Living in Istanbul like a Local

Where we Lived

In August 2022, we gratefully put down roots and unpacked our clothes for a month in a third story seaview apartment on the outskirts of Istanbul in a community called Dariča. The “c” is pronounced as a “j” by the way. Since we had already experienced staying in the city, we splurged on amenities and comfort over proximity to center as we had planned to spend a lot of time resetting and regrouping while here. The cost for our Airbnb unit was $783 for the month, and included a full apartment set-up, indoor and outdoor pool, sauna and gym.

We had no A/C so we had to manage airflow with fans and by closing shades, as the afternoon sun flooded in the apartment. Our fully stocked kitchen had an oven, a FULL fridge and dishwasher. This is the first time we had EVER had a dishwasher in an Airbnb so you know we were living large ?

By fully stocked, I mean enough Turkish tea glasses for all 12 of our unmade friends, and plenty of little platters for Turkish breakfasts. What she forgot was basic things. Like a cutting board.

She made up for this by stocking the kitchen with water, mineral water, food, snacks, teas, coffee and toiletries. Aybuke, a Turkish-American living in New York, was an amazing hostess even from afar!

What the Airbnb ad did not mention is the beautiful mosque and sunset over the sea we would receive. While we absolutely loved witnessing the call to prayer, considering we didn’t know there was a mosque plopped out our window, we were a bit shocked to hear it at 5 am, after our delayed 1 am arrival into Istanbul. ? For those that aren’t familiar, the call to prayer happens five times per day, at least in Turkiye. This particular one, we enjoyed very much, but the early wake up call would take some adapting.

One of the pools, right downstairs, which Mandy used daily while living here.

One of our many meals on our balcony with overly priced, and not too delicious, Turkish wine. We were so spoiled from France…

Where we were located. We were about a one hour train ride into the Anatolian (Asian) side of Istanbul. It costs $1.50 for both of us, which is quite a steal. While in Turkiye, the USD to Turkish Lira was insanely strong, but didn’t feel so affordable because of their inflation, which basically balanced it out. The unofficial inflation rate was 171% although the government claimed 79%. This sure made the 9% in the US seem like peanuts. We really felt for our friends?

But, all this would have to wait a week. Because on our second full day in Istanbul, we discovered we had our second round of COVID-19. Fortunately, thanks to our vaccines, it only lasted a few days and was relatively mild as opposed to the two weeks we dealt with the first time in Cambodia, March 2020.

Dealing with Health Needs

As mentioned, one of the downsides of living where we lived, was that it took us about two hours by train and metro to get from our Anatolian apartment into the European side of the city. We hadn’t really planned to go too often, but it turned out the orthopedic foot doctor our friend Sila recommended was in another continent. ? One day, naturally for the first day in the two weeks since we had been there, it decided to monsoon on the final 15 minute walk to pick up our custom insoles we’d purchased.

One of us showed up to our appointment looking like a drowned rat.* One of us chose to use a sensible umbrella. Both of us had shoes that had puddles inside, which is not really an ideal time to slip in $150 inserts. Wowsa, the millions of cats in this city must have been VERY grumpy that day.

*Speaking of drowned rats, we saw one of Greg’s friends (ok, maybe a mouse) floating down the river street while we tried to wait it out…

Greg said he’s sorry he took the raincoats out of the backpack and that he makes fun of Mandy’s umbrella. He’s from Portland after all.

When we arrived at the appointment, the sweet nurses immediately brought us loads of towels, slippers and of course, Turkish Tea. Mandy had her other (dry) pair of shoes with her so she was able to do the fitting with her new inserts. Greg’s would have to wait until his solo pair dried in 10 hours.

Saying Güle güle (goodbye) to the sweet nurse that followed us around with a mop and brought us all the goodies. Custom inserts! Finally! And for the bargain price of $150. We’ve heard they’re $400 or more in the States ?

We celebrated our victory, still feeling like we got off a whitewater raft, at a Lokantasi…the most traditional and cheapest way to devour Turkish food.

Our final selection, where we stuffed ourselves for 184 Lira, or about $10. The best thing about Turkish food is the versatility…savory, salty, meaty, vegetariany, creamy, and loaded with lots of healthy goodness and vegetables. One reason it’s one of our favorite world cuisines.

