🇵🇱 Warsaw → 🇹🇷 Istanbul · 2 weeks

Visit the Hagia Sophia at 8am the moment it opens — the morning light through the upper windows is extraordinary and you'll have the nave almost to yourself before tour groups arrive after 9:30am. Bring a headscarf.

Take the public ferry (vapur) from Eminönü to Üsküdar on the Asian side for 20 Turkish lira — locals use these boats daily and the 20-minute crossing gives the best view of the Old City skyline money can buy.

Find the Karaköy Güllüoğlu baklava shop near the Galata Bridge and eat a tray of pistachio baklava fresh from the oven at 7am — the pastry ships in from Gaziantep daily and this is where Istanbul's professionals stop before work.

Walk the Balat neighbourhood on a weekday morning — the Jewish and Greek Orthodox quarter has crumbling painted Ottoman houses, a Byzantine church still in use, and a local market that hasn't been discovered by the tourist circuit yet.