Visiting Istanbul for eating, not just because of the food but also because of the glorious marine views from the restaurants. Istanbul straddles both the Bosphorus Strait, separating Europe from Asia, and the Golden Horn, a huge estuary dividing old Istanbul (Constantinople) from the modern city. Fine restaurants and tony nightclubs take full advantage of the geography, perching themselves on hillsides that slope down to water’s edge or along the water’s edge itself. The view from the tables of several high-end spots: the Suada Club Restaurant on Galatasaray Island; the Sunset Grill & Bar Restaurant in Ulus; and the Feriye Restaurant–with its views of the Ortakoy Mosque and the Bosphorus Bridge, a lovely suspension bridge lit at night with colored lights.
But what's happend with on some of the smaller neighborhood restaurants catering to local–and not just gourmet–sensibilities?
Ask: IstanbulEats.com
It's advice: "If you want to get real kebab, try Zubeyir,” the Turkish equivalent of the sushi bar. You can sit around the grill and watch the master grill meat–chicken wings, lamb chops–served with mezze appetizers,” which are like tapas. Wash it all down with wine or raki, the anise-flavored national Turkish drink.

For fish, Schleifer recommends Ismet Baba in the little village of Kuzguncuk. “It’s a classic fish place right on the water, not fancy but old-Istanbul style.” Also on the Asian side of the Bosphorus is Ciya, in a neighborhood called Kadiköy. They serve food from the southeastern part of Turkey, a very traditional cuisine, including rich vegetarian fare “you won’t find anywhere else in Istanbul.

For authentic street food, offered Durumzade, near the fish bazaar in the Beyoğlu neighborhood, on the European side.

Another of picks, Abracadabra, across the street from the Bosphorus on the European side, showcases the work of Dilara Erbay, “one of the great new chefs of Istanbul, who takes Turkish classics and reinterprets them in a modern way served ourselves from a table inside spread with plates of green and black olives, homemade jam, goat and feta cheese, homemade bread and pastries, and pots of tea. But the real treat, again, was the view of the Bosphorus, lined with yachts and locals enjoying a morning walk.  We on a free Walk and Bike around Istanbul Old city town.

The favorite eatery in the Istanbul Culinary Institute, a “training restaurant” under the able direction of Hande Bozdogan. The institute sources many of its ingredients from its own farm, creating new menus daily with such delights as creamy mushroom soup, grilled sirloin, and parsley salad served with pomegranate molasses. It's delightful to see earnest young chefs in training scurrying about the two-story restaurant doing their best to please customers and polish their skills.
If you with a low budget (around 10 TL for the soup, base dish and desert), we advice our favorite small self-service restaurant Balkan Lokantasi in Sirkeci. Also you have to try "Bread and Fish" sandwich ( 5 TL) next to the Galata bridge.

 

For all gourmets - ask: http://istanbuleats.com and Afiet Olsun! :) 

Please vote for Istanbul and Fethiye. Click on a picture.

(Click on tiles for larger images) ...by:  BYZANTIUM 1200 MODEL TILES 
All ten tiles of the Byzantium 1200 model are complete. I have divided the city into ten tiles as in Müller-Wiener's maps and started combining all of the reconstructed models with the land model. I have also added imaginary houses for aesthetical reasons. The ten model tiles include all of the known monuments, walls, fora, ports, gates etc and will be indexed soon. The style of this model is partly inspired by the famous turkish cartographer M. Kerim Çalapverdi.
These models will be used as a base mesh for later additions and will be updated frequently. They will also be printed as a large map in summer of 2011 with a huge reference book. This has completed the first phase of the Byzantium 1200 project and we will continue with the Ottoman Period.Join to Istanbul Free Tour, Walk Tour and Bike Tour around Istanbul Old Town and you will learn a little more about Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul.

10 March ' 2012 
time:11:00 PM



Reggae/dub legend Lee "Scratch" Perry is coming to Istanbul!


The Jamaican born musician was a major founder of the reggae and dub movements, and has been producing records since 1959.
Perry was named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
For more information see: http://www.myspace.com/leescratchperry

Ticket Prices:

Full 39.50 TL  / Student 29.50 TL

Tickets for Lee Scratch Perry in Istanbul can be purchased from http://www.biletix.com

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

Public transportation works well in Istanbul, is inexpensive, but at least the tram between Zeytinburnu and Kabatas is often quite crowded. There are 2 metro lines. One from the Atatürk Ariport to Aksaray and one from 4 Levent to Taksim. There are 4 tram lines and the most useful one for turists is the one between Zeytinburnu (where you can change for the metro to Atatürk Airport) and Kabatas (near Dolmabahce Palace). It passes many major attractions in the historic center of Old Istanbul like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace. It passes the bridge over the Golden Horn between the Old and the New Istanbul. From Kabatas there is a new funicular up to Taksim. From Taksim you can take the nostalgic tram through the major shopping street of Pera (Beyoglu) and then the old funicular (Tünel) down to the bridge over the Golden Horn. Jetton for single trips are sold right at the stations and costs 2 TL (around €0.80) for all (FREE for retired 65+ and kinds +6) and it same cost of all public transpiration in Istanbul (as of 15 Aug 2011). Bicycle is FREE of charge for the sea-buses but for the Metro is with the same cost like adult 2TL and not roughly between 7AM-9AM and 5PM-7:30PM respectively. Using a Istanbulcard for the multi trips cost 12TL to get it and with the 1,75TL cost for a each trip.

