---
type: Place
title: Istanbul
description: Fifteen million people across two continents — coffee brewed in sand, a barber who sets your ears on fire, a 300-year-old hammam, the Grand Bazaar, and the world's cheapest hair transplants.
tags: [istanbul, turkey, food, barbers, hammam, grand-bazaar, history, coffee, medical-tourism]
coordinates: {lat: 41.0064, lng: 28.9759}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Istanbul

Fifteen million people in [Turkey](/countries/turkey.md), split across Europe
and Asia by the Bosphorus. Founded in 660 BC and known as Constantinople under
the Greeks, then taken in turn by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires before
becoming Istanbul.

Harry's verdict after four days is that the city is picture-perfect from almost
any angle, and that the reason to come is the architecture and the food.

*Obs: his first Istanbul trip was a free press visit hosted by the Turkish
tourism board, and the video carries a separate commercial sponsor. Only the
travel content is recorded here.*

## Turkish coffee

Made in a pot buried in **hot sand**, which brings it to the boil in about a
minute — Harry had never seen the method. Around 80 lira, served in a small cup
with Turkish delight and a glass of water.

**The water is not incidental.** Three things about it:

- It cleans the palate.
- The coffee dehydrates you and the water puts it back.
- From Ottoman times, **drinking the water before the coffee means you're
  hungry**, and the kitchen will start preparing food. Drink the coffee first if
  you aren't.

His verdict: very strong, an acquired taste, genuinely good if you like black
coffee — and the grounds at the bottom are the one bad part.

## The barber

The thing Harry came to test, at 550 lira — about $20 — and the sequence is the
point:

1. **The shave first**, which he'd never had before the cut.
2. **Eyebrows**, trimmed and shaped.
3. **A facial** that stings badly, which he takes as evidence it's working.
4. **The cut**, done simultaneously with the facial.
5. **Nose wax** — hot wax, all the way up.
6. **Ear hair burned off with a flame**, which he does not see coming.
7. **Ear candling**, where the wax comes out into the candle.
8. **Hair tonic and a head massage.**
9. **Styling** — the local look is short, slick and black.
10. **Cologne**, and a 360-degree reveal.

His conclusion is that the attention to detail is unbelievable and he doesn't
understand why barbers elsewhere don't offer any of it.

## Food

- **Chicken döner wrap, 45 lira**, from a local place with almost no English —
  toasted bread, tomato, gherkin, sauces and chips inside. Better than the same
  thing in England, he says, and improved by being eaten sober.
- **Döner is the cooking method, not the meat.** Chicken, lamb, beef and even
  vegetable döner all exist.
- **Baklava** from a shop founded in 1864, where the free taster is also the
  sales technique. Pistachio and walnut are the ones to get; a small box runs
  300–600 lira.
- **Turkish delight** is everywhere and Harry is honest that he doesn't much like
  it.
- **Turkish tea**, drunk in greater quantity per head here than anywhere in the
  world.

## The Grand Bazaar

One of the oldest and largest markets in the world, and big enough that Harry
compares it to a town inside the city — clean, well lit, and running in every
direction. Counterfeit designer goods dominate: bags, suits, watches, jewellery.

**Many sellers won't be filmed.** Harry's reading is that the stock is fake and a
camera creates a problem for them, and that some people simply don't want to be
filmed, which he treats as entirely fine.

The negotiation, on a fake watch: asked 650, he offered 400, and settled at 450.
He is upfront that he expected to be outplayed and that the sellers here are
better at this than he is.

## Sights

- **Galata Tower** — a former lighthouse from the Byzantine era, now a viewpoint,
  at $20–25. Harry says it's not cheap and the panorama is the only place in the
  city you can see everything from, so it's worth it.
- **Hagia Sophia** — originally a church, now a mosque, and the city's number one
  site. He didn't go in: the queue was around 40 minutes, so he went to the Blue
  Mosque and the Basilica Cistern instead.
- **Galataport** — the old port, still working, where cruise ships dock. The
  clever part is that a wall goes up along a marked line and the area becomes a
  customs hall for passport checks, then reverts to restaurants and shops.
- **A Bosphorus cruise**, which he rates the best way to see the city because you
  get the European and Asian sides at once.

