istanbul

Istanbul — a City Revisited (since 2015)

Istanbul was never a single trip — it became a recurring encounter.
Each return felt less like “visiting” and more like stepping back into a living organism layered with empires, faiths and contradictions.

We stood beneath the domes of the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), where symmetry and light form an almost mathematical calm.
Just across, Hagia Sophia — once basilica, later mosque, then museum, and again mosque — carried the city’s entire religious and political tension within its walls.

In Sultanahmet Square, we passed the Obelisk of Theodosius — originally carved in Egypt for Pharaoh Thutmose III, brought to Constantinople in the 4th century — and the German Fountain (Alman Çeşmesi), gifted by Kaiser Wilhelm II, quietly symbolizing late Ottoman–German relations.

We walked through Gülhane Park, once the private garden of Topkapı Palace, then descended into the underground stillness of the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı) — a submerged cathedral of columns and echoes.

Topkapı Palace unfolded as the nerve center of the Ottoman world, while Dolmabahçe Palace revealed the empire’s final transformation into European elegance and political decline.

We crossed the water to the Princes’ Islands — Büyükada and Heybeliada — where time loosens, streets quiet down, and Istanbul breathes slower.

The Grand Bazaar felt like a living labyrinth of centuries of trade.
Rumeli Fortress (Rumeli Hisarı) stood like a stone lock on the Bosphorus, once built in just four months to seal the fate of Constantinople.

Modern Istanbul entered through Taksim Square and İstiklal Avenue, while Beşiktaş, Maçka Park, and Ihlamur Pavilion revealed the city’s softer urban side.

We wandered the narrow slopes of Balat, where color, decay and revival coexist, and found unexpected calm at Göktürk Pond Nature Park and the endless greens of Emirgan Grove and Belgrad Forest.

In Sarıyer, a stop at Tarihi Huzur Turşucusu delivered sharp, honest flavors — just like the city itself.
Across the strait, Kadıköy offered a different rhythm: a table at Çiya Sofrası, then walking the Moda shoreline, watching ferries slide between continents.

And in between all of it — we crossed Marmaray, riding beneath the Bosphorus itself, quietly stitching Europe and Asia together underground.

Istanbul never asks to be finished.
It allows only chapters.