In the August of 2014, when my sisters and I decided to embark upon our first travelling adventure, Istanbul was a city that quickly came to mind. It is the home of the Blue Mosque , good food and twirling dervishes. We booked our flights via easy jet and I remember them being fairly cheap, no more than £200, and we then went on to look for a good hotel. After reading reviews and comparing prices, we decided to go ahead and book Cenevre Hotel which was just a 15 minute walk from Taksim Square.
On the day of our trip, we flew from Luton airport and the flight was very pleasant. Upon arriving in Istanbul, we noticed a lot of hustle and bustle and found it difficult finding a taxi that would take us to our hotel. Why did we find it difficult finding a taxi to take us to our hotel I hear you ask? Not because it was busy, no, there were plenty of taxis about- it just so happened that none of them knew where our hotel was :) :). FIRST RED FLAG. After about 20 minutes of trying to explain directions to various taxi drivers, we finally found one that would take us to our hotel- his name was Teksin. He was lovely and easy to talk to, however, he kept saying to us "Taksim no good area for four madame". Now, when this is the first thing someone says to you in a different country, you cannot help but feel slightly paranoid, HOWEVER, we kept it positive and kept thinking "how bad it can be, we looked at reviews". After an hour of driving and Teksin telling us to book another hotel, we finally pulled up in an alleyway. It was 9pm and the sun had set, and as I got out of the car I felt my heart SINK. NOW, I understood what Teksin meant! On our right were a row of prostitutes sitting on the pavement and amongst them were intoxicated men who would STARE at you like meat as you walked past. The smell of cigarette smoke smothered the air and all you could hear was blaring music. It was then I looked up and realised there was a house party going on in the flat opposite to our hotel. The actual inside of the hotel was not bad at all. The staff were friendly and could clearly tell how uncomfortable we felt. Being young and on our first trip alone abroad, you cannot blame us for feeling out of our comfort zone! Our room was spacious and clean (barr the ants EVERYWHERE which didn't seem to bother my sisters but absolutely bothered me) and yes, I cried on the first night as I felt unsafe and don't my sisters love to mock me for it! It seemed that house party I was talking about had no end as the music was BOOMING all night and we woke up feeling groggy and tired.
We asked the guy at the reception for directions into the Sultan Ahmet area and he explained there was a metro that could take us there and it was only a 10min walk from the hotel. Walking out of the hotel, the area wasn't so bad. It was quiet and because we left so early, not many people were up and about. We ended up taking a taxi into Sultan Ahmet and the first thing I noticed were the SLEEPING DOGS. My sisters and I absolutely hate and are so scared of dogs, so this was our worst nightmare. That being said, the dogs literally just sleep and are pretty harmless; seeing as they would remain for the duration of our trip, we decided to suck it up. The cats, however, we could not get over so quickly. I fear cats like I fear being murdered, and if I saw one I would quickly walk in the other direction- I hate cats!! Sultan Ahmet is a lovely area, it is clean, full of tourists and I finally felt safe and genuinely excited for the trip ahead. It's quite easy to navigate your way around the area and we find the Blue Mosque with ease. The queue for the Mosque was much shorter than I had expected, but, it was worth every minute of our short wait. The interior is breathtaking and it is huge! We managed to pray there and met a lovely lady from the States who asked us about Islam, we wondered around the open area of the Blue Mosque, taking in the architecture and then ate at a nearby cafe. Sitting on the benches outside the Blue Mosque, we met Huseyin and he sold us a Bosphorus Boat tour for the following day, he also became a good friend as we would see him pretty much everyday of our trip! The tour was inexpensive and lasted 2 hours. Whilst it was nice catching the breeze and being on the water, after about 30mins most of us fell asleep! We decided to leave for our hotel before dark just to keep safe and rested for the day ahead.
