After travelling to this crazy and beautiful place recently I couldn’t wait to talk about all the unique experiences, all the delicious food, all the dogs, and the wonderful time that I haven’t stopped thinking about since!
- First, an interesting technicality. Turkey is now officially Türkiye, as of 2022. They rebranded, and while it won’t affect anyone’s travel plans going forward, it was a little confusing when we first arrived. Now for the dogs!
- Dogs are everywhere, and friendly. They followed us down side streets, across intersections, and right into restaurants looking for a spare mean. Turkey treats stray animals like members of society and it melted our hearts.. Turkey has a no kill no capture law regarding stray animals and a program that overseas these creatures safety and care as they live beside people in a bustling city. It has been one of the only cities that I have ever been to where stray animals were respected enough to live as they were and in that process have become a big part of the community. There is also additional information on this here.
- People build homes for local stray cats and dogs. This goes along with the abundant kindness and respect we saw extended towards animals…. we saw multilevel cat homes built from spare materials all over the city. There is more information provided by the Pain in the bud blog here:
- People offer fruits and veggies to children. I wanted to do some digging into this sweet tradition as it’s novelty struck me. Apparently, Göz hakkı is a tradition that involves providing free food to anyone passing by fresh fruits/vegetables or a meal. This custom originated from the concept that people seeing others eating should also have the opportunity to eat. In some parts of Turkey, farmers even hang signs on their orchards, on designated trees, telling strangers to pick fruit for free. Amidst our stay Milo was provided: Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chicken and rice, marshmallow cookies, and more amidst our 4 day trip.
- Traffic does not move. This is the most expansive city we have ever been to with some of the most challenging roads to navigate. If possible use another mode of transportation than car as whenever we walked versus drove we would typically arrive somewhere 2-3x quicker.
- Perceived two currencies: 1 for tourists and 1 for locals. We started to notice drastic differences in dining establishments and shops as we made our way through exploring Istanbul. Overall everything in Istanbul is extremely affordable compared to U.S. prices, but if you want to try to get to the true cost of things there are a few things that can be done: haggle (this is expected in shops and the original price seems to reflect this).
- Ice cream serving is an art form. This was such a fun part of Istanbul in travelling with our Milo…. Ice cream servers basically twirl ice cream wands like magicians and entertain crowds (especially children while they serve). Also…. ice cream for all three of us came to about 50 lira ($2.78… or less than $1 each for ice cream and a show!).
- Free samples are abundantly flowing. In any Bazaar or market there will be many opportunities to try Turkish sweets, tea, and nuts. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love free samples.
- Drinking water in Istanbul is not entirely safe. Locals told us they drink it, but we were advised not to. Bottled water is very cheap, and this is something to take note of when planning a trip.
- Overwhelming affection in a pandemic world. This is something travelers, especially travelers with babies, want to be aware of. We have become more accustomed to a lot of affection for Milo since living in Bahrain but just knowing that hugs, kisses, and play for little ones is a sweet part of the culture to be cognicent of before travelling.
- There is a friendly, low key vibe around the whole city. When asking a person a question we typically know how they are going to answer based on our relationship with that person and their tendencies. Istanbul, Turkey is a person that always says “yes” to any question asked within limits. This default “yes” answer made this place a low stress place to visit with a Milo in our midst!
- Air conditioning in hotels, cars, restaurants, etc. is not as common as in the rest of the U.S.
Finally if you want to read more of our journey through Istanbul, check out: https://tiny-treks.com/2022/08/05/toddler-travels-in-istanbul-turkey/ 🙂
Tiny Treks 