Istanbul day 5

I was too tired to blog yesterday, so here is an update :)
First stop was to an old friend, Kristin, I showed her shop a few years ago in the mean time she moved to the shop next door which is twice as large.

Kristin has great taste and the entire shop is full of amazing items, both made by herself and also other artists. You can find her shop Evihan at Çukurcuma Caddesi Altıpatlar Sokak Beyoğlu - Istanbul. She also has an Etsy shop.
 

Our next stop was a boat tour of 2 hours to see all the palaces and old buildings built near the shore.
I think these pictures speak for themselves...

We took the short version of the Boğaz Tour, there is also a longer version which takes about 6 hours, if you come to Istanbul I would definetly recommend you take either one of them as you can see many hidden places with a great view, these tours are also very cheap so a great way to treat yourself.

Today is my last day in Istanbul, I will be returning home tonight, last post will be tomorrow.

Istanbul - Day 4

Today was another day in Eminönü, for more supply shopping. As I forgot to take pictures yesterday I made sure to take some today.

This is the Spice Bazaar, inside is mostly spices, lokums, dried fruit but also gold jewelry and some gift shops. When you go through this Bazaar at the other end is the place where you can find lots of beadshops in all kind of places.

A shop with lot of seafoams as natural cleaning material and dried vegtables.

And here is Eminönü, but as mostl places in Istanbul it is extremely crowded and hard to stop and take pictures, this happens with 17 million people in one place :)

Lastly I found these street artists have very interesting outfits, not sure of their origins, my best guess is Peru but correct me if I'm wrong. Their music was extremely soothing and relaxing.
 

My Friday Night Outfit

Sea Urchin Ring - Rare Brown Tuxedo Sea Urchin Ring by StaroftheEast
Brown Leather Floral applique Purse, Messenger bag, studded leather bag by EightSeasons
Brown Leather Flower Shoe Clips by FeathersFly
Nuno felted blouse Chocolate by Kadabros

A perfect outfit for a night out in Istanbul :)

The rules are simple; make a fun outfit with items from Etsy (you can include one of your own items) with the mosaic maker or photoshop orPolyvore. Post it on your blog with the links to the featured shops, and add a link linking to this blogpost so that your readers can see the other outfits as well, this way we will all be connected :) You can then add your mosaic here below by clicking on the 'add a link' button so that everyone can see your outfit here as well, you can leave your link till Saturday evening.

Istanbul - Day 3

Here is a funny story, since the protests for the park, other small protests happened too, ways for people to make a statement. One of those is painting stairs in the city in rainbow colors. Istanbul is build on 7 hills, therefor there are many steep streets but also often stairs. Usually these stairs are grey. About one week ago a man desided to paint one of these stairs in a cheerful colorful rainbow, to bring some color to the street but also as an act of freedom and hope, and as a symbol of unity of different kind of people believing in the same thing (in this case a better government for Turkey). The same night the municipality of Istanbul painted these stairs back to grey. Of course this made people mad :) And as people got mad the next day the municipality painted the same stairs back in a rainbow. This act inspired many people and now not only in Istanbul but also in many other cities you can find these cheerful colorful rainbow stairs, here is one of them :)

Today I went for supply shopping, I was too tired and my hand were often too full to take pictures, hopefully I'll remember tomorrow to take some pictures of Eminönü, the beads heaven.
After that I met with several Etsy sellers, we had coffee and home made lemonade at a cute café and chatted about Etsy, handmade and politics.

From left to right Funda from FundaDemircan,  Serpil from SerpilGuneysu, Nesrin from Nikacollection, Pınar from Toosis, Aslı from Afra, Enhar from LoveJoyCreate, Sema from BeyazDukkan and me.

It was lovely to meet you ladies :)

After that Serpil took me to an old harbour which now is only used as a bistro café, a wonderful place, incase you come to Istanbul it is the old 'Moda İskelesi'.

