every restaurant seems to have some little tourist thing going.

as you’re walking down the streets here you are constantly being requested to eat in the restaurant or come into the store so it can be a little bit irritating. Since it happens in almost every Second store, going to the metro station you may pass 20 of these people asking you to come in. I just smile politely and keep walking. One thing I should add, out of all of the restaurants I’ve been to in this little area near my hotel which I explained is near the bus station, all of the food was very good and of good quality except for one restaurant which I will never go back to again. So even if you’re facing the tourist tricks here I think the food will still be pretty good.

Soup and beer Bill Smale — The fellow outside this restaurant said he would give me a beer for 250 instead of the usual 400. There was only one table full and he said he wanted more customers to sit down so that it would look busy and more people would come in. I felt like I wanted a beer so I came in and I ordered the soup as well. The bread came without a request. Then I was reading a comment on Google Maps about the same situation here and a bill arriving with a much higher price than promised. The person was very irate. So I decided to take care of the situation by asking the fellow who called me in to remind me again of the price for the beer. He said, “no problem, I told everybody here to give you that price”. But when the bill came it was 400 for the beer which I expected knowing this is a tourist area. So I called the fellow over, showed him the bill. He explained to the fellow the situation and they changed the bill to the appropriate amount. So just watch out for this and resolve the situation in a quiet and friendly way.

There is an area of Istanbul I really like. The Uyghur and Mixed Race Chinese people from that area (a colony of Communist China) live in this area and have a variety of very interesting restaurants which are for the local people so you don’t get the frustrations of the tourist atmosphere. The food is really excellent in all the restaurants I visited and it’s very interesting food. It’s much different than Turkish food and you can get the Uyghur Style food or the Chinese types of food in this area. I opted for the Uyghur Style food since it’s new to me. The prices are very reasonable and as I mentioned before it’s all very delicious.

Uyghur food Bill Smale — This is at the Köklem Uyghur restaurant. I don’t know if they provide chopsticks but I didn’t request them because I always take my own. This was a eggplant and vegetable dish with very different flavors from the Chinese style.

From my hotel near Taksim Square I walk about five minutes to the bus stop and get on a bus that takes me directly to this restaurant in about 20 minutes.

Clean plate Bill Smale — As you can see I ate pretty much everything except for one and a half grains of rice.

Secret bus Bill Smale — I guess this was a secret bus going back to the airport.

Overall Istanbul is a great place to visit. You just have to slink past all of the people who are trying to pull you into their shops especially the ones trying to sell carpets. They are unrelenting. But just know that the rest of the country isn’t really like Istanbul. It’s much more relaxed, you don’t get the tourist treatment except for a few of the big tourist attraction areas, and the people are really Gracious , kind, honest and friendly. It’s a fantastic country to visit and spend time in. If you’re used to driving a car in Thailand then you can definitely drive a car here in Turkey And Car Rental prices are Reasonable.

September 17, 2025September 17, 2025

Walking around Taksim

across the bridge from Topkapi in Istanbul is a very busy area and series of streets called Taksim. It seems this area is extremely popular with everybody looking for something different from the “imperial“ area on the other side of the river with most of the main tourist attractions. But they’re very narrow streets here with some very nice restaurants and coffee shops that make this area feel like a major tourist shopping street but also a very “local“ area. When visiting Istanbul, this is an area you really have to visit and just spend a day or two walking around. There are a couple very fun cable cars which go up steep hills and a street car which goes down the main shopping street with all the famous and expensive brands of imported goods.

The place to wash your feet around Taksim — You can wash here before going into the mosque

Turkish ice cream around Taksim — This is a Turkish style ice cream cart with an interesting and fun activity for the customers

Nighttime crowds — The main streets get very crowded around Taksim at night time

Turkish coffee shop — Turkish coffee parlors are much cheaper than the western style café and I highly recommend visiting a couple and sitting around local people enjoying some chat, local information and conversation conversations.

Famous tower around Taksim — You can go up inside this famous tower for a big price

In front of the tower — Proof, I was there

Expensive tower — It’s a little expensive to go up this tower

Aile restaurant on a backstreet provides very delicious Arabic food

Aile menu — This is their menu and it’s very highly rated

Olive vegetarian food — The vegetarian style food with a lot of olives was just delicious

Purple is the color — Purple seems to be the color here for some reason which I didn’t bother to ask about. Purple and white are Cornell colors

Street car tracks — A few cars travel to Main Street along with the street car, which is ancient

Steep streets — There are some very steep streets, reminding me of San Francisco

A lot of people — Even though the Backstreets can be pretty crowded

Cable car entrance — This is the entrance to the very inexpensive cable car

Cable car — This is the cable car, leaving the platform going down the hill

Cable car history — This gives you a history of the cable car

Old building — Some beautiful old buildings

And of course, there needs to be a Guinness

Homeless cats — Everybody loves and feeds the cats and they seem to behave and probably do their job catching the mice. These cats are very busy standing guard, but most likely waiting for food.

