Dilek is one half of the husband-and-wife team behind Orubes Travel Club, a travel agency and licensed private tour guide company based in Istanbul. She begins with the essential sights of the Old City — Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace and the Basilica Cistern — before taking us beyond Sultanahmet to neighbourhoods where everyday Istanbul comes into sharper focus.

Food is central to the conversation. Dilek points us towards tiny köfte restaurants near the Spice Market, explains Istanbul’s seasonal relationship with fish and makes an extremely persuasive case for warm bread. She also shares the city’s tea and coffee traditions, from tulip-shaped glasses of black tea to the Ottoman routes that brought coffee to Istanbul.

For an escape from the crowds, we head to the Princes’ Islands, the Black Sea town of Şile and historic İznik. Dilek’s perfect Istanbul experience, however, is wonderfully simple: take a ferry from Europe to Asia and watch one of the world’s great cities unfold from the water.

Listen now for Dilek’s practical, good-humoured guide to Istanbul — including the Turkish words worth learning before you reach the bazaar.