On a different day, it was good thing we left for our appointment an hour early….because Istanbul was turning Mandy into a crazy cat lady. While in Turkiye, she officially carried a bag of Kibble with her and stopped every five minutes to feed a new cat. They’re pretty hard to resist because they’re everywhere, quite sociable and came running for a handout as soon as you reached into your bag. In this megacity of 15 million people, there are thought to be 130,000 dogs and 125,000 cats roaming free. But, before anyone starts feeling super sad for the cats, know that Mandy is not the only one feeding them. For being a city, the cats (and dogs, although probably less so) are actually very well tolerated, loved and fed in this part of the world. Dogs seemed to be tagged and neutered/spayed, but unfortunately the kitties do not.

If you don’t feed them, they’ll find a way anyhow! This one might have been eating too much dog food…he looks like he’s morphing into something else!!

The benches on the streets are as much for the cats at the people. This one, outside of our appointment, tried to hitch a ride right in our bag.

We were sad to say goodbye, but had to head upstairs to Ahenk Laboratory for our bloodwork. Yay! Truth be told, it was the best experience we’ve ever had. Mandy got a full work up and Greg got his bi-annual thyroid test. Cost was $100 and zero trauma. Our nurse, right, jabbed us both easily on the first time!

Bonus: Our results were available later that day a simple online portal on which we clicked right in and didn’t have to make an account.

And when we exited, there was “our” cat. He had gone through a locked door, and up two flights of stairs to find us ?

Time for our own kibble! A traditional Turkish breakfast with cheeses, veg, olives bread and Turkish tea at left and Menemen at right…Turkish scrambled eggs with tomatoes and peppers. Breakfast, in the quite expensive Kadiköy neighborhood, set us back 160 Liras or $8.80.

Another thing we had to deal with in Istanbul was Greg’s tummy troubles, which started with a local clinic and ended at much more comfortable private hospital called Avicenna International.

The local clinic, called Medford Saglik Kabini, which was in our neighborhood of Dariça, was a very sketchy experience. Greg had been feeling really weird all week…light-headed, some strange neck pain and also bloating. He had been drinking a ton of water and all systems were moving mostly normally.

When we went in, there was a girl at the desk who called someone else, telling us to have a seat. It was very informal. About 30 minutes later, two “doctors” came in, although they seemed very casually dressed and spoke no English. We went into the room and they asked what his symptoms were, which we communicated all through Google Translate.

One of the doctors poked around on Greg’s stomach and then said they needed to draw blood for infection. So we hesitantly let them and they said they would call us in a couple hours to come to our house with a “home treatment.” We thought this was a bit strange. Mandy asked the security girl at the our complex if house calls were common in Turkey, who said they weren’t, which was confirmed by Sila.

Anyhow, we felt weird about letting them in our apartment, rightfully so, so we met them downstairs. The “doctor” had his lab results in his hand. The times and dates matched up, but the top part of the page had been cut off and there was no indication it was Greg’s. No name or passport number or anything. The “doctor” said there was no infection but that they needed to do a treatment because “he’s dehydrated,” wanting to pump him full of fluids and give him Dramamine, saying he also had vertigo. But, he didn’t. We know what vertigo feels like. And also, Greg had been drinking a ton of water and peeing regularly so none of this made sense.

We told them we weren’t comfortable with this and he couldn’t believe we didn’t want the “treatment.” When we asked what we owed for the blood test. He said, “$100.” We laughed and said “no way,” asking him what the price was in Liras. He said 1700 Liras. We said no, again, and eventually he said the price is 500 Lira (about $25).

So, we gave them the money and when we got back to the room we further realized that the test results definitely probably weren’t even his. Soooo…..sketchy. But at least we were only out $25 and not $100 and Greg hadn’t been pumped full of god knows what.

After this, we had learned our lesson and decided to go to reputable Avicenna International Hospital. Here we were matched with an English speaking coordinator and translator who guided us through the entire process. Greg saw a real gastroenterologist and had to have more bloodwork and an endoscopy, which showed he indeed had an infection and a bacteria called “H-Pylori” had found its way into his intestinal tract. Once we got to Avicenna, the doctor and process were smooth. But we were out $863 for everything. Still a drop in the bucket for what it would cost out of pocket for an endoscopy in the States ($2800+).

Healing and Celebrating

While in Istanbul, Mandy celebrated her 42nd birthday and also made tremendous progress with her foot pain and health!! The sea and fresh air of Istanbul was incredibly healing and it took about 25 minutes to walk there from our place. Walk!! She was walking again!!