Grand bazaar entrance — An old entrance to the grand bazaar

You can find all kinds of Turkish delights which are dried fruit, fruits, nuts, and sweets, rolled up and ready to eat for snack, snacks or dessert. There are so many varieties.

Not popular Street — Some streets are not that popular

Interesting building — This is a very interesting building

Shopping area — A shopping area outside the mosque

Nice spaghetti and tea — I forgot to take the photo before eating the tasty food. Tea is usually served for free unless it’s a very touristy place and then they want to charge money for it.

May 29, 2025May 29, 2025

Enjoying Topkapi surroundings

when you visit Turkey it’s important to go to one of the greatest sites in Istanbul. The Topkapi palace where the sultans ruled for hundreds of years is a real treasure. One thing you won’t see, however, is the diamond portrayed in the movie “Topkapi”. While you are there remember to spend time Enjoying Topkapi surroundings. It’s a very beautiful and relaxing place to spend three or four hours and maybe more if you’re interested in studying every aspect of the palace.

Palace entrance — Entrance to the palace

Main gate Enjoying Topkapi surroundings — The main gate

Enjoying Topkapi surroundings — The palace and its surroundings

Chimneys — These chimneys you will recognize from the movie

Tne view — The view from the garden across the strait

The view — You could see one of the main Bridges

Artistic Arabic — I am fascinated by how artistically Arabic can be written

Foot bath — One of the places to wash your feet

Pieces of an ancient palace — The archaeologist are still trying to locate places for pieces they have found

May 20, 2025May 20, 2025

Istanbul food and…

Just walk around the city and try all different kinds of Istanbul food. It comes from many different countries and definitely has things you will enjoy. These are just some ideas that might be interesting.

Turkish delights are typical Istanbul food — probably the most famous type of food in turkey is what they call “Turkish delight”. You will see the shops all over Istanbul and other cities in Turkey. They are sweet things with fruits and nuts and a variety of different ingredients in all different kinds of mixtures, hundreds of them.

Stage doctors? — This was just kind of funny. So are these doctors real or are they just acting on a stage?

Palestinian and Istanbul food — this is just a political comment at what seemed to be a Palestinian owned restaurant.

Coffee and cake — in the afternoons I found that a cup of coffee with some kind of cake was just a very special treat

Istanbul food in stalls — This is in one of the squares with the Metro Station and different food stalls around. It was a cold rainy day

Large vehicle on the street — Many of the streets are very old and not really made for these large vehicles

Traditional Istanbul food — a very interesting meat and vegetable dish and you will see the usual rotten tomato and another vegetable on the plate with some yellow pickled peppers which I really love, the vinegar and salty flavor just really helps pick up the taste buds

Washing regulations — This is the first time I ever saw a warning not to wash clothes in the hotel room. I won’t tell you whether or not I obey the sign

a Chinese bowl of noodles — This was a Chinese noodle soup with bell peppers and mushrooms. It required a little more flavor which I didn’t have on hand

Coffee and lemon cake as istanbul food — Another day at the café with some lemon cake

Beware of dog sign — This is the Turkish equivalent of “beware of dog”

Asian foods — This is very typical outside of an Asian country. People from some Asian country set up a restaurant and mix up all different countries foods

A local church — a local church with very heavy guards, police and army, outside

Five star Thai food — I didn’t try this restaurant. It seemed as though it was sort of nouveau Thai food

Good Thai flavors in Istanbul food — one local Thai restaurant with very good Thai flavored food

The local beer is very tasty. You should try it

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025

Incredible Hagia Sophia

as you probably know the Romans set up an eastern empire citadel complete with future religious independence in what is now Istanbul. This cathedral was their main church for the eastern Roman empire. They used religion to gradually gain back their influence over the western world as Rome became increasingly difficult to defend against enemies. And as you know this was the launching pad for what we now call the orthodox church or the Greek Orthodox Church.The incredible Hagia Sophia was later increased in size and embellished with the newer version of the Middle Eastern religions, Islam. The two come together in this very interesting structure. You of course will be told by everyone you need to see this as one of the major two or three attractions in Istanbul.

