Our trip began in Istanbul, the historic city which resides on the border between Europe and Asia and the perfect place to experience Turkish food! We reached our hotel in Beyoğlu – very close to the Galata Tower by 4:30pm. This was on the European side. In fact, most of the monuments are also on the European side. Since it was mid-November, we did not have a lot of daylight left. I had put together a very ambitious itinerary for the roughly 1.5 days that we had here before the rest of the group arrived – and we were raring to go. In fact, Parth was super energetic and kept jumping on the hotel bed!

We walked out onto Istiklal street – a famous walking street. Just 2 days before, there was a horrific bomb blast on this very street which took the lives of some people. Due to this, there was extra security positioned all along the street. We weren’t planning to walk down Istiklal right away, we were keen on going to the Asian side of Istanbul! Before we head further, a disclaimer – this is going to be a food blog!

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