Turkey suggestions?

[HappyCamp]

I ended up going to a Turkcell shop. They are almost everywhere in Istanbul. I sometimes see 2-3 Turkcell stops while standing in one spot.

My experience was not great. I went to what appeared to be a company store as it was quite large. They spoke very little English but were able to sell me a SIM card for 44 TL ($22). Luckily there was a customer who spoke English who helped translate. They said to wait one hour and my SIM would become activated. Once it was activated I could then come back and add on 1GB of data for 25 TL ($12.50). I was supposed to dial 8090 once the SIM became activated.

Unfortunately I went two days without the SIM becoming activated. But finally on the third day I turned on my phone and I was on the network. I then dialed 8090, set it to English. Then went into a Turkcell shop and added my 1GB of data.

Not sure if I maybe should have tried power cycling my phone more often. Maybe it would have become active sooner. I had mainly just left it powered on.

During the two days when it didn't work I had no success on figuring out what was wrong. One person told me my phone # was disconnected. Another said that I had to pay the tax on the phone before it would work. But then it worked on my 3rd day when I turned it on.

I'll see if my phone gets cut-off before I leave on day seven.