Honest Istanbul Guide Vol1: GALATA

LETS GET STARTED WITH MY HONEST ISTANBUL GUIDE

I am a fan of this city and I go out almost every weekend to discover some nice places, because to be honest, although there are like thousands of cafes and bars around in this huge city, just a few of them have a really good quality. Yeah I know, what a shame! But unfortunately, after searching and tasting and discovering like crazy I have to admit that most of the spots we see around have just spent the money on the decoration but have no idea about the quality of service and food!
And thats why I am writing to you right now! So that you won’t get dissappointed and just pick the right places with my help . İstanbul is such a great city but to see its real great beauty, you have to know the city pretty well, cause its way too big and complicated!!!

Thats why I am here to share my best discoveries, to share the most wonderful local spots that I personally enjoy ! So here are some tips from me:

We start with one of my favorite districts in İstanbul at the European side: GALATA 

Galata is full of little cafes, which are located in little tiny streets rather than the main street. So it is a little hard to find them , I am gonna try to describe where they are but I suggest you to check this internet site foursquare.com  , where you can find all the cafes and their exact locations I am gonna suggest you. You  just need to enter the name of the cafe or restaurant and it opens you directly its location on google map!

BUT I AM ALSO GONNA MAKE SOME SCREENSHOTS FROM GOOGLE MAP AND PUT IT HERE. 

Okay, lets take this famous GALATA TOWER as the center. Firstly I suggest you going up on this tower as the view is fantastic! This is of course a MUST DO thing in Istanbul! But be careful about the timing cause the line gets too big, especially in the afternoon after the dreadful sun gets less effective. So you better visit there in the morning for example. I know, the sunset view will be awesome too but dont worry, I will tell you another place very soon where you can not only enjoy the sunset but also maybe a beer or cocktail! So Galata Tower is just in the middle and there are lots of streets around it. At the towers right side, right at the corner there is a hotel ( ANEMON GALATA ) and there is a street going down right near it. When you go that street down, you will find a great wine bar on your right side: SENSUS WINE .

 Its a great place for the evening to taste some wine ( especially the turkish products are suprisingly good! ) but sometimes you need a reservation, but you will probably find place on the bar. The prices are fair. Normally in the restaurants if you order just one glass of wine they dont have many options and they charge you pretty much for a tiny glass of wine ( they usally fill the glass just a little ! I HATE THAT! ) 

BUT this Wine House, as they sell their own products, offer you about 15 different wines that you can order just as a glass . And the prices change between 9 Turkish Lira to 25 Turkish Lira. So that means you do not have to open a bottle and stick to one type of wine- Get their special menu for Glass Wines and pick what you want, try some several different options-! That was what I exactly did- of course I prefered the cheaper ones and they honestly tasted all good ! So this place is PERFECT for a cheap but definitely quality WINE TASTING!

Anyways, if you pass this wine bar and continue to walk down, there is a super sweet cafe called CAFE VELVET: great place to drink a cup of coffee or something refreshing such as their homemade lemonade! By the way, if you wanna try something authentic: TRY THEIR YUMMY TURKISH DESERT: “KAYMAKLI UN HELVASI”. I mentioned more info about this place already on my blog! So check the special post about this place !

Now lets go back to Galata Tower. At the left corner there is an authentic turkish cafe where people generally have turkish tea for about 1.50 or 2 turkish lira and chat and watch around and this time there is again a street going down full of cafes. At the beginning of this street there is a shop which sells some authentic turkish products.So when you start going down this street, the streets automatically turns right. Follow it and you will see a coffee shop on the right side: CHERRY BEANS. 

Its one of the most peaceful places for a cup of coffee, its really tiny. The coffee is really good and their homemade cakes go great together. This spot is definitely one of my favorite spots for a COFFEE-BREAK. Inside smells awesome ( a lovely tasty combination of fresh coffee and warm homemade cookiieess and cakesss ) 

What I secondly adore in this place is always the music playing inside: sometimes they often play easy listening classical tracks and it goes perfect while sitting in this cute cafe, watching outside and drinking your fresh warm coffee.

 http://www.cherrybeancoffees.com/

If you skip this one and keep going down, you will see CAFE KONAK at the left side. This cafe is a standard patisserie but they have this terrace on the top of the building and it has an awesome view! You can drink maybe a turkish tea and enjoy the view: Galata Tower right on your back , which seems so close like you can even touch it, and the amazing bosphorus on your front. 

