New Year in Istanbul

The New Year in Istanbul is one of the most breathtaking event that you can partake! What could be more enjoyable then "to kill two birds with one stone" by discovering one of the most beautiful city of the World with its cultural and historical heritage and spend the New Year eve near the Bosphorus.
Thousands tourists arrive every year to Istanbul to celebrate New Year holidays. That`s why you should start to plan your trip at least two months before. Otherwise, it will be problematic to find an apartment to rent or free room in a hotel to book.
If you want to visit historical places and museums, it would be nice to arrive to Istanbul few days before the New Year eve. You will need at least 3 days to visit all famous historical places and one day to have a small tour to Prince`s islands.

The weather in Istanbul in December is a bit chill, but very comfortable for walking outside for a long time. It is about +6 degrees in a day time.
In the middle of December, streets and shops in Istanbul are decorated with a lot of flash lights and look fascinating. It is a great time to go shopping. There are lot of shops with a various type of goods and clothes, jewelries with a special prices and discounts. To go shopping in Istanbul you can visit outlets or you can find lot of small shops, walking along main streets in Kadikoy, Moda or other areas in Istanbul.

So, what exactly you can do at The New Year eve in Istanbul? Istanbulers used to celebrate the New Year eve at home with family, or with friends in night clubs or restaurants. However, if you will go to the center, you will meet a crowd of drunk teenagers, especially in the Taksim square. So, this is defiantly not nice place to go.

One of the most beautiful event in the New year in Istanbul is a line of fireworks along the Bosphorus. Sparks of fireworks give mesmerizing reflection in the water. To be able to see it from the best places, try to book a table in a restaurant on the Galata bridge, from where you can have really incredible view on fireworks.

Also, you can choose one of the good night clubs to go and celebrate the New Year in Istanbul. Some of them have outdoor terrace with a dance floor on Bosphorus, like Reina club. And some of them are placed on roofs, from where you can enjoy incredible view, for example "Istanbul 360" in Taksim.

And one other variant to celebrate the New Year in Istanbul, it is to order a fish from a fish restaurant near you and celebrate at home with friends. But, I am sure, that you came to Istanbul not to stay at home. )

Whatever you choose, I wish you to have amazing trip and the best New Year eve in Istanbul!

Turkish simit

One of the most famous turkish bread simit. You can find it everywhere in Istanbul, near the farry boat station, on the street.

If you have been in Istanbul, I am sure that you have seen the simit. It is not possible not to see, because it is everywhere. On the streets you can buy it in small carts or in market stalls.

So, what the simit is? The simit - is a very tasty, round bread, strewn with sesame. Usually, in Turkey, people eat simit with a tea, served in a special small glasses.

Young people like to feed sea gulls with simit from the deck of a ferry boat. Flock of sea gulls, that are used to be feeding in that way, just attack the boat and catch small pieces of simit in the air. 

 

You can follow the link with a video in our YouTube channel to see how enjoyable it is.

Turkish simit recipe

 Ingredients for simit:

• Flour (3 cups);
• Salt (2 tsp);
• Water (1 cup);
• Sesame;
• Yeast (1 tbs);
•  Oil (1 tbs);
• Molasses (4 tbs)/

Mix a flour with a yeast, salt and vegetable oil in a deep bowl till the homogeneous consistence of the dough. Cover it with a plastic wrap and let it grow up at least one hour. 

Take another deep bowl and mix molasses with a tbs of water.

Cut dough for six parts, roll to make long "tubes", and twist tubes together, connect two sides to make a circle.

Dip simit in to the molasses and then dip it to the sesame. Again leave dough to rise for an hour and then put it to the fridge and bake 25 minutes on 220C.

Bon appetite! Affiet Olsun!

Boza - fermented turkish drink

Most of people, who have traveled to Turkey used to think that the most popular drinks in Istanbul are: coffee, tea, yogurt and raki. However, there are a lot of different drinks that are not that popular among a foreigners that arrives to Turkey or live there. And one of them is Boza.

Boza it is a fermented drink, made from wheat and served with a cinnamon. Boza drink consist a lot of vitamins and carbohydrates and famous in Turkey, like a very healthy drink.

Boza is very old traditional drink that was popular in Ottoman Empire. The fermented drink was a regular drink for army, and famous with it`s good influence on soldier`s health.

The boza include very low percentage of alcohol, about 1%. Specific taste of Boza makes that drink maybe not very popular among the tourists, but to understand if you will like it or not, it is only one way - to taste it.

So, how to drink Boza? 

Usually you can find the Boza in a plastic bottle with a small package on it with spices. All what you should do it is to open the bottle and to pour the liquid in a cup, open small package and add spices in the cup, mix it and drink.

Put spices to the Boza