girls trip to istanbul ¦ turkish food, thrifting & exploring the city

Hello guys and welcome back to my channel. I am in Istanbul with my friend Mahdiya and I am so so excited to be here. It's my very first time in Turkey. I've already gotten a little peek into the city because yesterday I was here by myself because Mahdiya's flight got cancelled last minute. She was at the airport and we were supposed to meet here on Friday. Today it's Sunday so we only have two days to explore this huge city. But guys yesterday I went to a breakfast spot and I just ordered some food when all of a sudden a girl in like a friend group came up to me and she recognized me from YouTube and Instagram. She was so so lovely and she introduced me to her husband and to her friend and we sat outside the cafe and we chatted and we got to know each other. They're all from Turkey and living in Istanbul so I of course got a lot of local tips which was amazing. And later Ashen and her husband Ali took me on a tour around the neighborhood which was so sweet and I'm honestly just so grateful to have met them. We also just got along so well because she is also a content creator and her husband is a videographer and we were shooting some content together and it was so so much fun. So yeah that was a little story from yesterday and then Mahdiya finally arrived yesterday's evening and we went to have some kebab. We actually didn't go to sleep until like three in the morning because we were just chatting for hours. But we can't wait to explore this incredible city. We already have planned out the day a bit but we're also just gonna go with the flow and see how the day goes. Okay guys your favorite girl is here. Mahdiya. We're reunited. In Istanbul. It's been a while since we've been together. Yeah. So we are really really excited. For today we have a tight schedule. Yeah we have to see so many things. Yeah so we need to get going but I wanted to show you guys a little tour of the apartment. Yeah it's really nice and we have a big balcony with lots of sunlight. So yeah I'm gonna show you guys. So this is the living area or living room and it leads to a beautiful big terrace or a balcony. Oh very nice to have some sunlight in the morning. Then we go into... It's like we're showing our luxury villa or something. Bathroom. Bathroom. And our beds. Yeah. We would have preferred like a big bed for us together but this was okay. It works. We are out and about and we are gonna have some turkish breakfast. Really excited to try some authentic turkish food. And turkish coffee. Yes and turkish tea as well. Yeah yeah yeah. I thought I should show you guys what we are wearing today. They just handed us this turkish tea and we didn't even order it so we're very excited to try. The turkish breakfast did not disappoint. No it was super good. Oh my god and the waiter was so so sweet and he brought so much food. I was like when is this gonna stop. Oh my goodness we sat for like an hour just eating and like so many different dishes like olives, something sweet. Also a lot of things that we were like ah this tastes like feta but it's a bit different or this is like this and the turkish coffee was also very good. It was like a strong americano. We are like stuffed right now. We have been eating so much so much good food and now we are just gonna walk around in the neighborhood that we are staying in. We're gonna check out the Galata tower. Yeah. I also spotted a really cool like vintage store yesterday with lots and lots of sunglasses and we are both wanting a new pair of sunglasses and I really think we are gonna find a cool pair of vintage like sunnies there. So that's like our plan for now. Yeah. This is literally sunglass heaven. I'm not even kidding guys. He has so many cool frames here. We bought sunglasses. They look so good on Matea. I have so few sunglasses. I never wear them. These look so good. I love these. Mine are a bit like funky, a little bit different. I really like them. Super cool. I actually spotted them like yesterday and I was like I need to come here tomorrow and vlog it because I wanted to show you guys. We just walked over the Galata bridge and the views were immaculate. So beautiful. Yeah. We are now in the Sultanahmet. Was it called? Sultanahmet. Yeah. We're trying to learn a bit of Turkish. Here supposedly are a lot of historical marks, a lot of mosques and we're just gonna explore this area. A lot of history is here so. And a lot of people. Lots and lots of people. Oh my god and it's so warm outside. We are going to visit the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque and this is my first time going to a mosque. I think mine also. Yeah. So we are quite interested to see how it's inside and just learn about you know