## The hammam

A bathhouse in operation since 1720, and the history is worth knowing before you
go in.

- **The külhan** was the furnace room. A man's entire job was keeping a fire
  burning under a boiler, which heated the water and the floor of the bath above.
  The original is preserved to look at.
- **Light came from glass domes in the ceiling**, because you couldn't use fire
  for lighting in a room full of steam. Pigeons nest in some of them.
- **Two versions exist**: the traditional one, where a large man scrubs you —
  Harry has done it and calls it traumatising — and the modern spa version, which
  is what he books here.

What it involves: lying on a heated marble slab in a room hot enough to work as
a sauna, a hard scrub that takes off the dead skin, salt spread over you, a
mask, and then an enormous quantity of foam. Around 40–45 minutes, finished with
Turkish tea in the old bath hall.

His verdict, which surprised him: he expected a quick scrub-down, and calls it
the most relaxed he has ever been.

## Medical and cosmetic treatment

Istanbul is one of the world's centres for it, and Harry returns in winter to
test it on himself. His framing figure: **over a million people fly to Turkey
every year** for treatment, and **a hair transplant costs around $3,000 here
against roughly £10,000 in the West.**

*Obs: the video this comes from is commercial — every clinic in it is linked in
the description. What follows is what the procedures involve, not a
recommendation.*

**A hair transplant, as a process:**

- **A consultation first** — graft counts, density planning, and a hairline drawn
  onto your head to suit your face. Harry says seeing the line drawn is what
  convinced him it was needed.
- **Grafts are taken from the back and moved forward**, so you need donor hair;
  it can be done at any stage of loss. Harry had 2,500 grafts at 28.
- **The numbing is the painful part**, which he rates seven out of ten. After
  that he felt only tapping, and slept through much of it.
- **You are awake throughout**, it takes most of a day, and lunch is ordered in.
- **Aftercare matters**: sleep on your back and keep your head up for the first
  24 hours. Harry didn't and got swelling, which he says was his own fault.
- **Washing is on day two or three** and takes about 20 minutes.
- **The timeline is months**, not days.
- Clinics put you in a hotel nearby and provide translators, since not all staff
  speak English.

Also on offer, and used in the same trip: a **comprehensive health check** —
X-ray, ultrasound, urine and a fasting blood test — and **dental cleaning and
whitening**, which Harry describes as quicker and easier than a routine
appointment at home.

**A practical warning worth more than any of it: Istanbul has two airports, on
opposite sides of the city.**

## Winter

Cold and raining, which Harry compares to England. The markets stay open; among
the stalls are licensed firearms and army surplus, which he hadn't expected to
find on sale.

## Harry's tips

- **Get the full barber treatment**, not a haircut. It's about $20 and there's
  nothing like it at home.
- **Drink the coffee before the water** unless you want dinner.
- **Take the free baklava taster and then buy some.** The shop is fine with the
  arrangement.
- **Go up Galata Tower once**, and accept the price.
- **Skip Hagia Sophia's queue** if it's long — the Blue Mosque and the Basilica
  Cistern are right there.
- **Book the hammam.** The modern version if the traditional one sounds like too
  much.
- **Don't insist on filming in the Grand Bazaar.** There are good reasons the
  answer is no.
- **Check which airport you're flying into.** There are two, on opposite sides of
  the city.
- **If you're coming for treatment, expect a day, not a procedure** — and follow
  the aftercare instructions, which Harry didn't.

## Source

- [I Visited Istanbul With No Plan 🇹🇷](/videos/TsmdmNws5Fo.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsmdmNws5Fo
- [I Tried Insane 5 Star Treatments in Istanbul, Turkey 🇹🇷](/videos/OsQ5OvEtnIE.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsQ5OvEtnIE