Istanbul, Turkey! Istanbul is Turkey's largest city with a whopping population of 15 million people
that's bigger than all of Greece and all of Lebanon combined. Istanbul is technically
located in both Asia and Europe and 95% of Turkey is in Asia with the other five percent in Europe
istanbul is in the top 10 most visited cities in the world and it's famous for its
food architecture culture mosques and amazing desserts today i've given myself a budget of
30 dollars to see just how far it will go here six years ago if you had 30 turkish lira you
could exchange that for 10 us dollars but today if you want 10 us dollars you're gonna have to
fork over almost 100 turkish lira the goal is not to be too stingy or not to splurge
either but find the optimum way to spend the day its currency has fallen more than 30 percent this
year to the us dollar so let's just see how far 30 dollars goes here right now in istanbul turkey
i'm starting my day with a local breakfast at this amazing restaurant in an area called karakoy
the place is called cafe privato and the weather is perfect so i sit outside here they bring you
so many amazing dishes from the eggs to the cheeses ten dollars it totally fills me up
which is good because it costs ten dollars per person which is a big chunk of my budget
so far next i take a walk through the city and wherever i go i see these cool fruit and fresh
juice shops so i order a fresh pomegranate juice one pomegranate juice two dollars
that's good but strong you can't really come to turkey without thinking of its famous
mosques in fact there are more than 82 000 mosques in turkey as around 99 of turks are muslim i head
to the most famous mosque here hagaya sophia which is located in a crowded tourist district this was
originally a christian cathedral and its function has changed multiple times over the past centuries
you can even see christian drawing today though it's an active mosque and to enter the mosque you
must wear modest clothes so no shorts or revealing clothes so they just started announcing that all
visitors should leave because it's actually an active mosque it's currently in use and it's time
to pray so it's time for us to leave and it's going to actually be used for people to pray
and this happens multiple times throughout the day if you listen carefully you can hear what's called
azan and that is when they sing and remind people that it's time to pray in sunni countries you will
hear it five times a day the price to enter mosques free it's time for lunch and while on
my way to get a chicken tabuk that is very famous here instead i stumble upon this interesting fish
restaurant i order one fish wrap with spices and herbs and fresh pomegranate i'm not entirely sure
what exactly herbs he's using in here but i'm super happy i stopped because this
tastes delicious this lunch cost me two dollars by now i'm craving something sweet and what could
be better than a traditional baklava not that traditional after all i order a baklava burger
i guess i can see some american influence here in turkey baklava is a lebanese baklava is a greek
baklava is a turkish whatever i give up baklava is a dough that is stretched to paper thinness and
cut into sheets it's a process that can take so much effort that it's frequently left to
commercial manufacturers baklava is among the most common sweets to serve for special occasions in
modern day turkey baklava burger and a tea four dollars that is amazing throughout the day i take
a variety of methods to get around i take a ferry i take the train a bus but my favorite way to get
around is just by walking because there is so much to see in this city and you never really get bored
all in all my transportation costs bring me to about four dollars after some rest it's 8
p.m and it's time for dinner i find this local restaurant that is literally like homemade food
this woman makes everything herself and i order four delicious sides with one main dish this
tasty eggplant this place is called number 19 dining and it kind of feels like you just walked
into a friend's dinner party that's the kind of vibe you get inside i'm excited to try this food
this is an eggplant dish with some rice and yogurt dinner at a home style restaurant six dollars
istanbul has a crazy nightlife one of my favorites for bars and lounges which people get during the
night one thing that is crazy about this part of town is that almost every bar has a live band
so many of these bars here have a live van which gives this place a whole different energy
although i have to be honest i'm feeling a bit too tired to party but in an attempt to capture
the partiers here you can see a lot of oyster stamps it's interesting to see these stands
because oysters are usually seen in luxurious restaurants i stop at this place and get a few
of his oysters the price two dollars so i did it i spent 30 dollars in istanbul i had a taste
of everything and got to experience an awesome day without breaking the bank this is truly one
of my favorite cities to visit but let me know in the comments how would you spend your 30 dollars
while you're at it check out some of my other cities i visited in my cash challenge series
you