#istanbul Archives • Page 2 of 2 • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Istanbul in an afternoon with Bill Smale Adventures.

Istanbul in the afternoon should start off in the Egyptian bazaar which really doesn’t have anything to do with Egypt, it is the spice market but of course it has other things in there like Turkish delights and other stuff. You get there by going to Eminönü station and wandering around behind the mosque.

Spice variety in the Egyptian bazaar — There is such a wide range of spices and every shop seems to have the same products available so you can browse and find a good price and exactly what you want. Why don’t you pick something you’ve never tried, take it home and see how it works.

A shop in front in Istanbul — This is one shop I visited which had fairly reasonable prices just in front of the main bazaar

Investigate spices in the afternoon — The shops are very interesting to visit. Talk to the proprietors and see what they have.

A beautiful building — It’s a very nice beautiful place

Some local shops in the area — This area is just behind the main bazaar building where they have a lot more variety of things and definitely worth walking around. It is not just for tourists. Many local people are shopping here.

Old building in Istanbul — The building itself is very

Turkish coffee and tea — This is where I had my first Turkish coffee sitting outside in the cold

Istanbul corn sellers — You will see these corn sellers all over Istanbul

Banking Museum document — After the bazaar I visited the banking museum which was free to enter and kind of interesting

Old bank equipment — This set up really takes me back to my grandmother’s house and my father’s typewriter

Piggy banks — These are old piggy banks that are meant to be opened only by the bank

Account manager desk — One account managers desk

Tram sign — The signage is pretty good. Here you know where to get on the tram

Coffee and cake in Istanbul — This was actually next day at a coffee shop and it was very delicious fruit with cake below

The tip box — You can see the tip box at the checkout counter. I asked a Turkish friend if tipping was customary and he said, “you can give a tip if you like”.

A roll with meat and garnishes — Meat and vegetables inside the roll of dough which was very delicious. The green cucumber pickles were nice and the yellow peppers are the very spicy, salty vinegar flavored ones which I really enjoy.

Dress up clothing mall — One downstairs shopping mall was almost exclusively fancy male and female dress up clothing. This is right near the station at the spice bazaar

A local laundry — This laundry near my hotel didn’t seem to be getting very much business

Pigeon feeding — It’s very often you see people feeding the pigeons in these squares

Interesting display — An interesting display

Older building in Istanbul in the afternoon — An older building with some artwork

Hors d'oeuvre dip Turkish style — The hors d’oeuvre dips which is a very famous Turkish offering. This was enough for three or four people so I took a lot of of it back to the hotel

"Egyptian" obelisk — I didn’t check to see if this obelisk is really one that was stolen from Egypt

Walking area — This was just a walking area with a few shops at the end

Salad without dressing — There was no dressing on the salad. And that seems to be very common but a little bit disappointing

Old fortress wall — The old Fortress wall

January 30, 2025January 30, 2025

Beautiful Topkapi Calligraphy with Bill Smale Adventures.

The beautiful Topkapi calligraphy area of the museum at the Topkapi palace is something not to be missed. I have never seen words used in such beautiful ways to create amazing works of art. All of these photos you have here are calligraphy, they are words shaped into things that are of course imagined. Take your time when you go there to imagine how carefully they must’ve created these to present to the sultans in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. Enjoy these photos with Bill Smale Adventures.

Protective words — The words on these pieces of clothing are to bless and protect the wearer

Calligraphy up close on clothing — of course you can see the word more clearly

January 20, 2025January 20, 2025

Investigating the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Investigating the Blue Mosque in Istanbul is one of the top things on the list of tourist attractions you really need to see. It is free to enter and you might really enjoy just finding a place to sit and looking at all the beautiful artwork and calligraphy for which mosques are famous. You can visit here now with Bill Smale Adventures.

Nighttime view in Istanbul — At night time the lighting is pretty dramatic

Gate script — Beautiful script on the gate

Scripted circle in blue mosque — Arabic can certainly be used very artistically

Arab script — Look how the script is used here

Beautiful window in blue mosque — A beautiful window

The inside lighting — Proof I was inside also

Next to the praying area — The circle area with lights is where believers come to pray

Center dome — Looking up the center dome

Investigating touristS — People just keep floating in

January 12, 2025January 12, 2025

Walking around fascinating Istanbul with Bill Smale Adventures.

Walking around fascinating Istanbul on my first two daysI thought was going to be a little bit complicated but the transport system, once you figure it out, is actually pretty easy so it helps with the walking tour. You can easily get to the attractions you want by yourself if you have time. Of course you want to go to the main attractions but just walking around people will talk to you trying to get you to buy things but in a pleasant way and if you could pass for someone who lives here people will ask you for directions or some kind of assistance. so you can just take your time and just relax, stop and have a cup of coffee, get something to eat, etc.

Istanbul city walls — You can see the old city walls in different parts of Istanbul

Walking at the Bosphorus strait — This is the Bosphorus strait where all the black sea ships need to pass. And you can see the cats are guarding the city. People here love cats and wild they seem to be everywhere walking around they are clean and they generally behave themselves but they get fed by everybody

Seabream Dinner — Seabream with nothing but part of an orange for sauce so not much character. But it was good quality food. I wasn’t quite sure about that quarter of an onion but it was actually much sweeter than most onions, almost as sweet as a Maui onion.

The restaurant by the strait — This was the restaurant which seems to be frequented by local people

Cats control the cars — It seems pretty clear cats are the preferred automobile alarm system and of course they control car parking

Walking street view — Nice buildings in the area nearSuktanahmet

Old building — Maybe not worth refurbishing

Building art — A local art display on a building

German fountain in Istanbul — German fountain near the blue mosque

A restaurant I want to try — I wanted to go here in the Fatih area of town but it opened up 30 minutes later than when I wanted to eat

UYGHUR/chinese food — So I tried this one instead because it was open and recommended. This is fried noodles with vegetables YAKISOBA (焼きそば). This is in the UYGHUR section of the city where half of the restaurants are considered UYGHUR cuisine and the other half are presenting themselves as Chinese food restaurants. The people at this restaurant seem to be a mixture of Chinese and tutkic peoples features while others looked just Turkic. The language spoken didn’t seem to be all Chinese but it was a language I’ve never heard. The food was very good.

Coffee and pastry — After the noodle lunch I came to this coffee shop for a cup of coffee and a pastry which was not sweet and had cheese in the middle. It was very tasty.

Farting building — You can see the large black tube coming out of the green mesh on the lower left side which attracted my attention and I was thinking to myself maybe it is so the building can fart.

The fish market — In the morning I went to this fish market to eat something at a highly recommended restaurant right there but it wasn’t open. But of course the cats were in control and under control, if you can figure out what that means.

Exchanged €400 — I exchanged €400 and look what I got.

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