The main floor of the Incredible Hagia Sophia — Looking down on the main floor of the Incredible Hagia Sophia. Now only Muslims can enter that floor

Upper floor decorations — Decorations on the ceiling as you walk through the upper floor

Beautiful architecture — And the architecture you see many influences from the different religions and cultures

Column decorations — The details even on the columns are incredible

Original mosaic — These are the original Christian mosaics using the Greek alphabet. Jesus is pictured here

Ceiling decoration — More of the ceiling decorations

Doge of Venice tombstone — The tombstone of the doge of Venice

Arabic plaques — These plaques with Arabic were done fairly recently

Beautiful arches at the incredible Hagia Sophia — Beautiful archers and coloring

Ceiling archways — More of the ceiling archways

Not many tourist today — The temple is really massive

This is called the German fountain for some reason

April 17, 2025April 17, 2025

Exploring Topkapi episode 2

Exploring Topkapi palace is a must when visiting Istanbul. This is the palace of the sultans. You need about three hours at least if you want to just walk through slowly and enjoy the different rooms and details. You need a few hours more to study everything.

European style room. Exploring Topkapi — The rooms are extremely ornate and some of them like this one employed European styles

Ornate robe — The robes were extremely ornate

Greeting room — One of the main greeting rooms

Eastern design. Exploring Topkapi — Using mostly eastern designs

Beautiful colors — The colors even on the chair upholstery is amazing

A sultan. Exploring Topkapi — One of the sultans

Lighter colors — A Lighter coordinated design arrangement

Starry night replications? — The ceilings remind me of conglomerations of stars

French designed throne — French designed thrown. You will see a light blue used in the emblem which was also used in France for the royal family

Beautiful calligraphy — Arabic calligraphy is kind of mind blowing

Washing basin — A place for Royals to wash

Eastern design throne — A very eastern designed throne. It doesn’t really look very comfortable though. I hope they used some pillows.

Sultans shoes — Shoes of the sultan and other items

A prophet's letter — A letter supposedly written by Muhammad

Mohammed footprint — This is supposed to be the footprint of Mohammed. He must’ve had extremely gigantic feet. It reminds me of the footprint moldings of the Buddha.

Mohammed's walking stick — Mohammed’s walking stick

Ornate things — The ornateness of everything was incredible

The Palace library. You will notice there is very good lighting here

Beautiful designs — I love the decorations and designs

March 24, 2025March 24, 2025

Inspecting Topkapi episode 1

By inspecting Topkapi you are looking into the whims and interests of the sultanates of the Ottoman Empire. Save about three hours to walk around this palace and the areas and look very closely at design details. There is a beauty here which is an amalgamation from many different cultures which can’t give you some insight into the thinking of past generations. After I visited I remembered there was a movie “Topkapi” so I went back to see that and it was about a heist in this palace and it’s a kind of an interesting movie. You can see where a famous mission impossible movie scene was copied. I won’t spill the beans. You will just need to watch the movie and enjoy the limited view of the palace until you get a chance to visit.

Explanation of the term "harem" — After you enter the palace and if you start on the left side you will first enter the harem which is an extremely important and beautiful part of the palace. Make sure you understand the meaning of the word “harem” because it is incorrectly construed most of the time.

Inspecting Topkapi door — Beautiful door

Sitting area — This is where the sultan and the ladies of the harem would sit around

Beautiful round decoration on the ceiling with Arabic in the middle

Beautiful window — Very decorative window

The black eunuchs — The eunuchs from Africa

The palace was named ‘Topkapi’ in the 1800s, meaning ‘cannon gate. ‘ Before that, it was simply known as the New Palace. It was commissioned by Mehmed the Conqueror in 1459, soon after he took over Constantinople.

Breakfast offering — This was one of the very simple breakfast offerings which you can see has very distinct and separate elements such as olives, tomatoes, cucumber, cold cuts, pastry and bread

March 20, 2025March 20, 2025

Istanbul interesting stuff

Istanbul interesting stuff is all over the place. Make sure you walk slowly and pay attention to very small things wherever you go. One thing to note is you will enjoy looking at all the different restaurants with food from all over the world. Don’t hesitate to try them out. I found the quality of food and turkey to be extremely good.

Old Temple — a temple in the old bazaar area

A hookah user — a hookah used at a local Turkish coffee shop. It can get pretty noisy with all the bubbling sounds

National Republic Monument — The national Republic Memorial atTaksim

A Christmas tree — Interesting decoration at this time of year, February

A church — a somewhat secluded church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Pauda

Bar Street — an alleyway of bars near Pera palace Hotel. Be a little bit careful here. The bartender put a bowl of peanuts on the table with the beer and no comment. Later he tried to charge me quite a bit of money for the peanuts which I refused to pay.

