People were right when they say there is no other place on Earth as beautiful looking as Istanbul.
– François-René de Chateaubriand
When I told Robie I wanted to start a monthly update post, he groaned.
After all, he has to listen to me agonize over a phrase for days or ask whether the hours spent writing are worth the effort. After assuring him the monthly recap would be short and filled with more photos than words, he laughed at my first update. Weighing in at nearly 2,500 words, it was hardly brief. “But it’s covering two months,” I argued since I hadn’t come up with the idea until the last few days of February.
After promising future updates would be under 900 words, I wrote 1,327 words in March and a whopping 2,066-word tome in April. This month I’m sticking to my vow of a quick recap.
Where we’ve been this month
On May 1st we packed up and moved again.
After 11 weeks in Sicily and 10 days exploring Naples and Rome, we flew to Istanbul. Here are some interesting facts about the city straddling the Bosphorus:
- With 16.4 million people, Istanbul is the largest city in Europe.
- Despite being the largest city in Türkiye, Istanbul’s not the capital. Ankara is.
- For nearly 1,600 years the city was called Constantinople. When they changed the name in 1930, the Turkish post office refused to deliver mail addressed to Constantinople.
- Like Rome, Constantinople was built on seven hills lending it the name “New Rome.”
- Tulips were originally cultivated in Istanbul before they were taken to Holland.
- In 2022 the Turkish government requested the United Nations change the country’s name to Türkiye.
- For over 1,500 years, the Hagia Sophia has served as a church, a mosque and a museum. In the 12 years since Robie and I were last here, it has once again become a mosque.
- Istanbul is the first place we’re staying long-term that we’ve visited before.
Where we’re going
After running around Naples and Rome searching for Caravaggios, our explorations around Istanbul have developed more leisurely. Most of our sightseeing has been in Sultanahmet with a couple of day trips to Kadikӧy on the Asian side and Karakӧy across the Golden Horn.
What we cooked and ate
It’s taken me nearly two years to figure out how to grocery shop as a permanent nomad.
When we first started, I entered every grocery store determined to walk down each aisle and open every freezer case searching for ideas. In Liverpool that meant visiting three stores before buying a single ingredient. In Sarandё I loaded up on so many non-food items that Robie had to ask, “But what’s for dinner tonight?”
After slapping together more than one desperate meal on our first day in town, I now walk into each new market armed with a shortlist of easy to make dishes from staple ingredients. In Istanbul we’ve used that list to make quesadillas, Moroccan omelets, rice & beans, and tomato & feta pasta as well as Turkish ravioli from the freezer aisle.
While restaurants in Istanbul are plentiful and greeters always ready to welcome us, the food we ate our first week in town was stunningly average. Unlike Italy where we could walk blindfolded and stumble across good food, in Istanbul we’ve had to work harder to find decent restaurants. One is Şehzade Cağ Kebap, a restaurant offering just a single dish: thinly sliced kebabs in a wrap for easy take-away or deconstructed for a DIY, sit-down version. The tender lamb and razor thin lavash are what Robie calls Turkish fajita served alongside raw onions, spicy tomato dip and buffalo yogurt. It’s the perfect meal for two former Texans perpetually craving TexMex.
Cultural and special events
On May 19 Türkiye celebrated the Commemoration of Ataturk, a day honoring the commencement if Türkiye’s War of Independence. Since Ataturk never knew his birth date, the day venerates his birth with sporting events and youth festivals to symbolize hope for the future.
On May 20 Istanbul hosted the UEFA Europa Leage final between Aston Villa (from Birmingham, UK) and Freiburg (in southwest Germany) bringing a lot of distinct jerseys to town along with UK’s Prince William. May 28 was the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha or “Feast of the Sacrifice” by Ibrahim (Abraham) where families gathered to enjoy great food. Two days later the city celebrated the 573rd anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople complete with an air show by Turkish Solotürk, their version of Blue Angels.
Finally in May, Robie celebrated another birthday, and since we didn’t have an oven to bake a cake, for the second year in a row we celebrated by going out for breakfast!
May money management
For the first time this year, we had more than half (54%) our original budget remaining at the beginning of the month. After moving and restocking another new kitchen, in mid-May we still had 32% left. That gave us a comfortable cushion compared with April when we had less than a third (29%) and March when we had a nail-biting 21% remaining halfway through the month.
Our apartment in the Sultanahmet neighborhood costs $43.20 a night and dining out is never more than $40 for two despite Türkiye’s high inflation. In the end we spent $3,550 out of an original $4,171 budget and put the extra funds toward future months. In June we might even go to the Grand Bazaar and get Robie a belated birthday present!
Conclusion
While May was more relaxed, we’re loving being in vibrant, busy Istanbul.
Typical Robie: “What’s for dinner tonight?
😂