Previously, I wrote about trips to Bangkok, Cannes, Dubai, Phuket. With all the details, prices, addresses and locations. And then, I went myself, using my own notes. I opened the website on my phone and read. Convenient, though. What a great guy for writing all this. Therefore, I will write a few words about shopping in Istanbul. Maybe it will be useful to me or you.
Briefly:
At the airport, go down to the metro and go to the station "Kocatepe". Stock up in the shopping center and go back to the airport by metro.
Details:
So, Natasha and I held a master class in the Turkish city of Samsun. The return route lay through the city of Istanbul, aka Istanbul. And with the letter H in the middle of the word. The largest city in Turkey, the main commercial, industrial and cultural center. The main port of the country.
Our plane from Samsun landed just 20 minutes later than the specified time. For Turkish Airlines, this is nothing. A good company with pleasant service, but no matter how many times I flew with them, they never took off on time. Always 20 to 50 minutes late. And thank God. As the further development of the story showed, there is a grain of righteousness and a reason for happiness in every action.
Landed at the Domestik terminal in Istanbul. Got off the plane. Right there at the airport, we checked in our backpack with equipment in the storage room.
The man at the baggage claim speaks good English. I explained that our flight was at 19:00, boarding time at 18:00. Accordingly, I wanted to pick up our backpack at 17:30. He said that they work 24 hours a day. Great! I handed it in.
When I saw him putting our backpack on the public shelves, I was just amazed. Remembering how I was let into the storage room in Sri Lanka without even looking at the receipt with the words “Go get your things, they are somewhere on the shelves”. Take whatever you want, no one checks anything anyway. You take it and leave. And our backpack only contained $10,000 worth of photo equipment. Plus a laptop for three grand, and a Wacom tablet for five hundred. Total $13,500. On the shelf.
Yeah... Kind of scary. I asked him to put the backpack in a lockable cell with a lock. The price has not changed: 20 Turkish lira. Great. Of course, this is not a panacea for all problems associated with theft, but still. Now you can relax and enjoy exploring the local attractions, a beautiful city of a great state with a fascinating history. In short, we go shopping. It's 10:30.
At the master class in Samsun, we met Renat, our translator. As it turned out, he has been living and working as a videographer in Turkey for almost 18 years. So, if anyone needs a Russian-Turkish speaking videographer, I recommend him. Renat told us that the largest and most popular shopping center in Istanbul is “Forum Istanbul”.
Okay, so we're going there. We went down to the metro right in the airport building. It's quite a long walk from the airport to the platform through a tunnel.
We arrived.
The easiest way to pay for travel is to simply buy tokens. One token is 3 lira. A more complicated and cheaper option is to buy a travel card and throw money in it. As always, we chose the easy way. We got on the metro. I was interested to watch. Would men all give up their seats to women or vice versa, like in Thailand, women give up their seats to men. I did not notice any ardent attempts from either gender. Everything is standard and usual.
Danya fell asleep, so Natasha sat down in the empty seat. I stood by the window and monitored the stops.
The metro runs both underground and on the surface. You can't hear the stop announcements! The only thing that helps is comparing the metro map in the car with the stations you've stopped at. Or ask the locals.
We've arrived. We get off at the Kocatepe metro station. It takes 30 minutes to get from the airport station to this station.
The shopping center “Forum Istanbul” is located right next to the metro exit. You won’t miss it.
Once inside, we headed to the Information desk and asked if we could take a baby stroller. Yes, we could. But only if your child was born in 2015, 2014 or 2013. And only with a child's passport as collateral. Which actually identifies the age of your child.
We had Danka's passport with us, but we really didn't want to leave it. I suggested leaving money as collateral instead of a passport, but the young lady only wanted a passport, and only a child's one. Oh well. We exchanged the passport for a lightweight stroller. In fact, it's very convenient. The child is always busy. He either pushes the stroller, all independent, or sits in it enjoying the now rare opportunity to ride.
Or the ideal option is to sleep with his forehead pressed against the stroller. And the parents can calmly enjoy a stroll through the shops.
Shopping center.
Not bad at all. Average selection of “normal” brands in my understanding. Such as Nautica, Mark Spencer, Lacoste, Mango, C&A, US polo ASSN … All those brands that I usually find in any country I visit. It’s like McDonald’s, the food is disgusting, but wherever you go, it’s there. And I can’t find them in Chisinau with fire in daylight. Which is very strange. Moldova is an extremely European-oriented country, but there are no standard brands here.
A small digression about Thailand.
We’ve had some problems with clothes in recent years. When we went to Thailand, they told us “don’t worry”, there are plenty of clothes in Thailand and they’re cheap. You can buy everything there. Really? — Yes!
We arrived. We looked. They told us the truth, there’s a lot of stuff and it’s all really cheap. Literally and figuratively. It’s impossible to wear all of this. The quality is like the cheapest market in your city. Even worse. There are different sizes, but all the patterns are designed for a small, hunched Thai with his chest stuck to his back from a thin shirt.
