Walking through Istanbul – first impressions.

Buzzing streets, smells and noises. Huge buildings, never ending traffic and endless choices of what to eat. Istanbul.

Since a few days we are expecting Istanbul to unfold along the horizon. Every new bend we are taking with our bikes on the coastline, entering the city from the West, we wonder if we would get to see it yet.

We surely left the wilderness behind, yet we do not get any glimpse of Europe’s biggest Town. Looks like we aren’t going to see anything until the day we get in.

While we make our way to the city centre, we aren’t even sure whether we already entered or if we are still passing through the suburbs.
But then, as we progress further and closer, there is one last turn, there she is.

Huge skyscrapers, mosques and their minarets, endless houses covering every bit of soil all the way to the sea. Swarming people everywhere, the sea filled with big ships and small boats.

What was only a little dot on a map, suddenly became a huge, wide town, endless.Filling up every free space on the ground and reaching high up into the clouds.

Hills! Did I expect Istanbul to be flat? Maybe, but it’s not.

While trying to make your way through people, stalls, scooters and street cats, parked cars and horning taxies, it might happen that we’ll find ourselves in a very steep hill upwards all at the same time.

Impressed and overwhelmed we try to make our way through a few streets. Which turns out to be easier said than done.

Everything is distracting me. People, shops, things happening. All the while I must pay attention, not to get run over by a car or a scooter, passing at a very high speed through a crowded street. They will press the horn, but I am not sure they would do the same with their breaks.
As we reach our apartment, I am completely exhausted, yet super excited to explore this city in the next few days...

...walk through all those crowded streets, drink coffee and eat baclava while watching people.

Follow intuition and inspiration and try out all the foods I don’t know yet. Dive into this ancient Town, its history and its present and watch the sun go down while the muezzin are singing from all the minarets forming the skyline dyed in red.

Thank you all for stopping by, have a wonderful day!

All photos and words are taken and written by myself.