Istanbul, first day

We almost missed our flight due to our wake up call not calling but we made it.  Phew.  What an incredible urban jungle where literally east meets west.  The next few days is going to be full of serious walking.

After getting our bearings, drinking a cup of coffee and dropping off our luggage we began.  We decided to stay in the neighborhood of where we are located.  We are staying at the Soho House that just opened a few months ago.  We walked down to the Galata Bridge to find a good sandwich and see the fish market.  Most of the market had closed for the day but there were still some stragglers selling the rest of their wares.

There was a guy right before you enter the market with a open grill making sandwiches that were calling our name.

Grill mackerel on a long roll filled with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, spicy red peppers and a splash of lemon juice and salt over the top.  Perfect.

We continued down the waterfront staying on the north side and began to walk into the neighborhood.  It is a pretty cute hip neighborhood.  This store is called Mae Zae.  It could have been right out Brooklyn.  An assortment of everything you might think you need.  There motto is why not now.  Love that.

We started to get deeper into the Beyoglu neighborhood (also known as Pera) and make our way up the hill.  Super cute corner book and coffee shop that was dove into.  Thought this was a funny title for a book.

Now we began our journey up the hill stopping at stores and galleries.  The PG Gallery exhibiting an artist Alyse Wilson.

Next door was Hane 78.  Home furnishings.

TifFix.  More items for the home.

A super cool record shop called Velvet Hole Ground.

An store straight out of Etsy.  Home made products from Istanbul.

Galeri Apel.

We got to the top of the long rambling street and found ourself on the main street of this area.  Extremely wide with stores, restaurants and galleries on both sides.  It was like we came upon civilization.  We went to SALT that is a small privately funded museum.

Then we ended up in a building that appeared to have a variety of galleries in it.  We only ended up in Galleri Zilberman with an exhibit from Alpin Arda Bagcik.  Paintings of major happenings after WWII.

Another gallery called Space Liner.  I got a kick out of this small piece of a supposed kitchen.

Our next stop was the Pera Museum.  There were two exhibits.  One of Grayson Perry and the other of Cecil Beaton.  Both great.  Perry’s work is modern and really unique.  He is known for his ceramics.

He is also known for his tapestries.  These were all about different classes and their tastes.  Quite an exhibit.   The Cecil Beaton was hard to take photos of.  It is just incredible how many iconic people he photographed.  Incredible show.

Took a seat at the cafe for a little rest before making our way back to the hotel before dinner.