Over the course of the next few days, we managed to visit the Hagia Sophia which is now a museum but was formerly a mosque and a cathedral. I would definitely recommend visiting here, it is beautiful and very insightful! We also saw the twirling dervishes at a nearby cafe and I would watch this again in a heartbeat. It was a very moving experience and quite simply, enchanting. We used the metro which was cheap and very easy to understand and it was on the train that we met two ladies whom we are still very good friends with! We wondered Taksim Square (be careful with your belongings here as there are lots of pick pockets) and done a good bit of shopping and overall, the trip turned out to be a good experience. Whilst I wasn't fond of the food or keen on our hotel, we saw beautiful places and met even more beautiful people. And before I forget, there's a documentary on BBC One on sex workers and guess where Stacey Dooley decides to visit??? Right outside our hotel, yep we stayed outside an illegal sex house which explains ALOT :))
On the day of our trip, we flew from Luton airport and the flight was very pleasant. Upon arriving in Istanbul, we noticed a lot of hustle and bustle and found it difficult finding a taxi that would take us to our hotel. Why did we find it difficult finding a taxi to take us to our hotel I hear you ask? Not because it was busy, no, there were plenty of taxis about- it just so happened that none of them knew where our hotel was :) :). FIRST RED FLAG. After about 20 minutes of trying to explain directions to various taxi drivers, we finally found one that would take us to our hotel- his name was Teksin. He was lovely and easy to talk to, however, he kept saying to us "Taksim no good area for four madame". Now, when this is the first thing someone says to you in a different country, you cannot help but feel slightly paranoid, HOWEVER, we kept it positive and kept thinking "how bad it can be, we looked at reviews". After an hour of driving and Teksin telling us to book another hotel, we finally pulled up in an alleyway. It was 9pm and the sun had set, and as I got out of the car I felt my heart SINK. NOW, I understood what Teksin meant! On our right were a row of prostitutes sitting on the pavement and amongst them were intoxicated men who would STARE at you like meat as you walked past. The smell of cigarette smoke smothered the air and all you could hear was blaring music. It was then I looked up and realised there was a house party going on in the flat opposite to our hotel. The actual inside of the hotel was not bad at all. The staff were friendly and could clearly tell how uncomfortable we felt. Being young and on our first trip alone abroad, you cannot blame us for feeling out of our comfort zone! Our room was spacious and clean (barr the ants EVERYWHERE which didn't seem to bother my sisters but absolutely bothered me) and yes, I cried on the first night as I felt unsafe and don't my sisters love to mock me for it! It seemed that house party I was talking about had no end as the music was BOOMING all night and we woke up feeling groggy and tired.
We asked the guy at the reception for directions into the Sultan Ahmet area and he explained there was a metro that could take us there and it was only a 10min walk from the hotel. Walking out of the hotel, the area wasn't so bad. It was quiet and because we left so early, not many people were up and about. We ended up taking a taxi into Sultan Ahmet and the first thing I noticed were the SLEEPING DOGS. My sisters and I absolutely hate and are so scared of dogs, so this was our worst nightmare. That being said, the dogs literally just sleep and are pretty harmless; seeing as they would remain for the duration of our trip, we decided to suck it up. The cats, however, we could not get over so quickly. I fear cats like I fear being murdered, and if I saw one I would quickly walk in the other direction- I hate cats!! Sultan Ahmet is a lovely area, it is clean, full of tourists and I finally felt safe and genuinely excited for the trip ahead. It's quite easy to navigate your way around the area and we find the Blue Mosque with ease. The queue for the Mosque was much shorter than I had expected, but, it was worth every minute of our short wait. The interior is breathtaking and it is huge! We managed to pray there and met a lovely lady from the States who asked us about Islam, we wondered around the open area of the Blue Mosque, taking in the architecture and then ate at a nearby cafe. Sitting on the benches outside the Blue Mosque, we met Huseyin and he sold us a Bosphorus Boat tour for the following day, he also became a good friend as we would see him pretty much everyday of our trip! The tour was inexpensive and lasted 2 hours. Whilst it was nice catching the breeze and being on the water, after about 30mins most of us fell asleep! We decided to leave for our hotel before dark just to keep safe and rested for the day ahead.
Over the course of the next few days, we managed to visit the Hagia Sophia which is now a museum but was formerly a mosque and a cathedral. I would definitely recommend visiting here, it is beautiful and very insightful! We also saw the twirling dervishes at a nearby cafe and I would watch this again in a heartbeat. It was a very moving experience and quite simply, enchanting. We used the metro which was cheap and very easy to understand and it was on the train that we met two ladies whom we are still very good friends with! We wondered Taksim Square (be careful with your belongings here as there are lots of pick pockets) and done a good bit of shopping and overall, the trip turned out to be a good experience. Whilst I wasn't fond of the food or keen on our hotel, we saw beautiful places and met even more beautiful people. And before I forget, there's a documentary on BBC One on sex workers and guess where Stacey Dooley decides to visit??? Right outside our hotel, yep we stayed outside an illegal sex house which explains ALOT :))
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