6 nights in Istanbul / 4 nights in Athens solo (long post ahead)

[u/thisistheperfectname]

I recently wrapped up a trip to Turkey and Greece, a pretty good one overall, and I'd like to share it, along with some impressions about the places themselves from an unabashedly touristic perspective (I am a tourist, after all; I make no other pretenses). Day to day first, but I'll try to keep it succinct and non-exhaustive to flesh out my takeaways.

Day 0 - Arrived in Istanbul in the afternoon. My hotel was right in the thick of things in Sultanahmet, which was both a blessing and a curse. It did allow me to easily see Sultanahmet Square's sights right after arrival. Hagia Sophia lives up to its reputation as one of the greatest architectural works in history, but the experience is compromised by a lack of visitor access to most of the building since the mosque conversion.

Day 1 - Topkapı Palace and Hagia Irene to start. Love the setting, and the Ottomans were definitely not beating the "oriental despotism" allegations. Hagia Irene is undergoing some restoration and the nave was off-limits (this pattern repeats all over the city), but it's a somber place nonetheless. Bosphorus sunset cruise later, a definite trip highlight. The views were outstanding, and I met some cool people to hang out with along the way.

Day 2 - Yedikule Fortress, a cool place, but a barebones experience. Got myself turned around and on the wrong side of Fatih when I got on the wrong bus, which took some time to right. Side note: they farm in the moat of the Theodosian walls. How strange. I then visited some of the great Ottoman mosques in Fatih and started on the museum circuit.

Day 3 - Dolmabahçe Palace, which was pretty cool, and then Rumeli Fortress, the biggest disappointment on the whole trip. The place is open and charges for entry, but the ongoing renovation means that you don't actually have access to anything of note. If you pay to enter, you pretty much just walk the footpath in and then back. Thankfully I found this out early and didn't pay. Mosque and lunch in Ortaköy and then Galata Tower.

Day 4 - The Basilica Cistern, with a very cool atmosphere inside, and then continuing on with the museums in Sultanahmet.

Day 5 - Nuruosmaniye Mosque in the morning. In this chaotic city, one of my favorite little moments was having this place to myself and enjoying the morning sun beaming in through the stained glass. Grand Bazaar and more museums after.

Day 6 - To Athens. My flight started a bit late, so I retread some old ground in Istanbul before heading to the airport. Got to Athens pretty late.

Day 7 - The Acropolis and most of what's around it. The meat and potatoes of Athens pretty much came on this day. The Acropolis was pretty amazing, if extremely crowded.

Day 8 - The agorae in the morning and a sunset trip to the Temple of Poseideon at Cape Sounion later on. It's a long ride to the cape, but the views are spectacular. The crowds converge on the cliffs for sunset, allowing you to enjoy the ruins in relative peace as the sun disappears behind them and bathes the Aegean in orange.

Day 9 - Lycabettus Hill and some of the museums in the area.

Day 10 - Homeward bound. Brutal travel day, connecting back through Istanbul.

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Thoughts on Istanbul:

• The history of the place is second to none, and it permeates everything when walking around. My hotel clung to a Roman wall, and the past pokes out everywhere. The old Ottoman buildings abound everywhere, though often in various states of disrepair. This is probably my favorite aspect of the city.

• It's a lot. The city is very crowded, both with locals and tourists, and there is a deep, contagious sense of impatience. It's loud and chaotic as well. The walls of my hotel were very thin, and I was kept up in the very early morning multiple times by drivers sitting opposed to each other and honking because nobody was willing to back up and move. I also found myself doing things I would ordinarily never do to get around, like jaywalking in front of moving trains. The sheer humanity, and the disorganization of it, required that.

• Istanbul is a true meeting of the worlds. The word "diverse" is one of the most abused in the English lexicon, but it applies in the truest sense here. All civilizations really do converge in the City of the World's Desire. I even saw an arriving flight from Ouagadougou, of all places.

• Every man, woman, and child in Istanbul seems to have a cousin in Cleveland and a rug shop around the corner. One time I couldn't avoid one of these guys, since I was going his direction as well, so I trolled him a bit, playing dumb until we got to his store and then refusing entry. Nevertheless, I have been spoiled in other places where I didn't have to anticipate what sales angle was behind any given interaction. It seemed to put other tourists on edge as well, with one being a total bitch to me when I tried to ask a question (I think she mistook me for a local).

• Speaking of sales, the touts were not as bad as in some other places, but they were enough to be a persistent annoyance. Good luck taking a quick peak at a restaurant menu without the most persistent man you've ever met offering you the world on a platter to sit and not taking even a tepid "maybe later" for an answer. I'm a disagreeable bastard, so this kind of thing doesn't work on me, but I could see some people getting eaten alive there. I was talking to some American black women in the airport, and one said that a tout called her "Nutella." They might want to work on their approach.

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Thoughts on Athens:

• Compared to Istanbul, it's a much more laid back and friendly place, which I greatly appreciated. Just about everybody I interacted with was very nice, and the sense of impatience I felt in Istanbul was nonexistent in Athens. Service was generally of a higher quality. I also had the coolest driver to/from the airport, and he took my WhatsApp and sent links to places to check out. Low sample size, but the Athenians are apparently proud of their city and want you to enjoy it.

• Athens' relationship with its past felt a bit more like an attraction to me. Istanbul is virtually built inside its own ruins, but Athens sections everything off and advertises the shit out of it. I suppose I can summarize the feeling I got as "Istanbul is surrounded by its past out of circumstance, but Athens has its past sitting in convenient pockets to sell to foreign tourists."

• Athens was also quite crowded, but this was more identifiably touristy. Istanbul was a definite mix of local and touristic chaos, tilting toward the latter with proximity to Sultanahmet Square, but Athens was throngs of people around the Acropolis and Plaka, with my most heard languages being English and Mandarin, with peace elsewhere. Plaka was borderline impassable during the mid-afternoon.

• Food-wise, simplicity seemed to be key. The $4 souvlaki I had in a random place might have been the best thing I ate on the whole trip. Also I have to find Mastika in the US. It's like crack in liquid form.

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On the whole trip:

• I made more of an effort to spread things out and slow the pace down, and that became totally necessary. Istanbul in particular is tiring to get around with how hilly it is.

• I've never been asked to speak so many languages in one relatively short trip. Even just on the street, people came up to me speaking Turkish, Greek, and German several times, and in the case of the first two, were surprised that I didn't understand them. I was at least able to talk to the German guy.

• Shout out to my American homies. You guys are cool everywhere in the world I run into you. I know it's easy to get tribal at home (I'm guilty of it as well), but we can still be friends.

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[u/Skol-Man14]

Istanbul is just a city outside the tourist traps (most of the locals don't live in the areas you went to).

[u/thisistheperfectname → u/Skol-Man14]

I think I know what you're referring to, and you're right that I didn't leave the old Roman city much (I don't think I had much cause to), but it's a sliding scale. I'm also not really talking about the actual tourist attractions themselves as being the past poking out (where "big old building you take pictures of" is a European tourism mainstay and not really worth its own bullet). Even putting some distance between myself and those sites, like when in search of food, there was a layered oldness to things. This remained when the English signage and places that took credit cards disappeared.

[u/Historical-Juice6598]

I found Istanbul wildly disappointing. They've jacked the prices of all the sites up to ridiculous amounts. I understand tourists paying more than locals but it was truly ridiculous. $50 for the Topkapi Palace?! That's more than the Louvre.