everything around. The history, the architecture. Yeah. So let's go inside. We just sat down to have some afternoon snack. We bought a lemonade and a simit. It's a bread that is in this circle and it has a lot of sesame seeds. We're gonna try them out. Sesame seed bread. Yeah. It tastes a lot like sesame seeds. I like bread. Yeah. It's good. It's okay. The lemonade is very good. Yeah. It's very fresh because it's super warm now. Yeah. So that was very needed. Okay. So next destination is Egyptian Bazaar where they sell like spices. Yeah. It's huge. Yeah. We're really excited to go there and explore because we've heard really great things about this market. Yeah. So let's see what we'll find. We got some hot tea. I have a pineapple and I have pomegranate. It's very good. Cheers. It's really good. Okay. We need to switch. Both are so good. So good. So fresh. Yeah. It's very good. And there's no sugar in there. No. They use stevia. And then we also got baklava and pistachio. Oh my favorite. But I haven't tried this one before but I love pistachios. So okay. Let's try. I like that it's not too sweet and it has lots of pistachio flavor. It was so much fun to explore the bazaar, the market, and there were so many different stores selling all types of things. We bought some Turkish delight. I've never tried them. Me neither. Have you guys seen like Narnia the movie? Have you seen it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like yeah. The ice lady like the ice queen or something. She has it in the bucket. I don't know if that's like Turkish delight but it's like. I always wanted to try it when I was a kid. I was like. I know it's not so good. So I've been wanting to try it and so we bought a bit of that and then we tried the baklava like you guys saw. But the guys at the store were like really really cute. Yeah. Really sweet. They gave us. Yeah. They gave a lucky charm or like this evil eye. Yeah. It's gonna protect us from any like evil energy I guess. Yeah. They were so sweet. Really really sweet. We just saw the most insane sunset and I don't know in Denmark we don't get this beautiful sunsets. I don't know. It's so strange we're sharing the same sun and we're like experiencing it all differently but here it was incredible. Yeah. And I think tomorrow we are maybe gonna try and order like a river cruise or something like we did in Budapest because the views here are. Yeah. Stunning and it was so nice in Budapest to see it from the seaside. Yeah. You know like point of view. Yeah. It like gives you also like a different perspective of the city and when we don't have a lot of time it's like nice to see how big the city is and see the different parts and everything. Yeah. Definitely. So tomorrow we might do that but now we are gonna have some dinner. We are probably gonna have some Turkish food. We are just trying to figure out where to go so we're just walking in the Karaköy neighborhood I think it's called. We walked over the Galata Bridge so now we are just trying to figure out where to eat. Yes. We are back home after our lovely dinner. It was so nice. We were actually very surprised. We weren't expecting this type of like view over the city. It was incredible. We should have like arrived a bit earlier though. Yeah. Because for the sunset it was getting a bit too dark but still we enjoyed it so much. And now we wanted to do a little taste test because I just realized we didn't try them before. So we're gonna dig in. Yeah. They're like gooey. Oh my god. Gooey gooey. Okay. Cheers. It's actually quite good. I like the consistency. I was kind of like choking on it. But it is kind of like Narnia actually. I think they use Narnia. I would guess so. We need to google it. We're gonna be so happy that we've tried the Narnia candy. I'm like impressed. I like the consistency. It's quite fun. I was expecting because how it looks I was like I don't think I'm gonna like it. Yeah. But then actually it's nice. It's okay. Thank you for tuning in. We're gonna go to sleep for the taste test. And we'll see you guys tomorrow. Another day. We're very excited. We're gonna explore the Asian side. Yeah. We've heard some you know fun things about that part of the city. It's definitely different. Yeah. Because we could definitely feel the difference between the area that we're staying in now. Yeah. And after we got to like the other side of the city. Like over the Galata bridge. Yeah yeah yeah. I don't know. Like the atmosphere was totally different. Like a lot more tourism. Yeah. And yeah it was just kind of different. Yeah different vibe. Good night guys and we'll see you tomorrow. We made it out of the house. We are on our way to have breakfast at a cafe called Cafe Six. The weather is really nice. We woke up a bit earlier