Istanbul: 5 Days of Chaos, Culture, and CATS!
Updated: 3 hours ago
Istanbul was loud, beautiful, chaotic, delicious, overwhelming, and absolutely crawling with cats. Over five days, I wandered markets, rode ferries, got mildly lost, ate very well, questioned some transportation decisions, and tried to keep up with a city that seemed determined to hit every sense at once.
This isn’t really an Istanbul guide. It’s more a record of what I saw, what surprised me, and the bits of mayhem I don’t want to forget.
Istanbul Did Not Believe in a Soft Launch
From the moment we arrived, Istanbul was operating at full volume: traffic and horns, people moving in every direction, food smells mixing with cigarette smoke, bright shopfronts, steep streets, and the call to prayer drifting over the city. Quietly easing us in was apparently not part of the plan.
And then there were the cats.
So many cats! On sidewalks, in shopfronts, stretched out in patches of sun, and wandering around like they had somewhere important to be. I had no idea about the Istanbul cat population, so obviously I started counting.
TRAVEL TIP #1: GET AN ISTANBULKART
Think of it as Istanbul's metro card, except it works on metros, trams, buses, ferries, and apparently even some public bathrooms. That last one came in handy when I had no Turkish Lira and nature had other plans. Using an Istanbulkart also costs less per ride than tapping in and out with a credit card.
Bazaars, Bargaining, and Directional Dismissal
The Grand Bazaar is basically a maze packed with gold-plated jewelry, beautiful rugs, cat-themed kitsch, and about a million other things! I mostly tried to keep my feet moving while my eyes struggled to take everything in. Every shopkeeper seemed to be vying for your attention (and your money), and I kept thinking about how people have been doing some version of this here for centuries.
The original plan was a solo bazaar day. Instead, I ended up with an Italian friend for company, an unexpected detour to Sultanahmet, and a lesson in haggling. He gave one shopkeeper a hard time over the price of a pair of shoes, eventually wore him down, and bought them. As we walked away, the shopkeeper looked at me, nodded toward my friend, and simply said, “Mafioso.” 😆
Later, I spotted the water at the end of a side street, got excited, and confidently suggested we head that way. After a very long walk downhill, we discovered there was no way to reach the waterfront from there and had to turn around and climb all the way back up.
I was then fired from directions.
TRAVEL TIP #2: DOWNLOAD MAPS BEFORE YOU GO
Offline maps are worth downloading before you start wandering, especially when streets twist, hills intervene, and the water you can clearly see turns out to be completely inaccessible from where you are. Future you will appreciate the backup.
Going Solo
By the time I started exploring on my own, Istanbul was beginning to feel a little more familiar. I stopped trying so hard to figure it out and just went with it. There were still hills, wrong turns, crowds, and some questionable navigation choices, but by then they felt less like problems and more like part of the experience.
Public transit was generally easy enough to figure out, but the tram occasionally chose violence. One ride was so packed that personal space stopped being a concept and I gained a whole new appreciation for deodorant.
At the time, it was awful. In hindsight, it’s pretty funny, and felt a little like Istanbul saying, “You wanted the full experience, right?”
Galata was the opposite: a medieval tower, a coffee stop, and an unexpectedly amazing slice of Marlenka – a layered honey cake you drizzle with milk. I even had a sleeping kitty companion at my table!
As I left the coffee shop, "The Real Slim Shady" started playing. Later the same day, I spotted a guy on the metro with a Slim Shady patch on his backpack.
I'm not saying Eminem was following me through Istanbul, but twice in one day felt a little suspicious.
TRAVEL TIP #3: PET THE CATS, BUT CARRY HAND SANITIZER
Istanbul's street cats are everywhere, and plenty are happy to come say hello. Just remember they're still stray animals. Wash or sanitize your hands afterward, and definitely stop petting when if the kitty starts getting spicy. Lesson Learned.
Taking to the Water
The ferry gave us a completely different view of Istanbul. From the water, you really get the sense of how the city stretches across two continents with Europe on one side of the Bosphorus Strait and Asia on the other. BTW, Bosphorus still sounds to me like either something you don’t want to catch or a radioactive element on the periodic table.
Crossing the water felt like more than just getting from one neighborhood to another. From the ferry, you could really see how huge the city is, with mosques, minarets, hills, and neighborhoods stretching along both sides of the water.
The Asian side felt different almost immediately: more color, more street art, lively markets, and somehow a little less intense. There were the random flashes of Japan in the shops with tiny trinkets, cute characters, and all kinds of kawaii stuff that felt instantly familiar after living there for a few years.
It was a funny little reminder of Japan, just with far fewer vending machines.
More importantly, I successfully navigated us to another continent, so I considered my directional license officially reinstated.
