On our first afternoon in Istanbul we wandered around the Grand Bazaar, discovering many wonderful lamps and rugs that I would definitely buy if I had a house. We also discovered that prices for clothing and souvenirs were a fair bit higher than we expected. Our wanderings continued through a very scenic restaurant area, where the food prices also seemed very high. Of course after living in Egypt for 3 months on meals of $1-5, everything seemed expensive. But these prices were on par with the most touristy places in Europe and the States, and seemed out of place for my impressions of Turkey. We ended up with a very small dinner, but a couple of slightly cheaper restaurants in mind for the rest of the week, and a resolution to not overthink meal decisions based on price because it is what it is.

The next day we had a lazy morning and then headed up to the main promenade with the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. I’d read online that the Hagia Sophia, previously a museum before becoming an active mosque in 2020, now only allows foreigners to access the upper balcony of the dome, not the ground floor worship area. In addition, this now costs €25 as of last year. €25 is a little steep for a partial visit to mosque, given that all others in the city are fully visitable for free. In addition, the combo ticket for the mosque and the new museum, which houses all the artifacts moved from the Hagia Sophia in 2020, is €60. If I’d visited in 2019, the Hagia Sophia would be fully available to visit with all artefacts on view for a single ticket priced at €9. So much for not overthinking decisions based on price. I decided to pass on this one, and Creed was very glad that he’d already been back in 2016.

We continued walking along some lovely tree covered walkways to Topkapi Palace. Here we discovered that it was not possible to buy a grounds only ticket, or even a house only ticket, you have to get the house and extra exhibition rooms and gardens and separate museum tickets for the full €60. We struck out again. We continued our walk through a nice park, and then along the river, and then through the spice market before circling back home. I believe the rest of our week here will involve a lot of walking, since that’s a free activity, and the architecture really is beautiful, even if I only get to see places from the outside.

On Sunday we decided to take a boat trip on the Bosphorus, the waterway which splits the European and Asian continents. You can get a touristy cruise with dinner and a show, or you can take a passenger ferry that connects all the suburbs of Istanbul along the entire length of the river for $1. Guess which option we chose. From the first stop to the last each way takes around 2 hours, cruising past mosques, castles and palaces, getting to see all the different sides of the city, from sleepy fishing villages to bustling boardwalks with skyscrapers in the background. There were kids splashing around in summer swimming spots, swanky yachts in marinas that felt like the south of France, and quirky market spots where I was tempted to hop off and explore. But staying on the boat in the sunshine with the breeze was the perfect way to spend the afternoon, and a fantastic end to the week.

On Monday we ventured out to visit a couple more mosques, as well as buy some replacement socks from the market for our upcoming hike, before retreating to the airconditioned room. On Tuesday we took the tram to the other side of the river, to the more modern downtown area of the city. We wandered the pedestrian high street and treated ourselves to a Popeyes chicken meal, as well as visiting Decathlon to get me some new trainers – I’d worn a large hole in the sole of the left shoe of my previous pair, and had ditched them in Dahab.

Wednesday was my birthday! Creed was busy in the morning, so I enjoyed a very leisurely morning to myself eating chocolate and calling family. In the afternoon I headed to a hammam – a traditional Turkish bath where men and women are completely separated so it made sense to go solo. I sweated in the sauna for a while, and then was scrubbed down very vigorously on a large marble slab. This was followed by a foam massage, still quite roughly given but it made my skin feel excellent. Then I was rinsed down by having buckets of water thrown at me. The lady then shampooed my hair, again not particularly gently but very effectively compared to the hotel toiletries I’d been using, and again rinsed me off by throwing buckets of water thrown over my head. At the end of it all I felt very refreshed and invigorated and also like I’d been through a car wash. When I made it back to the hotel Creed had set up a display of mini muffins, cookies, pide (Turkish pizza) and local sparkling wine as a birthday celebration. We spent the rest of the day enjoying drinks and snacks on our balcony playing card games.

Thursday was departure day from Istanbul. We were both under the impression that we’d booked a 9am flight, but after checking the night before discovered it was actually at 4pm. Which meant another leisurely morning, and easier ride to the airport, and longer enjoying the lounge. The 9am flight had been delayed by 6 hours, so it was a good job we’d accidentally not booked it – though our flight also ended up being delayed by about 2 hours.

We also experienced the most strict baggage check we’ve ever had while boarding. We always test the limits of what counts as a ‘personal item’. The rule is it has to fit under the seat in front of you, but airlines make those crates that you have to put the bag in to check its size so much smaller than the space under the seat. This particular airline went so far as to say it shouldn’t weigh more than 3kg. Our bags were never going to meet this weight requirement, but they never actually weigh them, they just check the size. And usually they don’t care if we’re carrying our laptops, and then with wearing our bulkiest clothing and shoving our bulkiest items in jacket pockets, our bags can be squeezed into the crates if needed. This time, I squeezed my bag in, and the lady said ok now do it with your laptop inside. With the laptop inside I managed to squeeze my backpack mostly into the crate, and it seemed like she was ok with it, and so Creed went next. He was somehow allowed to hold his laptop instead of putting it in the bag, but still had to pull out a few old socks and t shirts to squeeze the bag in. Ditching these items and having to buy new ones is much cheaper than paying 50€ to check the bag. At this point I thought we were through, but now a second lady was asking me to do my bag again. This time it didn’t squeeze quite so well with the laptop, so I also pulled out some items like old dry bags, a spare hat and my flipflops, but it was still not good enough and the lady was now very forcefully telling us to just hurry up and pay. I was ready to give in, because the laptop was the problem and that wasn’t something I could abandon. But Creed convinced me to keep finding other stuff to get rid of, and somehow after a rearrangement that included taking my laptop back out of the bag, this time without the lady caring, I was able to shove the bag in the crate, and she finally let us pass. Of course, if she hadn’t cared about the laptop in the first place, I would never have had to throw away anything. And creed didn’t need to throw his t-shirts out either, he just needed to move things from the outer pocket to the inner, but the lady was rushing us and stressing us.

We are aware that we push the allowance to the absolute limit, and being called out on that is totally fair. But we are also aware that, aside from laptops, we can replace our entire wardrobe, toiletries set and med kit for less than 50€ each, so paying it is just not worth it. This is the first time we’ve ever actually been held to that and had to throw stuff away though. I’m sad about my flipflops as they’d been bought in India in February of 2024 and lasted much longer than any other pair I’ve had, and were still going strong. But they were still only $4 flip flops. Creed was most sad about the Ron de Caldas t-shirt he’d got at a festival in Colombia in January 2022. Everything else we were fine to lose. And once we were through, we put the laptops, the bulky items from our pockets and our jumpers back into our bags, and even with all of this they fit under the seat in front of us with no problem.

So, after booking the wrong flight, dealing with further delays and then bag problems, we made it to Bosnia at 7pm, about 9 hours later than expected. But we made it!

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!