Turkish Delights [ 2013 ] Part 1 - pre-gaming

This long awaited post (which had its sneak preview) has finally arrived. Awaited by whom is perhaps a mystery but at least I will have a written record of this.

[The planning]

Besiktas Market

I remember Dawn and I first talked about going to Turkey while sitting in a small Salvation Army's hall in a sweaty May afternoon, waiting for a speaker to talk about child labour or trafficking or something during the Justice Conference Asia 2013. Not long after that (literally 2 weeks after that chat), protests erupted in Turkey, during which our discussions halted but somehow recruited a 3rd - Derek - to be the token male in the party. Three months of emails, dinners and online credit card payments later, we found ourselves on 3 different flights, flying at different times, but with the same great expectations for what's ahead.

[The arrival]

Besiktas Market

My Turkish Airlines direct flight got in at 5am, before sunrise and 2 hours before Dawn's, so I wifi-ed, read, and watched other morning-arrivers from a quiet corner cafe. After a slight scare because we somehow managed to miss each other at the arrivals hall and couldn't find each other for almost an hour, we hopped on the bus to Taksim Square, near where we had booked our Airbnb apartment.

The apartment was on a steep slope going down from Taksim Square. The owner was still inside cleaning the place when we arrived (a good sign!). Derek wasn't arriving til the evening so Dawn and I had a day to do non-mega-touristy things, which actually turned out to be possibly my favourite part of our time in Istanbul.

After some googling and a nearly life threatening taxi ride across town, we decided to check out Besiktas market, sold by the description "refreshingly lacking in tourist tat" and frankly limited by choice as some markets only open on certain days of the week, and also saving "touristy" for when Derek arrives. It was an old 2-storey carpark building turned groceries market - with downstairs selling mainly fruit and veg, and some other foods like nuts, olives, condiments etc. Our eyes and noses feasted on the colours and the freshness and sweetness of the market - pomegranates, figs, persimmons, tangerines, nuts, olives... My new DSLR camera (while clutching it mighty tight and strangling myself with it for fear of losing it) turned out to be our ticket to free / discounted fruits, and great pictures! The market guys loved having their photos taken - I usually ask but some of them were waving at me from a mile away so get me to take their picture. And in return we got some free fruit, or got extra when we bought some.

Besiktas Market - fresh figs!

Besiktas snacks

We ventured upstairs to find stalls selling clothes, garments, underwear, jewelry, knick-knacks, and ladies serving tea and some pancake things which we tried.

Jet-lagged and sleep deprived, we went to increase our caffeine intake at a nearby cafe with Turkish tea and an apple cake. The weather was perfect, we sat under a glass roof and watched Turkish weekenders chill.

After failing miserably to figure out the bus system and get on a bus because apparently you can't pay with cash, we decided to try and walk home, stopping to poke our head and cameras inside a big mosque, and being stopped by the smoke from grilled fish sandwiches ("fish in bread") on the street - which became possibly one of the best things we ate in Turkey. Grilled fish, chopped tomatoes, onions, parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice - simple, but simply delightful.

Fish-in-bread! 

In the evening, we wandered down Istiklal Caddesi - the main shopping avenue in Istanbul. It was full of cafes and restaurants, shops selling turkish delight and baklava, music and book shops, stalls selling flashing light things and other tacky tourist souvenirs. Too tired to suss out which restaurant looked like it wouldn't scam a load of your money with mediocre tourist food, we had a mediocre meal in some busy kebab place for dinner.


Today, we experienced Istanbul through local eyes. Tomorrow we become tourists.