Istanbul | It’s been a blast - Thank You!

[kerem gokmen]

Might be back if we get Galatasary in champions league

dont :)))) come as a guest. not an opponent :))) (dont want to lose 6 points before the groups started) joking...
if that draw happens you ll definitely stay at kadıkoy...

 

[Xhavenjoe]

dont :)))) come as a guest. not an opponent :))) joking...
if that draw happens you ll definitely stay at kadıkoy...

I think I'll have to leave my collection of Turkish shirts at home.
God knows how many I bought in the markets in Kusadasi over the years.

 

[kerem gokmen]

I think I'll have to leave my collection of Turkish shirts at home.
God knows how many I bought in the markets in Kusadasi over the years.

i am not buying original merchandise since years in istanbul.... i have an england jersey (red) i bought in 2010 in bodrum, still wearing it. perfect quality most of them...

 

[kerem gokmen]

Went to Istanbul with my folks a few years back and loved it, the scale of the place is bloody insane. Surprised at people saying it was a 'shit hole'. Guess it depends on where your staying/where you are.

We took a boat out for instance one day to Princes Islands (below) and it felt like you were in San Fransisco or something.

perfect

 

[kinkyblue]

Manic 4 days. The locals were generally decent. Admittedly, we didn't see a lot of the place, but of what we did, it was a bit of a shithole, like any other big city. They certainly need to get some street cleaners on the job - just one big ashtray. The matchday was as expected. We knew everything was just too spread out. Getting to the stadium on a packed metro seemed to take forever. Getting back afterwards on the shuttle buses was chaos. The lack of organisation and direction was bizarre. Anyway, going to bed now for a couple of weeks.

For the amount of people there I though it was quite clean and clear of rubbish

 

[mexico1970]

Went to Istanbul with my folks a few years back and loved it, the scale of the place is bloody insane. Surprised at people saying it was a 'shit hole'. Guess it depends on where your staying/where you are.

We took a boat out for instance one day to Princes Islands (below) and it felt like you were in San Fransisco or something.

Incredible that anyone from Manchester can call anywhere a shithole mate ;)

 

[staffsblue]

For the amount of people there I though it was quite clean and clear of rubbish

I agree. Stayed on a very Muslim street in Fatih. All very clean, despite being full of feral cats, and the added bonus of there being no pissheads there, so exceptionally quiet. Enjoyed a cha or two in a cafe and got chatting to the locals who were perplexed by what we were doing in that part of town, but remainded extremely welcoming.
On the first morning, got woken up by the "call to prayers" at sunrise, but slept through it the following two mornings.
On Sunday afternoon, ventured over to the Asian side to visit a fantastic craft beer pub which also did great food in a suburb called Göztepe. Seemed like a very middle class / hipster area and again was really clean.
The waitress in the pub even sorted us out a taxi back to the nearby railway station as we'd run out of energy to walk back!

 

[kerem gokmen]

Went to Istanbul with my folks a few years back and loved it, the scale of the place is bloody insane. Surprised at people saying it was a 'shit hole'. Guess it depends on where your staying/where you are.

We took a boat out for instance one day to Princes Islands (below) and it felt like you were in San Fransisco or something.

good news that, no more horses (since 2-3 years)... they were suffering a lot in the hills of the islands a lot. now there are electrical vehilces for travel... it was hard, but we managed to free the horses.

 

[There is a Light]

I really don’t know where to start with Istanbul, incredible city to experience, absolutely huge, welcoming in most ways, random people just offering to help with routes etc, really hospitable in the bars etc. You can see why the atmosphere for matches over there are mental, singing on the metro and the streets, the locals loved it and just wanted to get involved and join in. Some absolutely beautiful areas from the parts I saw, some not so nice. The Ataturk itself is ill equipped and poorly located for a match of that importance, but I’d say that’s UEFA’s problem.

You have to keep your guard about you though, I didn’t briefly after the match and ended up losing my wallet, which I think at the time had about 3000 lira in it. On the other hand, my mates daughter lost her phone on the tram to Blue Mosque, immediately assumed that she’d been pickpocketed, went to police for a crime reference number and got a call back to say it had been handed to a different officer, they brought it to the station and all was good. The officer at the station pointed out that there were a huge influx of refugees without low income and their children do a lot of pickpocketing.

Then getting a taxi to the airport, we had a few random guys generously offering to help again, but they couldn’t get there quick enough. Spoke to another guy who tried to get us a lift for 2000 lira, we said no and he called us back, got us a car which we ended up paying 800 lira for. Their culture is different, they are used to bartering etc, but you just have to be wise to it. Saying that when I got back to Manchester the black cab driver charged me £47 for an 11 mile drive, if it had been as far out as SAW that would have been over £100.

 

[BELFAST_BLUE_BOY]

I'm still here...had a great time and people lovely and cannot help you enough....its a big City and obviously few issues but personally we had a brilliant time and out tonight for last few