45. Eating out way through Istanbul
In our luxury van from the airport
In our luxury van from the airport
Our flight landed a little after 4am but by the time we got through immigration and collected luggage it was after 5. I was exhausted and had trouble making decisions, alternately splitting my attention between how to catch public transport and finding an ATM. Finally, Dawne stepped in and found a nice ground transport option that was reasonable while I looked at ATMs only to discover that ALL of them charged an 8-10% fee to withdraw Turkish Lira! I decided to use one in town and the nice lady at the transport company walked us to the elevator and gave us (blessfully simple) directions to find the van. It was a super nice luxury van, similar to the one we took last year and we managed to get to the Conrad by 6:45am. I was hoping to store our bags and get a key to access the Executive Lounge for breakfast (another free perk of being a Hilton Diamond member courtesy of another credit card, my Amex Hilton Aspire), however we lucked out and they were able to give us a free upgrade to a family suite that we could use right away!
My master bedroom
The place was HUGE with a separate bedroom and a living room with sofa bed. It has two bathrooms, both with showers that include waterfall, rain, and handheld heads. They had a beautiful spread of fruits and sweets for us laid out on the table. I have to admit that while I LOVE having Cosmo with me, it likely does restrict my upgrade options to pet friendly rooms, and this was probably not one they are willing to have pets in ☹
the second bathroom
the living room
our welcome gift in the room
delicious breakfast in the lounge when we arrived
Once we got over the shock of the cool accommodations, our priorities were shower first, then food. The Executive Lounge had a very nice spread. Not as extensive as the regular buffet but they had my favorite item that the buffet does not: clotted cream (that you can add to honey or honeycomb which both places have). I did the honeycomb and then remembered how annoying the wax is as it gets stuck in your teeth. I also love the fresh squeezed orange juice! and the runny scrambled eggs! I LOVE the breakfast at the Conrad Bosphorus. After breakfast Dawne went exploring while I took a much needed nap, as my ability to put together intelligible sentences was waning.
with Bahar at the Conrad
That afternoon we visited with our favorite head of guest relations, Bahar. She went to school in Boston, lived 10 years in New York, and travels around Europe including yearly visits to relatives in Paris. She also knows a lot about good food. Last year she was responsible for having the chefs make us a few local dishes like menemen (eggs, tomato with olive oil and red peppers), cilbir (poached eggs and yogurt), and honeycomb with clotted cream and pistachios (which is one of my all time favorite things now…though I can only eat it here or else I’d gain 100 pounds).
evening snack at the diamond lounge
We visited with her a bit in the executive lounge before having our light dinner there. The executive lounge serves a light dinner from 5-7 so we ate there before heading back to our suite. It was so nice to have two rooms with separate AC controls as Dawne likes it freezing cold and I like it mildly cool. Plus Dawne wouldn’t have to hear my snoring at night, bonus! We watched a movie off my laptop and discovered the cool disappearing TV in my room. I thought it was off so I hit the power button and it began to disappear into the cabinet at the foot of the bed. Once It had fully submerged, the top to the cabinet folded down and closed it in. Wow! I really did not expect that!
my disappearing TV
another nice breakfast
It was great to sleep in and really get rest. Breakfast at the Conrad Bosphorus is incredible. I think I might even rank it in the top 5 breakfast buffets I’ve been to. It has an amazing variety of items and they are all fresh and delicious. Two things that set it apart for me are the honeycomb (though I did have to go to the Executive Lounge buffet to get the clotted cream) and the ability to special order items from the chef like menemen. I think tomorrow I might ask for a small order of cilbir too. And of course the fresh juices: orange, pomegranate, and grapefruit. If you’re curious about the top 5, I haven’t fleshed them all out in my mind but #1 is Conrad Rangali in the Maldives (they literally have you pick out the fruits you want and juice them for you) and another is the Hilton Bali. I would also put the Wynn buffet in Vegas on that list though to be fair I haven’t tried the Bellagio buffet for breakfast only dinner.
cat in the bag store
After our leisurely breakfast we were planning to walk and ferry to the old town area but the rain made us change our minds. We took an Uber to the one solid non-commision ATM I was certain about in all Istanbul. Awhile back all Turkish based banks started charging a 6-10% commission fee for foreign cards. I tried several at the airport and they wanted $16 in fees to take out $200 in lira! The exceptions are some non-Turkish banks like ING, HSBC, and Sekerbank though not all of those. The night before we had sought out a nearby Sekerbank but it had the 8% fee and we also tried to find the ING but it was no longer there. The Uber dropped us at the HSBC ATM near old town with over 58 reviews and after checking for skimming equipment (strongly recommended) I was able to take out money with no fees! Thus began our shopping spree. Unfortunately I stopped in a shop before we got to the “good street” and bought a few tote bags for $10 each (after bargaining down from $12). Then saw the same bags for $5 each near the Market Istanbul store on Taya Hatun. Aargh! So of course I had to buy a few more. The market store is one of favorite places to get souvenirs in Istanbul. They had an adorable tabby cat who was curled up on some bags (see pics). In addition to several souvenirs, I bought a packet of “real lamb” cat food for Cosmo. I felt bad about being here without him as he does really like Istanbul and people here REALLY love him (especially Bahar and her team at the Conrad)!
