Istanbul, Turkey

When my family and I first arrived in Istanbul,Turkey, we were ecstatic.  We couldn't wait to see all that the city had to offer!  The next day upon arriving in Istanbul, we immediately went outside and headed to the Old Town area to explore. Unfortunately, when we went to the Blue Mosque, there were so many tourists it was unbelievable. In addition to the abundance of tourists, we arrived only 5 minutes before one of the mosque’s prayer times, during which it is closed to the public for an hour and a half. Instead of going back home, we went to get a nice cold drink due to the summer heat of Istanbul. We walked all through the Old Town and visited the Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Bazaar (“spice market”) before heading back to our hotel. Later in the week, we eventually went back to the Blue Mosque but this time we made sure to check the prayer times before heading out!

During our two weeks in Istanbul, we visited many other important cultural and historical places. One of the most famous places we visited was the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) , originally built as a Byzantine church under Emperor Justinian I but is now a mosque. To be honest it was a bummer. Until recently, entrance to the Hagia Sophia was free but it is now 25 euros per person. The audio tour was a disappointment and the information on the signs was pathetic. I would not recommend visiting the Hagia Sophia if you are on a budget.

 My favorite part of Istanbul was the Basilica Cistern. The Basilica Cistern was an old water storage unit that  supplied water to the Great Palace of Constantinople and nearby buildings. The Basilica Cistern was also built in the 6th century under emperor Justinian I, just like the Hagia Sophia. The reason that the Basilica Cistern was my favorite isn't because of its history, it was because of the atmosphere and overall feeling to the place. The cistern has cleverly placed LED lights that illuminate the cistern to look nice, peaceful and beautiful. In addition to the LED lights, it is also underground so it provides a fresh break from the heat of the summer.

Even though Istanbul has many interesting and cool historical places, I would not recommend the country to anybody under any circumstances. Istanbul is full of tourists wherever you go, it is insane, the prices in Istanbul are also absurd. Every single meal you eat out will just be trash food with a ridiculous price tag on it. I felt hopeless and powerless when every single meal that I ate tasted terrible.  The amount of smoking in this city is also ridiculous. I was eager to leave to breathe fresh air again.

I could deal with this until we were leaving and we arrived at the Istanbul International airport. This could have been the worst airport experience I have had and probably will ever have. We arrived at the airport a staggering 4 hours earlier than we were required to be. After, we figured out that our airline didn't even open their check-in counters until “3 hours” before the flight. When we arrived at the check-in counter exactly 3 hours before the flight, the employees were not even there. We ended up waiting in line for 1 hour and 45 minutes longer than the original 3 hour rule. We rushed to the  passport control the lines and they were now filled with people that had not been there during the past 3 hours. As soon as we got through security, we were trying to get to a lounge to grab some dinner before running to our flight, but as soon as we got there we were faced by a line extending out the door. We ended up eating bad burgers for over 60 euros instead. This was the  worst thing about this airport - the prices. You can safely expect all of the normal prices to be multiplied by 10. You also had to give them your passport number for the wi-fi which seemed unnecessary . Just as you thought things couldn't get worse, we received a notification that our flight started boarding 20 minutes before it was supposed to. We ended up having to run through the airport, which is absolutely way too big, just to get to the gate where we figured out that they hadn’t even start boarding yet. At least we didn’t miss our flight!

​Overall, I really didn't enjoy Istanbul,Turkey and I wouldn't go back even if I had a free ticket.

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