In April 2023, I spent 8 days in Istanbul. Although I’ve long been interested in in Turkey – especially in its Ottoman past – this was my first time in the country. Keen on seeing as much of the city as possible on foot, the plan was to walk roughly 15km per day for 7 days.
I originally intended to track every route with GPS using the Workout feature, but my Apple Watch kept randomly pausing the workout tracking feature. So, all I have are daily step counts:
If you do the math, it adds up to 117.62km, or just over 73 miles, well above my goal. In terms of routes, I walked on the European side up to Arnavutköy and down to Aya Sofia / Sultanahmet Square area. On the Asian side, up to Çengelköy and down to Moda.
Below, I’ve written some of my observations of Istanbul. Overall, I have to say that it was easily one of the most interesting cities I’ve been to and I’ll certainly be back in the future.
Istanbul is a Hilly City
Hillier than you probably imagine, in fact. Of the places I’ve been, only San Francisco and Pittsburgh were comparably steep. More than once, I thought to myself, “If these steps were icy, it would be nearly impossible to walk up this street.
This made walking more difficult but also more intriguing, as the verticality of the city makes it seem bigger than it actually is on a map.
Ferries are the Most Fun Form of Public Transportation
Although Istanbul is spread across two continents, there is no way to actually walk from Europe to Asia. The bridges are reserved for car traffic, so you have to take a ferry, subway, or car. As Istanbul is surrounded by water, I opted for the ferries.
While I’ve ridden boats and ferries in Japan, New York, the Bay Area, and Venice before, but somehow none of them were quite as fun as in Istanbul. If you’re unfamiliar with the geography of Istanbul, the city is cut through by two major bodies of water:
The Bosphorus, a strait that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea (via the Marmara and Aegean Seas) and also divides Europe and Asia; the land to the west of the Bosphorus is Europe, while land to the east is Asia
The Golden Horn, a small inlet on the European side that roughly divides the historical Byzantine and Ottoman section from the more modern, European section
The consequence of this geographical position is that Istanbul has a lot of ferries. Ferries go up, down, and across the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, as well as to other coastal cities in Turkey. And they are mostly clean, efficient, and fun to ride.
It really made me wish that all cities next to bodies of water utilized ferries as much as Istanbul. It is a much more enjoyable experience than riding a bus or taking the subway.
Fast, Cheap Food is Plentiful
One of the many ways by which I evaluate whether I like a place or not is how difficult it is to get a cheap, fast meal. When walking for hours in a foreign city, I’m rarely in the mood to go through the entire, “take a seat, order from waiter, eat, pay, leave,” process at a sit-down restaurant three times a day. I just want to grab something quickly, eat it, and continue exploring the city.
By this metric, quite a few major cities fall short. In central London, for example, I found almost no street food and few “grab and go” restaurants. The closest you get are American-style fast food, chain pubs like Wetherspoons, or fast casual spots like ITSU. London very much feels like a city where you leave the public realm and enter into a separated, inward-facing space, cut off from the street.
Some other cities do have cheap, fast food available, but the selection can be limited. Berlin has döner kebab stands everywhere, Paris has bakeries on nearly every corner, and New York’s 99-cent pizza shops are still alive. But if you want something other than a kebab, a bakery sandwich, or a slice of pizza, you’re often out of luck.
Istanbul doesn’t have this problem. No matter where you are, you can find a variety of food options that are both cheap and fast. Street carts are every few blocks, selling roasted corn, chestnuts, pilaf (rice with chicken and orzo), and a bagel-like bread called simit.
Most other stationary establishments are designed “to go” with a few chairs scattered in front, probably because the spaces are too small to be an actual restaurant. Turkish coffee is also omnipresent and conveniently much simpler (and thus faster) to make than espresso.
Like many cities in non-Western parts of the world, a large portion of daily commerce is still conducted on the street, not in an “enter-exit” separated space. So, if you want an apple, you’ll almost certainly walk by a dozen fruit stands in the next five minutes; there’s no need to enter a store, find the fruit section, wait in line to pay, then exit the space.
All of this adds up to Istanbul being remarkably convenient to walk around, even while the geography of the city itself is extremely hilly and not convenient.
Cats, Dogs, and ATMs are Everywhere
The first thing many Westerners notice when coming to Istanbul is the prevalence of cats and dogs on the street. This is a common sight in southeastern Europe (and indeed in many developing countries) but is almost unheard of in the West. In Istanbul, they are literally everywhere and are so popular that there is even a 2016 documentary about them.
I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, the animals mostly seemed to be well-fed and well-taken care of. At least every few blocks I saw a “cat house” made of wood or cardboard. They also seemed to have more freedom to live as animals in nature. On the other hand, it’s obviously sad to see hundreds of cats and dogs on the street, especially in bad weather.
Istanbulites are Friendly and Non-Standoffish
As a last note, for as large of a city as Istanbul is, you would expect the default behavior of people to be somewhat stand-offish and aloof, in the way that New Yorkers tend to be. “Get to the point or get out of my way,” is an accurate description of most interactions on the street in New York or Paris.
I didn’t feel this way at all in Istanbul. More than one time, a stranger offered to help me with the public transit ticket machine. Maybe I just got lucky, but in general, interactions did not seem as confrontational-by-default as in many other cities I’ve visited.