While wandering through Beyoğlu the other day, we decided to stop in an antique shop – Karadeniz Antik in Beyoğlu – to browse around. Let me preface this by saying I am not an “antiquer” in the least – I usually find antique shops totally dusty and dull. But this one was completely charming.

Everything was stunning – the old Aladdin-like lamps, Christian-themed paintings and crosses that the owner said were hundreds of years old (and they certainly appeared it!), daggers with decorative sheaths and infinite other treasures gleaming in the morning sunlight. We could have spent all day there.

The owner, Ömer Gençtürk, was very sweet about us young’uns poking around his shop before eight in the morning. He offered us tea, showed us old helmets to try on and tried to answer our every question. Ömer said he had collected his antiques himself over the years, and took special pride in showing us the fish in his outdoor pond that the had caught in a net the day before.

There wasn’t much in the shop our college-budget wallets could afford, but we had fun chatting with Ömer and poking around.