A first-day travel vlog by Kara and Nate Buchanan documenting a day spent exploring Istanbul: sampling street food, visiting the Blue Mosque (which was temporarily closed for prayer then under partial construction), wandering the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, enjoying golden hour on a bridge with fishermen, and hunting for dinner street food. The tone is conversational, enthusiastic about food and architecture, and candid about travel mishaps (e.g., an unsatisfactory fish sandwich).
It is our first real full day in Istanbul and we are so excited. It is the most perfect weather. I just want to be outside all day long.
We're planning on going to see a few of the big sites like the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. But besides that we don't have many plans. It said just wander around and see what we can find in this incredible city.
Of course, the first thing on our agenda is food. These little bread stands are all over the city. They're so cute and they look so good. May I get one of these? Is it just playing?
Yes.
Thank you. I am so excited about this.
Such a great snack. It's just. It reminds me a lot of pretzel bread but it has these toasted sesame seeds on top. So good. This is gonna give me energy to walk around.
They also sell more than circle bread at those little kiosks. It's really like a mini bakery. I got some cinnamon filled pastry.
We call these circle breads but I think they have a different name.
This is, this is average. The circle bread's.
The Blue Mosque was supposed to be our first stop of the day, but it is closed for the next two hours for prayer time. So we're just gonna have to come back. Sounds like a great excuse to go find some kebabs to me. Y.
Not a bad place for lunch. We brought our Durham to the middle of the hippodrome for a little picnic and that's why we couldn't go into the mosque. Yum.
That is good stuff. Oh, that meat is so good. It's one of the most beautiful meat spinner things I've ever seen. I don't know what you call that.
We spent long enough enjoying the sunshine and the hippodrome after lunch. That Blue Mosque is open now.
We actually came here last time we were in Istanbul but the inside was closed. We weren't actually able to go in it. And now we get to.
The first thing that you'll notice about the blue moss from the outside is it's not actually blue. Apparently it gets its name from the thousands of blue hand painted tiles on the inside.
Color.
The inside of the Blue Mosque is definitely beautiful. I love the tiles. But unfortunately it's still under construction. So they have all these fake pillars and there's this big ceiling blocking the full experience. So it's kind of sad. But at least we got to see one last time.
I really like that they use the blue scaffolding for the construction to match the rest of the interior. Next up we are heading to the Grand Bazaar. And we had planned on stopping for a traditional Turkish coffee.
But those are just so tiny.
These are so American. So huge and American.
I already had three Turkish coffees for breakfast.
All the guys here are super creative with how they get your attention. There's been a lot of the standard, excuse me, where are you from? But I just heard one of my all time favorites. He said, excuse me, how can I sell you something that you don't need?
He said, how can I help you spend your money? What do I have to say?
I just really enjoyed like the truth behind that one.
And then if you say, no thank you, they laugh at themselves. It's really playful.
Yeah, they are really fun here. So inside of the Grand Bazaar There are over 4,000 shops and it's one of the largest covered markets in the world. It's super impressive.
We got to come here on our tour last time, but we didn't have very long so we're just embracing it.
We've been wandering around for at least an hour. I'm not even sure that we've scratched the surface though. No, we keep ending up seeing the same shops. Like somehow we're just walking in circles.
It's just so grand. Grand Bazaar. Seriously though, the building is beautiful. I love all the arches in the old bazaars. Like the original bricks. Amazing.
Probably shouldn't be doing this in the.
Middle of the whole thing.
We finally pulled ourselves out of the market. It's been at least two hours, but the wandering continues. We're going to make our way towards the water now.
We accidentally found the spice bar.
It smells so good and there's so many people.
It is absolutely beautiful right now. The sun is setting. It's turning into golden hour. We're on this bridge. There's all these old men fishing.
They are adorable. Istanbul is seriously turning into one of my favorite places. I feel like it's one of those cities that just, just has everything. Like there's culture, the architecture is beautiful, the water is beautiful. The Asia is right there. Like all those white buildings on the coast. It is just the coolest.
Now we're gonna go find some dinner, which is another thing we love about Istanbul, the food. Wow. This is like shooting at the list.
And it feels amazing. I think that's really helping.
That really, really helps.
Sweating.
It's just it's been 116 degrees the past few days for us, so this feels fantastic.
We're getting fish sandwiches. Thanks. That was fast.
They were selling these underneath the bridge. So we're having Our second picnic of the day with the fishermen. It has been such a great first day in Istanbul.
We were totally just planning to end the vlog there, but we were scared some of you would take this as a recommendation. These fish sandwiches are not good. It's. The fish is super fishy and there's massive bones, like, they're way too big to eat. And how are you supposed to pick the bones out when it's inside of a sandwich? We're going to find something else.
I was eating the Bridecon's garden.
Okay. Things just got really serious. There's one other place that we saw today that looks really yummy. These guys were just shooting, shaving off this pork that was being freshly cooked on the street. We have to find them for dinner. But as you can see, everywhere is closing and we're scared they're not going to be there. And Istanbul is basically one big hill. So I'm running uphill for the food.
It's not like I'm getting.
Nope.
No one is around. All of these were open earlier.
Oh.
What time you close?
Oh.
Where are they from?
America.
America. Donald Trump.
Yeah.
Very good, very good, very good.
Very good. George Bush. Bill Clinton. Madame Problem?
Very good. Yes.
We love Istanbul.
Nice to meet you. See you tomorrow. Good night.
