The Top 6 Things to Do in Istanbul Turkey with Only 48 Hours

After I finished working with the Jackie Chan stunt team on Dragon Blade, I traveled to Thailand and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong a friend that I met on Dragon Blade referred me to a job in Turkey. It’s just so amazing where life will take you if you let it. The movie I would end up working on was Bana Masal Anlatma, directed by Barak Aksak. I did stunt work and had a small role on the movie, but I will save those details for another post. This post will focus on the sight-seeing I was able to squeeze in in the few hours we had after we wrapped.

So without further ado!  The Top Six Things to Do in Istanbul with only 48 hours.

When the stunt guys and I first landed in Istanbul our guide and set PA, Bolkan was kind enough to take us out to breakfast. We went to Namlı Gurme Karaköy. He said it was one of his favorite breakfast places. What I noticed is that they have tonsssss of cheese in Turkey. In the US you can buy cheese as well, but in Turkey for each meal I always see cheese and there are usually a lot of quality options of cheese as well. So if you check out the pictures below you can see the options that I selected from the deli. Then I also got a Turkish style omelet, this cream dessert which was DELICIOUS, and baklava for desert. It was my first time trying that cream dessert. It was very light yet creamy. I’m sure if I ate it every day it wouldn’t be super healthy, but it was very tasty! 

After breakfast we checked in to the hotel, Cihangir Oteli. It was near Taksim square, had a great view from the top, and was a nice hotel inside. The production paid for the hotel, but I think it was a mid-ranged hotel. Nothing too fancy, but very nice.

Here is a picture of the room itself. Quaint but clean and modern. The bathroom seemed like it was newly built.

On set I tried my first Turkish beer in Turkey. Bolkan recommended trying it. It’s called Bomanti.

Then from set we could see this beautiful body of water. From where I looked out you could see where the continent of Asia separates and where the continent of Europe begins. So from looking out you see both continents. It’s kind of cool when you think about it. There is a bridge that we took to go from Asia to Europe and vice versa.Looking out seeing Asia and Europe.

Now as I mentioned, they seemed to really like cheese in Turkey. One day during rehearsals we had pizza. I believe it was pizza hut. I would never have ordered pizza hut on my short trip here because there are so many other things to try while here for the first time, but since they ordered it on set I had the opportunity to try it. The pizza had cheese on top with toppings just like any other pizza I’ve tried anywhere else, but… between the body of the pizza and the bottom of the pizza was stuffed with another layer of cheese. And this cheese wasn’t the same cheese on top, it was more of a creamier cheese. I think cheese lovers would love this, but it was a bit too much cheese for me. I don’t think it was a special option either because we had 10 pizzas with different toppings and they all had the cheese filling inside. Still tasty, but I’d prefer a New York style pizza over the double cheese. 😛

Now let me get to the main travel stuff.

There were a lot of boat tours offered, but for me I like to adventure on my own schedule and just took the ferry from one side of the continent to the other side. So the first thing on my to do list is: Take the ferry across the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is a straight that divides Asia and Europe. It is absolutely beautiful and about a 15 minute ride. I saw the view during the day and was also able to catch it at sunset. Absolutely beautiful. And to think some people take this route to from school or work every day.

The pictures below show the view from the ferry. Some beautiful shots as I ferried back and forth from Asia to Europe.
So after our ferry ride to Kadikoy we were hungry. A friend recommended checking out Ciya Sofrasi for Kebobs. So that was the second thing on my agenda — eating Kebob in Turkey. This is a must! It would be like going to Beijing and not eating Peiking duck!

If I recall, the Ciya Sofrasi was in Kadikoy, but basically you could google it and or ask around. We decided to make an adventure out of it. There were heaps of people on the streets and it was fun making our way there.

So Kebab refers to a great variety of meat dishes. Above we see some skewers. The picture directly below Is Lahmacun. A flatbread with minced meat, onions, tomato, pepper, garlic, and a variety of spices.

When we got to Ciya Sofrasi there are two restaurants across from each other they are the same restaurant but one you can get some all you can eat items, but you need to go here for the kebobs which are sit down and order. You can order from either side so just ask for the Kebob menu. There are a ton of speciality kebobs you can choose from. It was so hard to decide. Eventually we got a kebab and baba ganoush. Both were absolutely delicious.

By the time we cruised on back, it was night. We got to see a beautiful night view on the Bosphorus.

When we got back there was a third thing on my agenda — go check out the nightlife in Taksim. This is where all the clubs and bars are in Istanbul. We had work the next day so I literally just popped in a pub for a bit and then we had to head back to the hotel… but it was still great to check out the scene.. and we made a few friends along the way 🙂

On day 2/2 of the free time that I had, I made a solo trip to check out what would be the FOURTH thing on my agenda — checking out the Hagia Sophia.  

Pictured above is new mosque or Eminonu mosque. It was on my to the Hagia Sophia. I got to Sultanahmet, but unfortunately when I got to the Hagia Sophia it was already closed and I could only see it from afar.

There is however the blue mosque right across and I was able to check that out. Absolutely beautiful from inside and out.

Along the way to the Hagia Sophia there are tons of food and desert shops. I made sure to try what would be the FIFTH thing on my agenda — eat TURKISH DELIGHT. There are a whole bunch of options so choose the flavor you like the most. I know that pistachio was one of the better selling ones. I also had some ice cream along the way. It was very good and had a more dense and sticky consistency than the standard ice cream in the US.

I made it back to the hotel and to my delight, I found out there was a very nice bar on the top floor of our hotel. This leads me to the last and final thing I wanted to try before leaving Turkey — drink Raki.

Raki is a popular drink in Turkey and considered the national alcoholic beverage of Turkey. It is traditionally mixed with chilled water in a Raki glass. I just wanted to try it since I was in Turkey. The taste is sort of like licorice. It’s definitely better mixed with chilled water. I also tried taking a sip of it and drinking it with water. The after taste after drinking the water is nice too.

I skipped all the fun and crazy stuff we did on the movie because that will be for the next post, but my time in Turkey was great! So for everyone out there I will re-summarize the 6 things I would do if I only had 2 half days in Istanbul.

1. Take a ferry on the Bosphorus
2. Eat Kebob
3. Check out the nightlife in Taksim Square
4. Visit the Hagia Sophia (and possibly Blue Mosque as well)
5. Try Turkish Delight
6. Taste Raki

Seeing as how I was mainly in Istanbul for work and our flight was on the same night that we wrapped filming, I made the most of my time there. It was a beautiful place and the food was great. I hope the movie we did does well and I find myself back in Turkey again.