They are simply oversized and that's it. A normal European looks ridiculous and strange in these clothes. You won't be able to fasten the top two buttons. There is the same problem with patterns and sizes with women's underwear. All the materials are chemical. If they write that it is 100% cotton, it is a lie. Brands do not help. If you buy from Lacoste and it says 100% cotton, do not believe them, they are lying. We have tried everything. All the materials are designed for wearing in a tropical climate. Mold and mildew are the tropical scourge of everything natural.
For example, during the season, in a shoe store, it is easy to distinguish a tourist from a long-stayer by what he buys. A long-stayer will never buy leather shoes, only chemical ones. Otherwise, he will throw away his chic leather flip-flops in two weeks, a month at most. The fungus will kill them. As I understand it, for the same reason there is nothing with normal 100% cotton. They don’t even know about linen, no matter how many times I asked. Only in Bangkok, in Mark Spencer, I once found a normal linen shirt.
On the island, everyone saved themselves as best they could, who wore local, but most (mostly girls) order online. Then they resell it all among themselves when the size does not fit. It is understandable ... I don’t understand at all how you can order something from clothes without trying it on first? Especially since these are always Asian supplier companies with Asian patterns.
Natasha and I once ordered 23 Ostin T-shirts for friends from Moscow who were going to Samui. Previously, we always bought their T-shirts in Ukraine and knew our sizes well. And there the patterns will definitely be for a Russian person. That’s how it looked. A whole backpack of T-shirts for the Robinsons living on the island. :)
Well, let's get back to Turkey.
I asked the salesperson at Nautica why I couldn't find Tommy Hilfiger, and he told me that there was no such brand in Istanbul at all. I have some doubts about the correctness of his wording or my translation from English, but the fact remains. Tommy Hilfiger was not found here. While in Samsun, I went to Tommy Hilfiger in the local shopping center and bought myself a tennis shirt. I wanted to look at something else, but decided that the choice would be better in the capital.
Forum Istanbul shopping center is a circular loop and consists of three floors. There are various branches, but the base is a circle. Since we were not interested in gold, tableware, etc. stores presented on the third floor, we spent most of our time on the first two floors. I would not say that the shopping center is large. However, there is a lot to see. Technically, if you are with a child and do not plan to run headlong, then you can expect to spend the whole day here. There is plenty to choose from, plenty to try on. One man can easily go around all the stores and easily choose what he needs in half a day.
Some general observations:
There is a place to take a break and eat ice cream. It's a pity I didn't remember the name, but I ate my most delicious ice cream in the world there. It was even tastier than the handmade ice cream they make in Italy. Simply divine.
Lunch on the third floor in a Turkish restaurant cost us $30 for two. Dania was not included in the calculation. If you want, you can have lunch for half the price in a Turkish fast food. Of which there are simply countless on the same third floor.
Local manufacturer.
A lot of local good companies, but everything goes slim fit. If you are the lucky owner of a tummy/belly/belly, then you are out of luck.
Many, many chic jackets. Different fabrics, styles and models. Probably the Turkish tradition of wearing jackets has an effect. I recommend it.
Payment.
We paid almost everywhere with a credit card, when paying with which, it never asks to enter a PIN code. In Samsun, we were terrorized for this reason in every store, demanding to show our passports. I played the fool and showed them a photo on my phone. They were not happy with this, but the desire to get my money solved the issue.
In Istanbul, all payments by the same card were made without any complications or passport requirements. The capital ... If they had taken an adult passport instead of a child's passport as collateral for a baby stroller, as was the case in Kazakhstan, and demanded it when paying by card, I wonder how this situation would have been resolved? )
Discounts!!!
The best thing is that we arrived during Ramadan (in the Arabic version of Ramadan). For this reason, in Turkey there are 30-50% discounts on many things.
And then the little that we managed to buy during these few hours of relaxed shopping in Turkey. If it weren't for the plane, we would have happily continued our walk around the wonderful "Forum Istanbul".
And the best part is the price for everything! $235. I didn't expect that.
And I'll note that everything was bought in brand stores, made with amazing quality from wonderful fabrics. They don't bring us that.
We were late for the plane. Almost. We were saved by the fact that Turkish Airlines themselves were 30 minutes late with boarding time.
That was the end of our shopping in Istanbul.
We came to the conclusion that it is very, very profitable to fly to Turkey for shopping. $100 per person from Chisinau for a plane ticket to Istanbul and back. $50 for a hotel per day. And you have two days to visit two or three shopping centers.
And in the evening, a cozy restaurant with national Turkish cuisine. It will be especially pleasant for the soul and profitable for the budget during sales.
Some kind of article turned out to be all beautiful and advertising. Let me remind you that no one pays me for articles. I write everything from the heart and for people.
Good and beautiful things for everyone! :)
To book a family photo shoot, please contact me:
+49 159 04837874 - phone, WhatsApp
morefoto@gmail.com
Sincerely, Eduard Stelmakh.
stelmakh.com