Istanbul - Day 18 - Sunday 14th September 2025 - Balkan-Georgia Trip - Day 18/34 - City 14/21 - country 9/11
- eusts6
- Nov 5, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 10, 2025
At 05:00, I was woken up by quite a loud call to prayer from the mosque. This would start to be a thing for the rest of the journey. I drifted back to sleep, and we arose at 08:30. The first task was to bring my dirty laundry to a laundromat that I located online.
But first things first, breakfast with the wonderful Turkish name "kahvaltı," breakfast with a view of the Galata Tower in Hotel Barnathan.
Stanislav ordered Turkish coffee and tea, and I ordered a double Turkish coffee.
I chose "Ege Kahvaltı" Aegean Breakfast with wonderful cheese, fresh vegetables, and egg, and Stanislav had the vegan breakfast. I was very high after the double coffee!
So, armed with a very large yellow bag from the Dutch supermarket "Jumbo," I navigated the streets of Istanbul, even stopping to get some liras from the bank machine, where I became an instant millionaire.
I continued across the bridge, putting down my bag of dirty laundry every so often to take pictures, as Istanbul is quite the feast for the eyes.
Eventually, we found the laundry place, and I dropped off my 5 kg bag of laundry and agreed to pick it up at 10:00 the following day. We stopped just before reaching the Agia Sofia for tea; I had a wonderful apple tea.
Free from the heavy laundry bag, we visited the nearby Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque along with some obelisks.
Tired from walking, we were easily enticed into a rooftop restaurant with a fantastic view of the Bosporus and the Blue Mosque. I had halloumi salad, as did Stanislav.
The salad was amazing, which I had with an overpriced but gorgeous Turkish Merlot, while Stanislav tried rakı. We were not impressed with the rakı, and the bill was quite shocking too.
The next spot on our city tour was the Grand Bazaar, with copper coffee pots and somehow an overabundance of underwear just outside the entrance.
Inside, the market was rather a disappointment. Yes, there were spices, but everything had an air of fakeness to it, and it was rather overpriced. Stanislav wanted to buy some dates, but they charged him 20 euros for a small bag, which he threw back at them, later finding a much larger bag in the supermarket for 2 euros.
It was onwards to Eminönü, then the tram to the old walls of Constantinople. I had seen a documentary about this. It was quite impressive, but seemed not to interest either the tourists or the locals. However, it was good to get away from the crowds of tourists.
We walked for a little while and caught the tram back to the station Eminönü and returned home via the supermarket, but they sold no wine.
I didn't have much time for my planned photoshoot of the sunset, so I hurried down the hill to the bridge as fast as I could. I have actually seen better sunsets, but it still made for a pretty impressive picture.
The sky turned orange, then dark blue, and I returned to Galata and its chaotic streets. By the time I reached the top, the night was closing in, and I found a pub called "Meme" and settled in with a beer. I always seem to try beer then prefer wine, so I switched to a white wine as Stanislav arrived for a drink, and we chatted with the owners in a mix of Bosnian, English, and Turkish.
I found another café where I ordered a Merlot, then found a wine shop and returned to the hotel.
In a word #Wine
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