than yesterday because we wanted to explore the whole day. So let's go and have some coffee. Yeah. Breakfast. I ordered childir. It's a poached eggs and pita bread and some sautéed spinach and I think garlic yogurt or something. And it looks really really nice. I ordered the granola with pear compote and banana. It looks really nice. Very nice. Cute. And espresso macchiato. I was craving coffee but I just didn't feel like it would fit with like this savory dish. So instead I ordered a lemonade. It's really good. And it matches my dress. Yeah. Matches my hair. We just took some pictures in the photo booth. It's kind of funny and we weren't like prepared at all for the first one. We were like here's three two one. I think you know it's just a memory and it's fun too. And we got two. We got two which was really nice. We are just walking around here in this neighborhood. We are gonna check out a store like an antique store that we saved on the map. And I think we're just gonna walk around a bit and then in a few hours or like I don't know when we are gonna take the ferry over to the Asian side. We are really excited to explore the other side of the city. The heat is really getting to us. It's really really warm outside. I think it's probably like 30 degrees. Probably more. But like in between there comes like this breeze. So it's quite like bearable. Yeah. We can't complain. We just went into like the most amazing like antique store that had so much like jewelry and cool like bracelets and necklaces. And oh I really wanted the black beaded necklace that I tried on. We didn't have cash on hand. Yeah. We didn't end up buying them. But I think we're gonna regret it one day. Yeah. We are now walking over the Galata bridge again. And we are now gonna take the ferry over to the Asian side. So we're just going to a terminal I guess. Yeah. We have arrived in Asia. Oh my god. I can't believe that this city is divided into two continents. And I didn't know that before like coming here. It definitely feels different here than the European side. And we're excited to see what's going on here. We are kind of in desperate need of some hydration. Yeah. And maybe something to eat. We've been like walking and it's very warm. Yeah. But yeah. It's a bit more local here. We feel like a bit more touristic on the other side. But yeah. We'll find out. That's a good cup of iced latte. Very good. So yummy. Wow. We did a bit of shopping. I ended up buying the leather jacket that I tried on. I was like in between because I own a leather jacket. But this one was so different. This one is a little bit more like a blazer. And just like a little bit more fitted. And I really really like wearing leather jackets. So I know that I'm gonna be using this one a lot. And Mattia. I bought very cute shorts. They're really cute. Yeah. Summer. Yeah. And then the green dress. Oh. She looked gorgeous in that dress. She's actually gonna switch and wear it now. Yeah. Because we wanna take some nice pictures. So yeah. She's gonna change and we're gonna try and find a place to eat. She's craving some durung. We're gonna see if we can find a nice place to have dinner at. I don't know if we're gonna do it here in the Asian side. Or if we will go back to Europe. Yeah. We'll see. We made it back to Karaköy. And now we are searching for a fish wrap that we are kind of craving. We wanted to try it out. We got our fish wraps. And now we are gonna taste them. Okay. Oh my god. The fish is very crunchy. Oh my goodness. So many flavors. Yeah. Wow. It's really good. Oh my. Also the aftertaste is like more spicy a bit like. Oh my goodness. Okay. I'm impressed. Yeah. You need to check out this place if you are in Istanbul. Oh my god. There's a cat here. Hello. That's something I love about Istanbul because it's like filled with kitty cats. Yeah. Everywhere. So so cute. And they feed them and they give them water. Yeah. I think just like the people living here like Turkish people like take really good care of the cats here. So it's very beautiful. Well guys. I really hope you guys enjoyed watching our Istanbul vlog. And remember to go and follow Mahtea on Instagram and TikTok. I will link it down below. We really enjoyed our trip here in Istanbul. Yeah. It's been so amazing. It's so different from anything I've ever experienced. Yeah. And this city is so beautiful. And I mean we just had so much fun. And we ate so much good food. It was a short trip but I feel like we kind of got to experience it quite well. Like yeah. Get a good idea of the city a bit. Yeah. But maybe next time we will like stay for a bit longer. Yeah. If we want to like you know be able to because it's such a big city. Yeah. So yeah. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week. Bye.