Galata Kulesi | JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook

It was warm in Istanbul | İstanbul when the sounds of the town woke me up. Since I was up early, I decided to find the Bozdoğan Kemeri (Aqueduct of the Grey Falcon), part of the Aqueduct of Valens Valens Su Kemeri. It was built using brick and stone in the 4th century in order to bring water to Constantinople. Construction started under the reign of Constantine II and finished during the reign of Valens, and the structure was in use under the Ottoman period. The Bozdoğan Kemeri bridge is 971 metres long, and its maximum height is around 30 metres. Today, it stands over a busy road, with cars running underneath.

I went back to the hotel for pick-up, which today happened on time. I had signed up to the other day trip offered to me at the airport Estambul Bósforo (55 €). My hopes were not too high, but at least I met with the nice ladies from the day before. This time around, the group was bigger, so everything was a bit more chaotic. Our first stop was Süleymaniye Mosque Süleymaniye Camii, an Ottoman imperial mosque commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent to his imperial architect Mimar Sinan around 1550. The mosque has four minarets with a total of ten balconies. The interior is decorated with medallions, writings, geometrical decorations, and beautiful stained-glass windows. Outside, there is a cemetery with the mausoleum of Sultan Suleiman and his wife Roxelana.

Süleymaniye Mosque

After the mosque complex, the bus headed out towards the Asian side of Istanbul for a panoramic viewpoint up Çamlica Hill Çamlıca Tepesi, which implied getting stuck in traffic for a long time again and driving past a lot of interesting buildings – visiting any of those would have been a better use of our time.

View of Istanbul from Çamlica Hill

We went back to the bus for the boat ride, which despite being advertised as a Bosphorus trip, was only up and down the Golden Horn Altın Boynuz for about an hour. At first, I tried to pay attention to the guide as he explained things, but I got bored pretty quickly. This was not a good sign, considering this one guide was the one who was to take me onto the tour around the country…

Bosphoros boat ride

For lunch, we had been asked to choose either bream or chicken. I had ordered the chicken because I had a feeling I could not trust a random restaurant in Istanbul… I was right. The bream turned out to be sea bass. Again, food was nothing remarkable. Then, we walked towards the New Mosque Yeni Cami, which was the next visit, but we did not get to go into that one for reasons that escape me. Instead, we were taken into the Spice Bazaar or Egyptian Bazaar Mısır Çarşısı, for a demonstration inside a particular shop. I do wonder how many and how much commissions go into decisions like that.

New Mosque Istanbul

Egyptian bazaar Istanbul

This was the end of the day trip, around 17:00, since the guide had once again stated that “your hotels are close, no need for the bus”. I said goodbye to the nice ladies, and headed out towards the Grand Bazaar Kapalı Çarşı, described as a “network of indoor souks and market streets”. It is actually one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, and it has thousands of shops – literally. It dates back from 1455, just after the Fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Ottomans. It was an interesting structure, but I only found trinkets and souvenirs, and it was packed with people.

Grand Bazaar

Thus, after crossing out the Grand Bazaar from the list, I headed towards the university İstanbul Üniversitesi, my reference for the metro stop Veznecıler. From there, I could take a train towards Taksim Square Taksim Meydanı, the gateway to Independence Avenue İstiklal Caddesi, on the other side of the Golden Horn but still in the European side. The area is a tourist hub with shops, fast food places, and ice cream vendors who play around before they serve you the ice cream cones. One of the highlights of the avenue is the “nostalgic tramway” İstanbul nostaljik tramvayı, a revival or heritage tramline with tiny cars, built from memories and photographies. It is not a novelty thing for tourists, but an actual working system that goes up and down the avenue, line T2. I was happy to be able to see it, the car was packed – mostly by tourists though…

Taksim square

At the end of İstiklal Caddesi, stands Galata Tower Galata Kulesi, a former watchtower, now a museum with an observation deck. The origin of the tower dates back from 1204 though the original tower was destroyed and rebuilt in the Romanesque style in 1350. At that point, it was the highest building in the city. At the moment, it is almost 63 metres high, with nine floors, and a renewed roof.

