Today we said goodbye to our first Istanbul hotel (White House Hotel) - The staff there were amazing, so nice and helpful and would high recommend this place. Just today while checking out we were having trouble with our phone service and they helped us figure it out. They also helped us call Turkish Airlines to change one of our domestic flights (we decided to skip Ankara and fly directly to Cappadocia).
We left the Golden Horn by tram over the Galata Bridge to the Taksim Square area (~20 mins away).
After checking in at the new hotel (Hammamhane), we dropped our bags and charged phones.
The back entrance to our hotel
Next, we headed out to get lunch and found a nearby Turkish-only-speaking restaurant. There they showed us the hand made raviolis made by an old Turkish lady (who we met and who helped us). We had two dishes of ravioli - one crispy, the other soft - salad, dolmas, tea and coffees...all amazing food for $15. Even though the people running the restaurant didn’t speak our language they were very fun and friendly!
Having refueled, we headed to Taksim Square to learn what it was about.
From ”The Square” you can follow the tram tracks down the famous Istiklal Street...so we did. This street is full of great shopping and restaurant options which we gave a cursory pass over, stopping for an Italian ice cream as our treat...yum!
After a break in the hotel to gather our bearings, we set out to find a restaurant in the trendy Karaköy neighborhood that the last hotel‘s front desk had recommended named Köskeroglu. We first stopped in what we thought was the restaurant, but apparently they have a dedicated dessert location too...so we ate there first :-). We walked just down the sidewalk and found the place we meant to go - the food there was fantastic!
After dinner we walked the neighborhood a bit - interesting as the area has started to be revitalized in the last 10 years, so there are destitute buildings and torn up streets next to swanky, hip nightclubs next to Mosques and cemeteries.
This was a much different, young, fresh vibe in contrast to our previous days in Istanbul - felt more like Portland than Turkey.
Given the mileage we’ve been putting on our feet, we decided to give them a break and headed in a bit early.
***Bonus Image of the Day***
Why wouldn’t you stop to make that important business call on the nearest dolphin? At least they’d know that you’d called on porpoise ;-).
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