Thread 2804018

I recently took the option for a 24 hour layover in Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Total spend was $49.50 USD. Istanbul felt more Third World than European, despite its high prices.

The Istanbul metro is overcrowded, with too few trains in service. If you don't like being in a rat tunnel full of scurrying impatient people, you'll hate the metro.

My room was 23 euros and extremely dilapidated. The first room had a short in the A/C, so I was moved to another room. that was naturally cool enough not to need A/C.

The businessmen of Istanbul are very appreciative of their customers. Other than the metro card vending & top-up racket, I didn't encounter any of the scams or ripoffs that other people claim are prevalent here. Prices were often high, like 110 euros for a kilo of baclava, but clearly posted and honored.

Hillside slum street
Lots of trash and sewage odors.

This place was all right. Back street location meant few foreign customers and lower prices.

You're not fooling anyone with that ESL speak, go back to Manila pedro

>>2804021
Desu, that looks quite clean.

>>2804093
Depends on your standard of cleanliness.

>>2804022
1 USD bought 40 Turkish lira at the time of this menu picture.

>>2804019

If one thinks he never gets scammed it implies that he always gets scammed.

>>2807274
The entire point of gawking as a tourist is to get a feel for market prices. I did stop at an expensive restaurant that was completely empty. Their prices were fairly posted, but the menu offers were not intended for single diners. The staff wanted my business, but I had already ate. The small food conundrum - when you always eat small meals and street bites, you never have enough appetite for a proper large meal unless you deliberately abstain from eating for eight hours (very difficult in a country with tasty treats everywhere you look).

>>2804022
Do you consider this expensive or cheap??

>>2804024
>ESL
You're one to talk.

>>2807998
By Istanbul standards, it is a budget tier restaurant. 150 lira for fruit juice is standard at the touristy places. 370 lira for a beef kebab roll is the tourist price. I ate a chicken kebab roll at one of the tout restaurants for 120 lira. The owner and employees stand out in the street when they don't have customers and solicit passersby. I didn't see any sign of them ripping anyone off.
Prices were clearly posted and honored as well. That's more than I can say for Malaysia, where cashiers sometimes refused to honor the menu price when their computer gave a higher total.

BTW I ordered steamed bulgur and a carton of buttermilk and a green salad with red vinegar dressing. The menu total was 270, but the owner rang it up for 250.

In Plock, Poland I asked the owner of a neighboring business on the balcony where the entries were located to help me to check into a hostel by talking to the owner in Polish on the phone. He responded with "not my business" and shut his door.

In Istanbul I showed up, was directed to the wrong hotel, then after I returned to the right entrance gate, the bakery owner across the street was already calling the guesthouse owner to tell him a guest had arrived. I had no phone service BTW. The bakery was European tier in price, like almost everything in Istanbul. They even use the hideous EU stamps at immigration.

Not sure how honest the slophouses are. Often in Asia they let you take a little of this and a little of that, then charge you double or triple the normal meal price.

when will tourists stop visiting shitty parts of istanbul

>>2804018 (OP)
>Istanbul felt more Third World than European
Makes perfect sense, since turks aren't european.

>>2808040
When you tell them where the good parts are.

>>2804018 (OP)
who told you turkey is european

>>2808040
using chatgpt and asking good parts is not that hard. after that you can stay away from taksim or TARLABASI (which is a kurdish-gypsy-african slum)

>>2808258
>taksim
you can tell how things are going in Turkey by stopping by there at night, when I went there a few months ago the restaurants seemed dead and the prostitutes around the edges of the square were quite noticeable

>>2804019
>like 110 euros for a kilo of baclava
is baclava a code word for drugs or prostitutes?

>>2808286
Did you get solicited? I saw a fair number of girls in slutwear on the streets, but none of them appeared to be prostituting themselves.

>>2808298
Come to think of it, that was actually the price in the airport. In the city it was quite a bit cheaper, 1000 lira per kilo or about 21 euros.

>>2808258
My 24 hour spend would've tripled in the upscale areas. Taksim is sovlful and worth visiting, even though some of the sights can be shocking when coming from civilized Europe.

>>2808035
If you want good prices in Istanbul then you have to know people or, for food, go to places where they likely wont have a toilet, just a squatty potty.

>>2808373
Why the fuck would you think airport prices are representative? Are you retarded?
Also,
>not using lounges

>>2808372
>Did you get solicited?
No, I was just observing from a distance but they were clearly working by their behavior
>I saw a fair number of girls in slutwear on the streets
yeah, those are just normal turkish girls, even better in the coastal cities