Nostalgic tram and Galata Tower

Afterwards, I caught the underground at the nearest stop – though I was a little bit tempted by the nostalgic tram – and I headed back to the hotel. I settled the bill for the water bottles I had bought and went up to my room, where I decided to order the same dinner as the evening before – kebap and yoghurt. I then had a shower and packed, because pick-up was at 6:00 the next morning. Good thing that I had found a vending machine in the underground system that sold canned coffee, even if it was “almond flavoured”.

I had a Turkish Airlines flight at 12:00, and a strong recommendation to get to the airport three hours in advance. Back in July 2024, the outage of Microsoft systems caused chaos at the airport, and apparently the system has not completely recovered. Thus, my travel agent insisted on the three-hour margin. Since the flight was not an insane time, my parent had offered to drive me to the airport, but they “don’t believe in being at the airport three hours beforehand”. In the end, I negotiated a drop off a bit after 9:00.

I got to the baggage drop counter, which should have been a fast affair, but it was held up by a passenger who was checking in firearms – I was in the plane with a party of hunters. It was a bit creepy, because at some point they opened the gun cases for everyone to see, in the middle of the check-in line. Finally, Turkish Airlines opened a second counter while someone dealt with this traveller. I had my boarding pass, and my luggage was about 13 kg. I had packed an extra pair of shoes, long sleeved T-shirts, jeans and a couple of sweatshirts, along with a long cardigan that can be used as outerwear, blanket or even pillow as the situation requires – and I knew there were a lot of bus hours to come.

After checking in the luggage, I went through security and passport control, and found a seat until it was time to board. The boarding process was extremely efficient and fast, and we took off on time. We got lunch on the plane, and there was on board entertainment, so time passed quickly. Upon reaching Istanbul International Airport, there was a passport control upon exiting the plane, but I’m not sure what they were checking for, as everyone got waved through. Most passengers went onto connecting flights, and I headed off to immigration. I obviously chose the wrong line, as it took me a long time to clear it. I got my passport stamped – a brand new passport, and they stamped it, upside down, on page number 19, because why bother, I guess.

Welcome to Istanbul

After clearing immigration – I was not even aware of customs – I had to go to a particular gate to meet the representative from Oxin Travel outside the airport. I had bought an e-sim for my phone to have “unlimited internet for ten days”, so I activated that on my way, and it worked very well. When I went out the gate, I was supposed to look for a person with the travel agent’s logo, but I was surprised that there was actually a woman screaming my name. I was the only passenger on the tour that came on that flight.

She took me to the car park, where she left me alone to find our driver. When she came back, she told me about Istanbul’s day trips and sent me the information via WhatsApp, and recommended stuff to do. I booked both day trips because the whole point was having to plan little and save mental energy. Hindsight being 20/20, I regret that choice.

The drive to Istanbul | İstanbul took just above one hour, 20 minutes of that were spent trying to get out of the airport. It was already dark when we arrived in town, and I was able to catch a glimpse of Galata Tower Galata Kulesi. We reached three-star Hotel Bi·setun around 19:00 maybe, and the representative and the driver left to have me do the check-in on my own – good thing that she had confirmed on the phone that the hotel was expecting me, because the way we pulled into the area made it look a bit shady.

During check-in, the hotel kept my passport, and that was a bit creepy. When I got to the room, I found that the hotel had a nice system where you could order food through a special webpage – it was like an outsourced room service that could be paid by credit card, which was extremely convenient. I ordered a pacanga pastry paçanga böreği, similar to a quesadilla, and a lentil soup mercimek Çorbası.

I then went down to reception to buy a bottle of water and retrieve my passport. After the food arrived, I ate, had a shower and settled down to sleep. It was a rather uneventful journey, to be honest, but somehow it did not feel… smooth. The bit about being the only person picked up at the airport was weird, and communicating with the representative via WhatsApp a bit awkward.