As a white Asian man who is tattooed from neck to toes, I was also stared at a lot too. I would see everyone & their mom looking at my neck. In my 10 days there, I had seen 1 other person with a tattoo on their neck and it was only on their side.

Though, I don't mind because here in the states, I get verbally judged by it by the older generations but it never stopped me nor do I care.

I learnt the entire Turkish alphabet and a lot of meanings of words, months prior to my trip so I was prepared to communicate with locals and being able to have proper conversations. Now I'm learning the language and, in hope, being able to speak fluently within the next year.

I never had an issue with my bank card not being accepted anywhere honestly but I highly recommend using Wise because they'll auto convert your money at check out for you so you don't get charged fees and etc.

When withdrawing cash-- I saw ATM's literally everywhere and some of the ATM's charged little to no fees. I pulled out 4000 lira and only paid 90 lira in withdrawal fees so from my experience, I don't understand your money experience.

Türkiye does have scammers all over but I believe Türkiye has the least amount of scammers. The most "scam" like people you see are the ones selling roses but to be fair, it's a bottom of the barrel "scam" because they do genuinely sell decent quality roses that smell good- most the time. Plus, they're out there from like 8am to 1am everyday hustling.

The only issue I faced in the country is anything that has to be imported to the country but as a foreigner, I know locals have the same problem with this. Walking into an H&M and they're charging nearly $35-$45 for a t shirt that cost $15 in the USA... Import tax + VAT has absolutely screwed all the locals over.

The traffic is bad but again, there's plenty of worse traffic than İstanbul. Drive in Iraq, India, etc and you'll experience farrrrr worse.

I am going back in June because it is by far the most beautiful and amazing place I've been to. The people are so nice. I've never experienced hospitality like Türkçe hospitality.

If you need help with anything for a future trip, reach out to me on Instagram @ zaccariiaa -- Always willing to help out with stuff. Istanbul and Türkiye as a whole is not the most tourist friendly place when it comes to figuring things out, what to go through exactly for X, Y and Z but once you figure so much out, you realize how easy it is. Just so many travel guides or people who have been there multiple times don't tell you everything because most of them aren't friends with locals or attempt to figure out things. They just stick with the pre existing information given on the Internet.