Unwittingly charged peanuts — These are the peanuts for which I was unwittingly charged

A stew — an interesting meat stew with bread and tea which is normally free but they tried to charge the tourists for tea

A wrap kebab — This was one of my favorites which I always hoped they provided with the light green colored spicy pepper pickles

You can see from the pictures above that they are trying to say the Ottoman ice cream is served in flat layers

Pink tea — I didn’t know there was such a thing as pink tea leaves

Seafood at the port — This was down at a fish restaurant at the fishing port which was fairly expensive and not much seafood. I didn’t think it was worth it

Cat heaven — at the port with all the fish being sold in the open this fellow is in heaven

Model of cable car — This is a model of the old Hill cable car

Dubai chocolate — I didn’t know until I came here that Dubai made chocolate and it is so famous but I was not interested in trying it

Typical food — You will see this is sort of the typical arrangement with some meat or main vegetable dish and then raw vegetables and stuff just put on the side

A view of Istanbul — a view of Istanbul from my favorite coffee shop. They also serve delicious ice cream

Weapon storage — I wonder where they keep the arrival weapons at the airport

February 13, 2025February 13, 2025

Interesting stuff in Istanbul

you can find lots of interesting stuff in Istanbul. There are many different kinds of people living here, many different kinds of cuisine and many different cultural things to experience. If you go to the different sections of the city you will find there are different kinds of people living there. I found one such area where the Uyghur people evidently live and work and where you can find that kind of local food.

Interesting garb — he looks like he’s some kind of religious individual communicating with a very modern tool

Market entrance — an interesting hallway which leads to some market area

An old foundation — Early foundation highlighted in front of the restaurant

Ice cream shop — at the shop, the guy stirring some thing is actually ice cream and he plays a game with customers who come to buy at his shop which is kind of interesting

Celebration marker — A celebration of the Republic of Turkey

Commemorative monument — The explanation below will tell you what this is, a commemorative monument for the republic

Incorrect time zones — I have heard of different time zones but this is a little ridiculous

Café memorabilia — Going up to a rooftop café has some interesting memorabilia on the way up

Delicious ice cream with sweet caramel inside

A view from the top — A view of Istanbul from the top of the café

Narrow streets — Many of the streets are very narrow

Taksim Istanbul shopping area — This is the Taksim area which is seemingly the place where Turkish people love to come and go shopping even though it is an international market area. It’s very alive, has some great Turkish restaurants at reasonable prices and has some interesting places to eat and drink from all over the world. There were two very good Thai restaurants here which were related

Honda is popular in Istanbul — This is a delivery motorcycle but unlike many places in Europe and theBalkans Honda seems to be doing very good business here especially with the PCX model, the same model I drove around Thailand

A restaurant — The restaurant with the food below

This is Uyghur food. You’re probably familiar with that place which China has claimed is part of the communist China regime.

Cable car in Taksim — InTaksim they have a cable car which runs up and down the street and is very popular with a tourist. It runs by electricity as you can see with the cables above and not like in San Francisco where that one has pulled by the cables under the ground. This one goes very slow so pedestrians can get out of the way

New shop — A shop in the Uyghur part of town newly opened

Teacup — All Tea in Turkey is served in the shaped glass. It’s difficult to drop it but it is still hot when you first get it so kind of hard to grab onto when it’s so hot

More Uyghur Food — This is another Uyghur food

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_cuisine

A mosque — I just like the architecture of the mosques

A garbage can being lifted — Among theInteresting stuff in Istanbul the sheep’s foot on the lower right is attached to the garbage truck. What he is pulling out of the ground, that giant thing, is a garbage can which can hold a lot of garbage and only needs to pick up every so often. I found this to be an interesting way to manage garbage. And I’m guessing there aren’t too many rats because there are millions of cats.

Dumping the garbage can from the bottom which opens up

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

The Basilica cistern Istanbul with Bill Smale Adventures.

the basilica cistern Istanbul is one of the main attractions which is not inexpensive to enter, something like €27, but they have fixed it up so it does create an interesting tourist attraction that you might be interested in seeing. I didn’t find any more fish here so I guess they cleaned them out.

me in the cistern — Just to prove I was here

Orientation for cistern touristS — There are quite a few groups entering. From the exit you can see them getting an orientation

Water provider architecture — With the series of lights and reinforcements the government has really created something interesting out of a long forgotten underground structure for providing water to various large structures such as the main Christian Church turned mosque and the Topkapi palace.

An added sculpture — They added a sculpture in the center

Reinforcement of the basilica cistern — Turkey is subject to earthquakes so this reinforcement and preservation is necessary

Inscribed column — Some of the columns have inscriptions

Ceiling design — The ceiling is a very interesting structure and design

Basilica cistern Istanbul — More of the ceiling from farther away

Reconstruction on the cistern — There was a lot of repair necessary

Green lighting — Here you see one type of lighting which will change

Creating a shadow — And see how it changes to another light and an interesting shadow

A funny skeletal sculpture — This kind of looks like Medusa’s skeleton

A lot of money — This is all over the cistern so I wonder if they clean out all this cash. I suspect many of these coins are donated by visitors who don’t want to take coins back to their country

Blue green lighting — Interesting lighting

Time to leave — This was the end so time to leave

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