One of Istanbul's most beautiful places: Kadiköy Moda

Last year I was in Istanbul and I visited all the usual places: Istiklal, Taksim, Yildiz, Mecidiyeköy, Bebek,... I had heard talk of Kadiköy Moda, but I didn't believe that it was actually that beautiful, because I had always preferred the more European parts of Istanbul. When a friend told me that it had a shop with architecture products, being a student of Architecture, I decided to go and have a look and I undertook the journey with my cousin.

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Kadiköy, Moda

How to get there

Sometimes it's difficult to travel around Istanbul, but getting to Moda was so easy, like it was no effort at all.

From the European area, the easiest method of travel is on the ferry across the Bosphorus. I left from the Beskitas Yildiz port. The journey across the Bosphorus is long but always comfortable, it's only because of this that it is truly worth it. Upon arrival at the Üsküdar port you need to walk for only a few minutes.

If you find yourself in the Asian area, there will certainly be connections with the Üsküdar harbour, as there is a large bus stop. From there it's a short walk.

What I did there

As I said at the beginning, first of all I wanted to visit the architecture shop. It was very easy to find and I was in awe of its size. There were materials for painters, for manual work, for designers and all other types of artists. Pencils of all shapes and colours, colours of every shade and other accessories. Given that I will study Architecture for a semester in Istanbul, this shop would be very useful.

Afterwards we took a long tour of the streets to admire the place. There were shops typical of a touristy place, as in souvenir and costume jewellery shops. There were also the usual clothes shops. I found the small boutiques very interesting and I saw quite a few. There I was persuaded to try a Döner Kebap and it was fantastic! Döner Kebap is a very well known dish, but you can't eat it in every shop, or at least it should be so. "Bonfile Döner" is very tasty, the service was good and the plate (or rather the wooden board) only aided the presentation of the dish; it costs a little more than the usual Döner Kebap (27 Turkish Lira on the menu).

I also liked looking in the windows of bars that were full of desserts. We ordered a Turkish coffee and a slice of cheesecake in a bar when the furniture and parts of the interior were made of tubing. Then we walked down a street where there were different fish restaurants, after that there were only shisha bars. In another street there were only bars and pubs of different themes. I think it was important that each place (be it a restaurant or a small bar) had a concept or something that was different in the interior design, and I was positively struck by how this was the case in each business. Such diversity in such a small city...

We walked around all day and we returned late evening. Because of this we had also seen how this little district transforms in the evening. At this time every table was occupied and the streets were bustling with people. It was an energetic atmosphere which I liked very much.

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The people who go there

One realises that people choose to go to Kadiköy Moda instead of other better known places. Just like Taksim, there are many young people there, who sometimes have a certain style of dressing, which I found to be very vivid. There were very open and friendly people, (of which you can judge from short conversations when asking for directions. The business owners there were also very welcoming, friendly and ready to make conversation. I'm definitely going back there.

Additional notes

I've seen on the Internet that this area also has a park and a river bank that I will visit the next time I go. Also there are many bookshops that unfortunately I didn't have the time to visit, I basically ignored them when I was walking by.