Taksim.

Taksim is an area of Istanbul on the European side, it's like a whole different world though. The fashion is different, much more European, and Taksim is very similar to New York, in my opinion. The thing I love most about Taksim is the alleys, in America alleys are 99% of the time strictly for trash and you only wander down an alley if you want something bad to happen to you. In Taksim, alleys are like small worlds, I feel like I'm Harry Potter and I just walked into Diagon Alley, I love using Harry Potter analogies. But there are cafes, restaurants and fresh fish and produce in the alleys of Taksim. We went through Çiçek Pasajı and came out in an alley where the above pictured fresh fruit and fish greeted us, we stopped at a little stand across the alley and I tried a turkish seafood special. For the life of me I can't remember the Turkish name, but it was deep fried clam or oyster, (I can't tell the difference) in a hot dog bun, with cheese on top, and it was delicious, different but delicious all the same.

Sidenote, when I packed all my things for Istanbul I, for whatever reason, put my camera in my laptop bag and forgot to bring it out on the first night when we went to a really cool place, of course, just my luck. Not that it would have done much good because as you can see my camera and I don't work together well when shooting at night, (the flash is too weak and without the flash it's a little time lapse and I have super shaky hands) but I do what I can, and I apologize. But here's a picture of where we went and the website, check it out, this place has really great history and it's out on the water so from the top you can see Istanbul in every direction. Afterwards we went to a little cafe under the bridge and drank the traditional cup of tea while we watched the lights change on the Bosphorus bridge. It was a really great ending to my first night of this holiday in Istanbul.

http://www.kizkulesi.com.tr/