Istanbul - Back door experiences?

I bought a bag of dried cat food to feed some of the strays I encountered on my walks around Istanbul this last summer. I put it into my day bag and made many new "friends".
Had a hard time finding the cat food - it took 3 different unconnected locals to get me to a store downtown that sold it. All the locals there were very helpful whenever I asked a question.

Hi Charlie. Thanks for replying. Sounds like that must have been fun. However, I will be traveling with my mom who is highly allergic to cats. I'll have to find other things to do!
:)

The easiest connections I've found with locals in Istanbul have been at minor tourist sites. They are rarely visited so you have an eager employee all to yourself. They're often quite talkative and excited to have someone to interact with after hours of nothing to do. My favorite was way back in 2004. I was walking around basically killing some time and I accidently came across a musuem to a 1700's Turkish composer (Dede Efendi's House). I decided to go inside and check it out. The caretaker had a nephew who lived in New Jersey. He gave me a detailed tour of the house and we talked about the U.S. and Turkey for some time - until I had to leave to pick up my wife at the airport. I hesitate to suggest this, but merchants are also a great opportunity for interesting conversations. This works best if you're around in a slow season, an off-time of day, or an area not as often visited by tourists.

Mine wasn't in Istanbul but near Canakkale where Ancient Troy/Truva is located. I went to Truva but was enjoying myself so much I lost track of time and ended up missing my bus. A local who spoke very good English asked if he could help me and we ended up sitting in a local cafe I never would have entered by myself and enjoyed some coffee while he figured out how to get me back to town. I spent over 2 hours with him just talking about Turkey and his 'take' on life there. It was a great experience.

We have traveled to Turkey four times, and each time my husband took along a bag of balloons that he bought at a party store. Anywhere we sat down in a park, we would be surrounded by kids wanting to practice their English, so he would blow up balloons and hand them out. They were awestruck at the size of the balloons and had a glorious time with them. We had a long conversation with a pre-teen boy who was in a total immersion English year. Great fun.