For her birthday, we walked to the beach on the Sea of Marmaray and celebrated with a Turkish snackle box. This included: cashews, grape syrup wrapped walnuts (which we call Georgian Snickers because it’s what the locals call them in Georgia, tomatoes and Beyaz Peynir cheese (like feta) with pomegranate syrup, Turkish roquefi (rip off Roquefort, but still delicious), olives and peaches.

A night at the beach!

She also got her first birthday cake in many many years because she got to celebrate a joint birthday with her good friend, Sila! Sila models her “embarrassing” glass of American Budweiser, which we just shook our heads at, while her cousin photo bombed in the background.

We also got to celebrate a traditional Turkish street wedding…right from our balcony! Although fantastic to observe, we’ve become a bit scarred from events like this happening right outside our window because they typically last until the wee hours of the morning. (Will always remember 30 hours of torture in Ethiopia ?) However, this simply provided evening entertainment and buttoned up neatly at 11 pm. How considerate! More points for the Turks

Shopping & Cooking

One of the simple reasons we loved living in Turkey was access to high quality ingredients at truly affordable prices. From the weekly market to the speciality stores to the regular grocery stores, shopping, and cooking was a true joy.

Also, we were certainly no longer in lands of recognizing the language. English was far less spoken in the suburbs than in the city, so we’re back to miming, and using the bits of Turkish that we have picked up, including the basic pleasantries, some numbers and importantly, “Anlamıyorum.” (I don’t understand.) Most people were surprised to learn we were Americans, not Russians, as this is the predominant (white-looking) foreign nationality around.

The weekly outdoor farmer’s market is by far the most economical way to shop. Using our pigeon Turkish (ha!) we received all of this market booty. It appears as though we got the local rate as well because this all cost 60 Lira or a little over $3.

Our most beloved speciality shop was a less than ten minute walk and is called “Peynirci Baba” which means “Cheese Daddy.” They had massive vats of stuffed peppers, stuffed grape leaves, olives, sun dried tomatoes and other fresh or hand made ingredients. Everyone soon knew our faces when we came in, and smiled a lot as they dropped samples into our hands. Although we don’t understand each other other, the pointing method works well here. Our absolute favorite is the grape leaves which cost us about 34 Liras ($1.87) for half a kilo (1 lb.)

The olive selection. It was impossible to narrow down our favorites. Olives were about a $1 for a quarter kilo.

The nut butter selection. Or, honey, straight from the comb if it floats your boat.

And although the cheese at daddy’s shop didn’t compare to France, they were still pretty divine, although some of the samples were way too salty.

Fresh milk straight (from the machine?)

Another score we were elated to find at Cheese Daddy was Ceviz Reçili, which are candied walnuts. We’ve been dreaming these since we had them in Armenia. They are made by taking whole walnuts, softening their shells with slaked lime, then candying and yes, popping the whole thing in your food hole. The result is sweet, rich, and complex. This part of the world sure knows what to do with their nuts.

Our booty from Cheese Daddy: 376 Liras or about $20. Included way too much plastic. The biggest downfall.

A “regular” grocery store.

Our very first shopping trip (before we found all the good stuff). 430 Lira ($23.17)

Grabbing lunch at a local lokantasi. $6 for both of us.

Our regular produce market. Seasonal peaches are about $.15 each and you can get a watermelon for a dollar. An avocado, like many places will set you back a dollar too. We have been trying to communicate to the teenage boy who weighs our produce that you don’t have to put each individual piece of food in a plastic bag. By trip 3-4, he’s finally getting it?? Side note: ?? is ok to do here but ? is not, as it implies homosexuality?

Green cart at a regular market. Most bundles of greens or herbs cost 10 Liras or $.55.

Natural olive oil soap: also 10 Liras ($.55)

A nut and dried fruit store. These were EVERYWHERE and also a fantastic value. Probably the cheapest place in the world to find nuts we’ve found so far.

Thanks to these ingredients, while in Istanbul, we were eating mostly a simple Mediterranean diet at home, like Greek Salad and grape leaves

And at least a glass a day of Aryan, or Kefir. Many people throughout this part of the world consider it to be one of the healthiest drinks you can have. We didn’t really know the difference between the two… Kefir is made of milk, ayran is made of yogurt and overall from what we’ve read, Aryan seems to have more health benefits. To us, it also tastes better with a slightly tangy/sour/salty taste from the natural yogurt. You will almost always find aryan served with doners or kebabs.