cat in the market store
Dawne shopping for artisan made shoes
buying Turkish delight at Lokum Atolyesi
Then we moved on to the real reason we came. The food. We went to Lokum Atolyesi for tins of Turkish delight (note to self: in addition to the rose square ones the pistachio square ones are also fabulous). We went to the Spice Bazaar to get baklava from Gulluoglu in stall 88. They are expensive but good. Unfortunately I got confused about where I got my tea from last time as they both had “love tea” and the pomegranate tea that I added to it for sweetness. Omar was friendly and a masterful salesman dropping his price from 3500 lira/kg to 2500 and pulling me in to get what I thought was 600 grams of each but ended up somehow at about 700 of each. He also talked me into getting saffron from him, which I hadn’t planned on. I also got rolls of pistachio Turkish delight there.
Dawne and her "boyfriend" Omar
tons of Turkish delight
so many teas!
shop keeper trying very very hard to sell Dawne a jacket
Finally we escaped about $185 poorer, but not before he introduced us to his “friend” next door who had fine camel hair jackets. He showed us his wares and unfortunately Dawne did like one of the jackets, which instantly put the shop owner into attack mode. He dropped the price, had her try one several different colors and styles, talked about the fine quality, and basically made it very difficult to say no. However, we did eventually manage to make our way out, promising to "think about" his lowest price of $300. Incidentally when we returned with a "no thank you" he dropped his price to $250 and finally to $200! Shopping in Istanbul can be very exhausting. It reminded us of our rug experience last time near the Blue Mosque where we barely made it our alive and I’m pretty sure the guy there set a few curses on me. Luckily I don’t believe in curses. As they say in poker, it is unlucky to be superstitious.
some of my purchases
my "boyfriend" Teslim
Finally we got to MY stall, #31 Arifoglu, where “my boyfriend” Teslim always takes good care of me. I was sad to see that he had the “love tea” as well and I’m pretty sure I had gotten it from him last time, not Omar. His prices were better too as the listed prices were 2500 for the love and only 1700 for pomegranate. He ended up giving them to me for about 1600/kg. Fortunately I knew I was supposed to get the apricots from Teslim so I got a lot of those, but I paid about $40 more getting the other items at Gulluoglu. If only I had come in a different entrance and seen booth 31 first! He also had these fabulous mushroom shaped chocolates, that Dawne had me try. They were so good! I didn’t want chocolate but I had no choice. They just melt in your mouth. Chocolate. What a perfect way to end a perfect trip!
cats are all the craze in Istanbul
cat in the shoe store
Now fully loaded with our purchases, Dawne and I made our way back to the hotel. After having a nice snack at the diamond lounge, we did a little last minute shopping at a nearby mall which had lots of fake name brand stuff. Dawne got some shoes and I picked up a nifty looking North Face shirt. Again, we spotted an adorable cat curled up in the shoe store back room! We spent the rest of the evening packing, desperately trying to get all of our purchases safely packed into two suitcases each. I had brought a large duffel, which was well packed with no breakable items. I have to say, that despite all the massive amounts of souvenirs I purchased this trip and the other trips this semester, now 2 months later I don’t have any regrets of things I wish I had not gotten, and surprisingly nothing I wish I had gotten. I have to admit, the rest of the trip was a blur.
cilbur and menemen, yum!
I know there was a fabulous breakfast, a nice airport lounge, and I do vaguely remember a pleasant lady sitting in our row for the return flight, but nothing is memorable until I landed and went through customs. I confidently listed all the items I was bringing back only to learn that I had to check with the customs folks about my biltong (like beef jerky only moister and more delicious) from South Africa. Sadly, they confiscated my biltong despite the fact that it was dried, processed, and commercially packaged in a sealed bag. Julia came to get us once we made it out with our luggage and we were very glad to see her! It was strange being back home but I was so happy to see Cosmo again. His foster mom, Paula, had managed to get his harness on before I got there so I only had to connect his leash and take him for a walk while he “cooled off” to a point where he was willing to get back in a car with me. After one of his favorite Churu treats and promising I wouldn’t leave again for a long time, he even relented to give me a snuggle.
This featured blog entry was written by nutmeg2000 from the blog My Semester off for travel 2025.
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