Istanbulkart

Istanbulkart you can buy from the place for newspapers  next to every station. 
The card cost 8TL + charging 
Istanbulkart is really Big Deal: fist trip: 1,75TL and the next 2 hours every next trip with a cost just 1TL (around €0.40)

24 hr Bus Lines:

•  73 Taksim Square-Ataturk International Airport
  
• 110 Taksim Square-Kadikoy
  
• 112 Taksim Square-Bostanci
  
• 25T Taksim Square-Sariyer
  
• 40 Taksim Square-Sariyer
  
• 89C Taksim Square-Basaksehir
  
• E10 Kadikoy-Sabiha Gokcen International Airport
  
• 15F Kadikoy-Uskudar
  
• 130 Kadikoy-Tuzla
  
• 34A Sogutlucesme(Kadikoy)-Edirnekapi (Metrobus)
  
• 34 Avcilar-Zincirlikuyu (Metrobus)
  

By metro 
Between 6AM and 11:50PM
One from the Atatürk International Ariport
By tram 
Between 6AM and 11:50PM
During morning and evening rush hours (roughly between 7AM-9AM and 5PM-7:30PM respectively
By boat (sea-buses)
Summer time: between 6AM and 11:50PM
Winter time: between 7:30AM and 21:30PM

• Karaköy - Haydarpaşa - Kadıköy
  
• Kadıköy - Eminönü
  
• Üsküdar - Eminönü
  
• Üsküdar - Karaköy - Eminönü - Eyüp (The Golden Horn Route)
  
• Kadıköy - Besiktaş
  
• Kabatas - Uskudar - Harem
  
• Istinye - Emirgan - Kanlıca - Anadolu Hisarı - Kandilli - Bebek - Arnavutköy - Çengelköy (The Whole Bosphorus Route)
  
• Anadolu Kavağı - Rumeli Kavağı - Sariyer
  
• Eminönü - Kavaklar (Special Bosphorus Tour-Recommended For Tourists)
  
• Sirkeci - Adalar - Yalova - Cınarcık (The Princes' Islands Route)
  

Four main private ferry routes for travelling between Asia and Europe sides are:

• Besiktaş - Üsküdar
  
• Kabataş - Üsküdar (close to tram and funicular system in Kabataş)
  
• Eminönü - Üsküdar (close to tram in Eminönü)
  
• Eminönü - Kadıköy (close to tram in Eminönü)
  

By taxi

Taxis are an easy and cheap way to get around. As of December 2010, start off rate is 2.25 TL (€1.2) and then 1.4 TL (€0.7) for each km afterwards. Same cost: Day/Night.  A one-way travel from Taksim to Sultanahmet costs approximately 10-15 TL depends of the traffic. Tipping is generally unnecessary. 
Beware riding a taxi other than the "yellow-colored" ones since the other-colored taxis are registered under different cities and have a different rating system.
Some important routes with distances and estimated taxi prices are :

• Ataturk Airport (IST) - Taxim Square ~ 21 km. 
  
• Ataturk Airport (IST) - Sultanahmet Square (Old City) ~ 18 km.  
  
• Taxim Square - Sultanahmet (Old City) ~ 5,5 km. 
  
• Sabiha Gokcen Airport (SAW) - Kadikoy (Chalcadonia) Ferry Terminal ~ 36 km. 
  
• Esenler (Bus Terminal) - Topkapi Palace (Sultanahmet) ~ 10,5 km.
  
• Esenler (Bus Terminal) - Ataturk Airport (IST) ~ 15 km. 
  

By shared taxi
Dolmuş (Turkish: "full") is a shared taxi, travelling on a fixed route, which costs more than a city autobus but less than a normal taxi. They can carry up to 8 passengers. The main and most important routes for Dolmuses are :

• Taksim - Eminönü (Taksim stop, near the Ataturk Cultural Center, in Taksim square)
  
• Taksim - Kadıköy
  
• Taksim - Bostanci
  
• Taksim - Aksaray (Taksim stop, Tarlabasi Avenue, close to Taksim square)
  
• Kadıköy - Bostanci (Bostanci stop, in front of the Bostanci ferry port)
  
• Taksim - Tesvikiye (Taksim stop, in front of Patisserie Gezi, in Taksim square)
  
• Beşiktaş - Nisantasi (Beşiktaş stop, in front of the Beşiktaş - Üsküdar ferry port)
  
• Kadıköy - Üsküdar (Üsküdar stop, Near the Üsküdar - Beşiktaş and Üsküdar - Kabataş ferry port)
  

If you want the driver to make a stop, you can say İnecek var.(EE-neh-djek war!) (Someone's getting out.) or Müsait bir yerde.(mU-sa-EEt bir yer-deh.) (At a convenient spot.). 

The world renowned cities of Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul, in total spanning almost 2500 years, have steeped the Old City area of Sultanahmet in Byzantine and Ottoman-ness, eminent from the marvelous palaces, churches and cisterns, mosques and baths. The main attractions are all within easy walking distance and cover the Haghia Sophia Church, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern and Hippodrome. On a free walking tour  and city bike tour we will tell you very interesting history and legends associated with them. See several old pictures of the Old  Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul (here)