A while ago I watched a documentary about cats (kedi) in Istanbul, and instantly I wanted to see that reality for myself, this is the link of the trailer, cat lovers you should watch it Kedi.
As soon as I started to walk around the streets of Istanbul I realized that cats are for real the biggest protagonists of the city, they are EVERYWHERE.  You can imagine my happiness.

I have decided to move my office to Istanbul for 9 days, I rented a nice studio in Balat via airbnb where to work from. I was exploring the city during the morning and working in the afternoon.
In few days I made some friends (mostly cats), found a veggie dealer and my fav cheese, olives and tahini shop, I tried to live like a local for a while, and Balat was the best hood to do that, it was winter and there were almost no tourists. Yay.
Slow living and working was what I needed at that time. I had just left Amsterdam and I was planning a month of travels in Asia.
I really loved Istanbul, I hope to visit the rest of Turkey very soon.

Few spots I enjoyed:

Pops Balat  the cutest coffee spot and the most delicious coffee I had in Istanbul, I also got some fresh beans there.
Cooklife Balat for yummy brunches
Vefa Bozacisi for the best boza, a sweet-sour fermented beverage topped with cinnamon, if there is cinnamon and something fermented there is Falky (me).

Make sure to try the pickled juice, yes it’s sour and salty (yum) and Ayran which is a drink made with yogurt and salt 😀 I also enjoyed menemen,  baked scrumble eggs with veggies, delicious for breakfast. But what I enjoyed the most was going grocery shopping and cooking at home. This was an experiment for me, and I want to do the same in other cites in Europe.