A Grey-Sky Week in Türkiye: Istanbul's Old City, a Hillside Flag and a Sunset Car Park

This one starts the way a lot of Istanbul trips start: from the back seat of a car, on a grey spring morning, looking up at a hillside you cannot name yet. The photos below are our own, taken in order over a few days in Türkiye. Where we can identify a place with confidence we say so. Where we cannot — and there are two of those — we say that too, rather than guessing at a name to make the story tidier.

Arrival: a red flag over the hills

Istanbul is built on slopes, and this is what most of it actually looks like away from the postcards: apartment blocks stacked up a hill, pines and bare spring trees between them, a flag on a very tall pole catching whatever wind there is. The haze in the picture is honest — early spring here is often flat, white and cool rather than bright.

Useful to know: if you are coming in from the airport, traffic is the variable that ruins schedules. The metro and the airport bus are slower on paper and frequently faster in practice. Check current routes and fares on Istanbul Airport before you commit to a taxi.

Hagia Sophia, from the gallery

No photograph handles this room well, including ours. What the picture does show is the thing people underestimate before they arrive: the scale is vertical. From the gallery you look down on the chandeliers, which hang far lower than you expect, and across at the gold roundels bearing the names of God, the Prophet and the early caliphs. The dome above is worn, patched and visibly old, and that is a large part of why it is worth seeing in person.

Hagia Sophia functions as a working mosque. Dress modestly, remove your shoes where indicated, keep your voice down and expect access to be restricted around prayer times. Visitor rules and current ticketing for the upper gallery are published by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism — check them the week you travel, because they have changed more than once in recent years.

The queue outside, under scaffolding

This is the unglamorous half of the same visit, and the more useful one. There is scaffolding — restoration work here is more or less continuous — there are steel barriers channelling the queue, and there are a lot of people, on a cold grey weekday outside high season. Come early, and treat any "no queue" promise from a street tout with suspicion.

Underground: the Basilica Cistern

A few minutes' walk from Hagia Sophia, you go down a staircase and the weather stops mattering. The cistern is a sixth-century underground water reservoir: forest of columns, curved brick ceilings, a shallow film of water that doubles everything above it. It is cool, damp and dim, the walkways can be slippery, and the coloured lighting means your photos will come out warmer or greener than your eyes saw.

It is a good rain plan and a good midday plan. Check opening hours and evening slots with the Basilica Cistern's official site; it stays open later than most of the neighbourhood.

Street level in Sultanahmet

Between the big sights, the old city is simply a neighbourhood — and a walkable one. Cobbles on the road, wide new paving on the footpath, trees cut back hard for spring, a minaret at the end of the block, and people going to work rather than sightseeing. Two small details worth noticing in the picture: the tram rail set into the stone, and the no-parking cones. Both tell you the same thing — driving here is a bad idea, and the tram plus your feet will do almost everything.

Wear shoes with grip. Wet cobbles and polished granite paving are a genuinely slippery combination.

An Ottoman tomb, quiet in the middle of it all

Several imperial tombs sit in and around the Hagia Sophia grounds and the nearby mosque complexes, and most people walk straight past them. Inside, it is quiet in a way the rest of Sultanahmet never is: rows of catafalques under embroidered green cloth, painted walls, stained glass, a chandelier. We are not going to name this particular tomb, because our notes do not say and the photograph does not prove it.

These are burial places rather than exhibits. Keep your voice low, dress as you would for a mosque, and do not lean on the railings for a photo.

Out of the city: sunset from a mountain car park

This is the picture that reminds you Türkiye is mostly not Istanbul. A tarmac car park on a wooded ridge, a crash barrier, a line of ordinary cars, and the sun dropping into haze over a plain far below. It is not a famous viewpoint. It is the kind of place a road happens to pass, which is exactly why it felt like the best half hour of the day.

Practical: ridge viewpoints cool off fast once the sun goes, and mountain roads get dark quickly with no lighting and occasional tight bends. Bring a layer, and plan to be off the descent before full dark if you are not confident driving unfamiliar hills.

A village courtyard, and three macaws

The last photo is the one that does not fit, which is why it stays. A courtyard between tile-roofed houses: a pickup truck, a mannequin in an embroidered costume outside a shop, and three macaws — two blue-and-gold, one red — perched on a wooden rail with a feed cup clipped to it. They are set up for photographs with visitors.

We will be straight about this rather than sentimental. Macaws are not native to Türkiye; these are captive birds kept outdoors on an open perch for tourist photos. If you are uncomfortable paying for animal photo opportunities, that is a reasonable position and you can simply walk on. If you do stop, do not handle the birds, and do not feed them anything of your own.

What we would tell a friend planning the same few days

• Give Sultanahmet two days, not one. Hagia Sophia, the cistern, the tombs and the streets between them are all within a short walk, and rushing them is the main regret people report.
• Early beats clever. The queue in our photo had formed by mid-morning on a cold grey day outside peak season.
• Grey weather is fine here. The cistern, the tombs and the interiors are all better in bad weather, and the crowds thin slightly.
• Dress for mosques by default. Covered shoulders and knees, a scarf for women, shoes you can slip off. It saves rethinking your outfit every morning.
• Don't drive in the old city. The tram, the ferries and your feet cover it. Save the car for the hills.
• Check hours the week you go. Ticketing and access at Hagia Sophia in particular have changed repeatedly; the official GoTürkiye site and the ministry pages are the ones to trust.

Common questions

Can you visit Hagia Sophia as a tourist?

Yes. It is a working mosque, and visitors are admitted outside prayer times, with the upper gallery ticketed separately under current arrangements. Dress code applies. Confirm hours and tickets before you go.

Is the Basilica Cistern worth it?

If you like architecture, atmosphere or simply want somewhere out of the rain, yes — it is about 30–45 minutes and it is unlike anything else in the neighbourhood. If you are claustrophobic or unsteady on damp walkways, be aware it is dim and slippery.

How many days do you need in Istanbul?

Three full days covers the old city comfortably with room for the Bosphorus and a market. Two is tight but workable if you start early.

What is the weather like in early spring?

Our photos show it: cool, overcast, hazy, with occasional bright evenings. Bring a waterproof layer and do not count on blue sky for photographs.

Before you book

Getting around is the thing most people ask about after they have chosen the sights. We have written up the questions travellers actually search for — flights, trains, buses, two wheels and walking — in our Travel Discussions & Q&A section, and there are more photo-led trips in our blog and travel guides.

All photographs in this article are our own. Where a location is not named, it is because we could not confirm it — not because we are keeping it to ourselves.