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Eminönü

Together with Sirkeci and Karaköy, Eminönü acts like a folk's town. This authentic and commercial district is where you run into the local folk as they do business, as they do shopping and as they fight the traffic. Karaköy is also a transportation hub. Both the local ferries and international cruises arrive at here. The famous Spice Market is located in Eminönü and inside the Market is the Pandeli Restaurant -a nice, yet expensive epitome of Turkish cuisine. At one end of the Galata Bridge, in Karaköy, there is the fish market, where one can buy fresh fish and have them cooked at the nearby fish restaurants (do not imagine fancy, white table cloth fish restaurants, these are fisheries with plastic tables, very simple, yet cozy for lunch). Avoid the places beneath the Galata Bridge at all costs. These are kitsch, touristic and expensive places. For fish, better go to Cibalıkapı Fish Restaurant or Karaköy Lokantısı; for typical home meals try Karaköyüm Restaurant. For tea or coffee, just climb up to the Tunnel district -walkable distance, or take the tram. Back streets of Eminönü and the Spice Market swarm with street seller selling everything from home items, culinary items, underwear and clothes. Enjoy the crowd, watch out for your pocket.