101-Guide to your 1st week in Istanbul

Hello everyone, welcome to my very first blog!
Let me introduce myself in one sentence, My name is Zeina Atamish, 24
soon to be 25 (ugh) years old, MBA holder and a chemical Engineer, been living in Istanbul for one year and a half and killing it.

killing it in Fashion Week.

This blog will guide you through your 1st week in Istanbul if you were a student, a solo traveller or basically anyone :D. It will include; BASIC Turkish language words, things you must have to move around and basic enjoyable activities.

My brother and Örtaköy Cami

First things first!! Turkish words you need to know!! ( I spend my 1st week saying thank you in Turkish cause I didn’t know anything, ugh struggle is real people, struggle is real):

Merhaba : Hello ( use it with everyone!! like I did ).

Türkçe bilmiyorum: I don’t know Turkish, which believe me, YOU WILL NEED IT. In case you don’t know, Turkish people don’t speak English :)))) * though some of them do.

Cute Fish Street seller posing for a Pic.

Ne Kadar: this is used to ask about the price of anything. USE it and use a calculator or your fingers to understand the numbers, cute right!

Nerede: this word is used to ask about a place; for example: Sultan ahmet nerede? add the place you want to go and this word after it, they will have their own way to explain the road to you 😀 which mean HANDS!

and Of course my 1st word that I learned here, Teşekkürler which means Thank you.

Move on to the second thing that we are going to mention here THINGS you need to have to move around and believe me you need them! BADLY:

1st : Istanbul Kart, which is as shown in the picture, a normal card that is used in every transportation ( Bus, Metro , Mertobus, tramvay and ferries), you can buy those cards from any newspaper places (like in the picture ) which will cost around 6 TL (1.5 $). You can fill it in any machine near the metros, ferries, etc.. one ride will cost you 2.45 TL (0.5 $) the 2nd ride will be half the price.

2nd: APPLICATIONS!!!!! Istanbul has two main used application for moving around; Trafi (Click to download ) and mooveit (Click to download ). They will both show you the way ( I mean if you get lost in the middle of no where with Turkish people all around you, no English! those apps will be your lover).

Finally, you are visiting Istanbul, the city that never sleeps, a beautiful lovely city where both history and present meet. I am pretty sure there is a million page on google that show you the 10 best places you should visit and I am telling you visit them all! But for me, the beautiful things to do in this city are drinking Chai (Tea) with a sea view, walking in old streets, feeding the cats (Istanbul cats and dogs are the best) and mostly feel the culture and the history.

At the end, Thank you for spending minutes of your day to read my article and I will keep posting things I find interesting. Please leave me a comment or send me an email if you need any kind of help in Istanbul.

Disclaimer, All the pictures here are my pictures and were taken by me.