What do you do on your last full day in Istanbul? Well, it was time for us to go to the last remaining tourist spots that we didn’t get to prior to our soujourn in Cappadocia.

Since it was our last day, we wanted to make it count. As soon as we woke up, we took the time to solidify our itinerary. My mom wanted to see an interactive gallery that featured a painting of Istanbul’s history, but upon further review, the place was roughly an hour away and it was more or less just a single painting. So, that went out the window. Prior to flying to Turkey I read about some places, and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art was something I was keen to visit. That was solved, and it was time to get some food in us before we departed. However, since we wanted to move at a leisurely pace, we took our time before we’d have breakfast. While my mom was doing her thing, I went down across the street to mooch off of the wifi from the cafe we were at the previous day; the hotel internet was still down, and it turned out that we wouldn’t have it before we flew back home. It was good catching up on stuff I missed the day before so it made me feel a bit better knowing I didn’t miss much.

Being based just down the street from the main sites made it super easy for us to get to the museum, which was just beyond the Blue Mosque. From the outside, it didn’t look too big, but the place was spread out over what I assume was a former complex of one of the old sultan’s residences. To get started, we strolled through some exhibitions featuring trinkets and clothing that the average citizen had back in the good old days of the Empire. One interesting thing to see was the forms of entertainment the average Ottoman citizen enjoyed, as I learned that puppet shows were super popular; there was a short video that explained the history behind them, and the purpose was to satirize all aspects of society. We strolled around a bit longer before eventually moving on to the other part of the museum, which required us to go outside to the courtyard and upstairs. The upper section involved collections from ancient civilizations that lived in both Asia Minor and the Middle East (but don’t ask me which, as I hadn’t heard of them before), so it was neat seeing the traces of their legacies. After some time, the trinkets, which were primarily coins and pots, got a bit similar, so it was time for us to get a change of pace. However, we still had the end of the gallery to get through, which was the section focusing on Islamic art. The first half basically had pages and evidence from the Quran, and there was some music playing over speakers. We didn’t spend too much time there, and as such, we moved on to the last part in the gallery: the rugs. Turkish rugs are a part of their culture, and this was no exception! It was also insane seeing how old the ones there were, especially since they were from as far back as the 16th century. By that point we didn’t have anything else left to see, so we headed out, ready for our next event on the schedule.

Once we finished our visit, we knew that we wanted to visit a market. Mind you, we’d been told the Grand Bazaar was a tourist trap, so bearing that in mind, we went to one that was recommended by Pinar the previous Saturday. We had to walk across the district to get there, but it was worth it. When you’re just off the main street, you see a lot more local shops/life, and it was nice seeing the locals out and about. Plus, I was able to duck into a Beşiktaş store to pick up one of their soccer kits, for $25! Several times we wanted to duck into a cafe but we didn’t feel any pressure to head into any of them, given the abundance of choice. We had a straightforward walk before finding our destination for the afternoon, and before we got there, we had to walk past people entering/exiting from the local mosque.

Now, the market. Obviously the premise of its function is simple, but seeing how hustling and bustling things were was fun, and you can’t really come to Istanbul without getting a feel for that pageantry. The hawkers were offering people samples of their Turkish delight, which I did occasionally accept, but all in all there wasn’t much there that we wanted. We stopped to see if the honey one place was offering was worth it, but the cost and size of one jar made it difficult to justify paying for it. Prices there also were for tourists, albeit not as much as the other, more popular markets, so once we walked through it, that was enough for us.

There was no need for us to rush back, so we loitered around the area. It took us a few minutes to find out where to get lunch, and fortunately we laid eyes on a small place offering kebab. There wasn’t much in the way of seating save for a small both tucked next to the power outlet, but we say down and ordered both a pork and chicken kebab. Once the food arrived, we were stunned at how large a “medium” kebab was: it was massive! It attests to how hungry we were since we polished off our respective meals, and boy, it was satisfying to have eaten there. More expensive than we thought it’d cost, but good nonetheless.

We continued to stroll along the main street in this part of the district before parking ourselves in a small cafe, where I ordered my first Turkish coffee of the trip. As expected, it was a much-needed boost, and my non-coffee drinking mom even admitted how good it was! Moments like these were awesome, and people watching proved to be a pleasurable activity while we sat down. Istanbul is a massive city, but seeing the hustle and bustle of this part of the district reminded us that we ultimately are always looking to live our own lives, and it was neat imagining the stories and backgrounds of the people around us. We couldn’t stay there the entire time, so we made our way back to the hotel, taking care to enjoy the sights and sounds around us. Once we were back, we just chilled before heading out to dinner and then calling it a day. Could we have done more? Yes. We just felt like we’d checked off all the things on our trip itinerary and we were satisfied. All in all, our trip was what we needed!