TRAVEL TIP #4: TAKE THE TISSUES TO THE LOO WITH YOU
Having tissues, wet wipes, and a mini towel in your daypack is only useful if you actually bring the daypack to the loo with you. Ask me how I know. 😬
Faith and Curiosity
The call to prayer became part of Istanbul's soundtrack almost immediately. I heard it several times a day, but was surprised that I never actually saw anyone stop to pray.
That became one of those useful reminders to rein in Judgmental Jackie. Curiosity is usually better than assumption, and I learned that prayer happens within a window of time, rather than everyone stopping the moment the call begins.
I visited the Blue Mosque and several beautiful churches, seeing firsthand how different faiths have been side-by-side in Istanbul for a very long time.
Five days definitely didn't make me an expert, but I left with a better understanding of some of the traditions and beliefs I was seeing around me.
TRAVEL TIP #5: ASK BEFORE ASSUMING
Ted Lasso had a good point. Some of the best parts of travel come from noticing what feels unfamiliar and asking why before forming an opinion on it. This is a work in progress for me.
Istanbul: Real and Raw
Istanbul felt unusually unapologetic about showing you the good, the bad, and the messy.
There was beauty everywhere, but also poverty, grime, noise, and people doing whatever they could to get by. More than once, I saw someone going through rubbish looking for food.
And yet, food and water bowls for street cats were everywhere. There were even machines where people could buy food for them. That contrast stuck with me.
The Turkish flags were hard to miss, too. They were everywhere. I don't know enough to say what that means, but the pride in the country felt very visible.
For a city that relies so heavily on tourism, Istanbul never felt overly polished for visitors, and I appreciate that. Five days isn't enough to truly understand a place, but it did feel like we were seeing the real city, not just the Instagram version of it.
The Little Things
A lot of my favorite travel memories aren't the big landmarks.
They're the weird little things I notice along the way. On this trip, that included a very direct anti-manspreading sticker on the metro, a pub with an unexpectedly creative spelling of Mississippi, a Batman Mini Market sign, ancient ruins, casually sitting beside a modern street, a quiet park tucked into the middle of the city, and a whole cat family appearing out of nowhere.
And then there was the food.
There was the Marlenka cake near Galata, proper chai after dinner, surprisingly good chicken sandwiches, plenty of coffee, and my dear, sweet baklava. Sticky, flaky, and entirely worth making room for. 🤤 Not every meal was a home run (looking at you, surprise curry fries), but there was always something new to try.
Honestly, these are bits I'm most likely to remember.
TRAVEL TIP #6: TRY THE THINGS
You don't have to love everything, but how else will you know? Order the weird drink, try the pastry you can't pronounce, and accept that occasionally this is how you end up with surprise curry fries.
One Last Bit of Mayhem
Istanbul apparently wanted one final word before we left.
The taxi ride to the airport involved aggressive traffic, questionable multitasking, and enough lurching to require a motion-sickness patch. Our driver was texting, talking on the phone, and repeatedly scratching something on the back of his head while somehow also attempting to navigate Istanbul traffic. 🫣
Then came security, immigration explanations, passport checks, more security, more passport checks, and a surprise gate-side inspection. I was patted down, wanded, and thoroughly searched while every single thing in my backpack was pulled out and inspected.
By the time I was hurriedly stuffing everything back into my bag so I could actually board the plane, I was thinking Istanbul travel was not for the faint of heart. This felt a little too on the nose when, once we were in the air, another passenger thought he might be having a heart attack. For a few minutes, I genuinely thought we were about to make an emergency landing in Germany.
We didn't, thankfully. He was waiting for an ambulance after we deplaned, and I really hope he's ok.
Istanbul managed to squeeze in one last bit of mayhem before letting us go.
TRAVEL TIP #7: LEAVE EXTRA TIME FOR THE ISTANBUL AIRPORT
There may be more security checks and passport checks than you're used to. Give yourself plenty of time so the airport mayhem stays mildly stressful instead of full-blown panic.
Istanbul By The Numbers
🗓️ 5 Days
🐈 92 cats
👣 79,581 steps
🍰 4 incredible desserts
🎵 2 Eminem encounters
🤌 1 "mafioso" accusation
😼 1 spicy kitty encounter
☕️ Countless cups of coffee
Total Mayhem Rating
What I'll Take With Me
Istanbul was a lot, in pretty much every way possible.
I'll remember the noise, the colors, the ferries, the markets, the calls to prayer, the cats, and how often beauty and hardship seemed to sit right next to each other.
It also feels like a pretty fitting place to start Mild Mayhem Goes Places. I got lost, counted cats, ate some excellent things, made some questionable navigation choices, and came home with more stories that I expected – as well as a cheap evil eye bracelet!
We definitely caught the Bosphorus, after all, and I'm very glad we did. Istanbul was chaotic, fascinating, educational, and unlike anywhere else I've been.
Teşekkürler, Istanbul. 🧿
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