ACCEPTED !

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED ! 

Typical street look in Toulouse 

This was about the time for me to have a fresh start ! So I accept Revna's challenge to make a honest tourist guide for  Toulouse! 

I am not going to trow all the places I know in once because it would be so boring so I decided to give you little hints and my first impression about this beautiful city ! 

Canal du Midi

Toulouse also called as LA VILLE ROSE is the capital city of the department of Haute-Garonne, and of the region Midi-Pyrénées, in southwestern France. Toulouse is the fourth largest in France area after Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

There is large student population in this city which makes me glad because I will be studying in University of Toulouse 2 - Jean Jaures  as psychology  student for the next 3 years. I've been here for 2 weeks now but I already had chance to visit some of the parts of the city. What I really enjoyed about visiting Toulouse was the sight seeing.

 Now let's change the topic a little and give a little look at the places ;  

Garonne

Capitol

Place Capitol ; 

This is the center of the city. The big building that you see in the picture is the heart of the administration of the  Toulouse (18th century). There are a lot of shops and cafes around this place. You can imagine this place as a square which attaches other famous streets and places all together like Place Sankt Georges etc. I think it's better for me to give a little hint about the restaurants now; just one in a time ;) 

BRASSERIE LES ARCADES

Brasserie Les Arcades is located on the Place Capitol. I think it's the second restaurant from the beginning. 

I had grilled saumon and nice glass of wine. Prices a little higher then other places around because of the tourist attraction. It's nice to have the view of the Capitol. I enjoyed the freshness of the saumon and the vegetables but if you dont want to give more then 15 Euros for a plate I recommend for you try other restaurant around. 

Adress : Place du Capitole - 31000 Toulouse

Tel : 08 99 96 91 85* 

Transport in the city ; 

Vélos : Red Bicycles around the city! 

You can use them for free (first 20 mins) then you have to pay the fee. 

Bus : There are bus to all the places around the city including airport ! (Which can be really useful for the tourists because if you take the taxi it's around 35 Euros to come to the center  )

Metro : There are two lines ( Line A and B )

Line A  : It extends from the shopping centre of Balma through Toulouse with stations at Marengo ( Which connects the SNCF railway station ) 

Capitole,Place Esquirol and University of Jean Jaures. After its final station, Basso-Cambo . 

At total 18 stops. 

Line B : Goes on Ramonville direction.

At total 20 stops. 

Tramway : Runs between Beauzelle and Toulouse-Arènes passing through Blagnac. 

To be continued... 

My HONEST Istanbul Travel Guide

Last week my dad met some Italian tourists who were coming to Istanbul for a couple of days and as they asked for some advice , guess what my daddy told them?
He immediately gave my e-mail address - of course ! Cause I am the guide here !
Soo as soon as I heard this news I grabbed my laptop and wrote a LOOONG E-Mail to these guys and gave them some really good advice about the city.

As they were tourists I also warned them about some popular events-must do things or places , cause you know, MUST DO and MUST SEE things can be really disappointing! So what I prefer is to always tell the truth to these people who do not know the city and introduce the real city to them!

I guess that was exactly what I did in my e-mail. I recommended the places I prefer to go and the things I like to do and see - as a local.


As the mail is reallly long I am gonna divide it into a few posts and probably add some more info and PHOTOS about the places.
PLUS: Since one of the biggest problems in this city is the traffic and public transportation I am gonna solve that problem with some tips too!

 

SO WAIT FOR MY HONEST ISTANBUL GUIDE !

oh oh oh - and maybeee this project of mine can start another challenge with my dear friend Lara ;) What about creating an honest TOULOUSE GUIDE my dear?