A nice way to end another exhausting day :)

Istanbul - Day 2

With my last grains of energy I'm writing this post :)
As Istanbul is so huge with about 16 million people, traveling always takes alot of time, with in between a lot of walking. To get to the European side we took the Vapur (after the metro) which is the local name for the ferry. I always find it quiet a luxery how you go for such little money on a little boat trip, it is also very relaxing.

We first went to Taksim, the name now will most likely be familiar to everyone, as this is the square where the Gezi parki is and where 2 months ago the protests started in Turkey. Things are calmer now, but people are still not happy.

This is the park that so many people protected, a little green place in a huge city where green is becoming a rare thing.

After that we walked the famous İstiklal Avenue which is directly connected to Taksim square and all buildings are old and have beautiful details.

After walking the İstiklal avenue we got in to the world's second oldest metro, the Tünel, which entered service in 1875. It is the world's second-oldest subterranean urban rail line after the London Underground (1863).

After more walking, and walking and walking we arrived at the Grand Bazaar, as you can not visit İstanbul without going there :)

On our walk back we went by an old cemetery with mostly graves of Pasha's, the headstones had amazing details and they were all lying in a lovely peaceful garden, such a garden in Istanbul is very luxurious even for the living :)

We went past Hagia Sophia (see an old blogpost about there) to a beautiful street called SoğukÇeşme street. All houses were old and made of wood, with still the old street stones it was like a time travel. 

The houses were all hidden between trees, I loved the atmosphere.

In between I did also some supply shopping of course, so you can only imagine the state of my feet :) Tomorrow more!

Istanbul - Bağdat Avenue

Yesterday early evening I arrived in Istanbul. I'm staying with an Etsy friend, Serpil from SerpilGuneysu, who kindly opened her home for me. With a little rest after my journey we went for an evening walk to the famous Bağdat Avenue, which I hadn't seen before.

 It is a wide avenue with many chic shops, café's and restaurants. We walked till we could barely carry ourselves, from the seashore through the streets, it was lovely to see these new places for me.

 Bağdat Avenue also has a history, from Wikipedia: The origin of Bağdat Avenue was a road connecting Constantinople with Anatolia during the Byzantine and later the Ottoman periods, which was used for trade and military purposes. The road was named after Baghdad following the recapture of this city by Sultan Murad IV in 1638.

 The most catching building I saw was this amazing old mansion, now used by warehouse VAKKO,  looking amazing and clearly looked very well after.

During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909), some Pashas, high officials and wealthy traders, who wanted to be as close as possible to the palace, purchased land plots around Bağdat Avenue and erected luxurious wooden chalet mansions, some of which still exist today.

New in the Shops

Statement Coral Necklace Sea urchin Gold Plated Vintage style necklace

Vintage Kuchi Earrings handmade hammered finds Rustic Jewelry

Green Sea Urchin Earrings Special Copper

Coach Journey Weekender Travel Set Leather, Embroidery and Linen

Driftwood Underwater Wall Hanging - Beach Home Decor

Butterfly Mirror Necklace Fairy tale inspired

Braided Leather Bracelet Unisex Bracelet Leather and Metal

My Friday Night Outfit

The Cutest Bag Red Black White by StarBags
minimalistic hand sculped bell flower polymer clay earrings by eried
90s black & white striped maxi dress by themall
Back to school Dark Blue and Dust White Leather Moccasins by HandmadeLeatherShoes

A little retro outfit this week in the classic color combo of red, black and white.
Perfect for day and night :)

The rules are simple; make a fun outfit with items from Etsy (you can include one of your own items) with the mosaic maker or photoshop orPolyvore. Post it on your blog with the links to the featured shops, and add a link linking to this blogpost so that your readers can see the other outfits as well, this way we will all be connected :) You can then add your mosaic here below by clicking on the 'add a link' button so that everyone can see your outfit here as well, you can leave your link till Saturday evening.