Just touched down in Istanbul from a 11 hour flight and feeling super shagged after just 1.5 hours of nap, but headed out nevertheless!It's the 2nd time in Istanbul so I'm not that excited.
This time, my room is on the 10th floor of Titanic Port Hotel and the view was much more awesome than being on the 2nd floor! Could catch a glimpse of the ocean across the city and its beautiful!
Headed out to the Grand Bazaar via a cab. The cab driver drives like a F1 driver and they are really skilled I would say. They could come to an instant stop just right behind a car without hitting them when just 5 seconds ago they are speeding at 120km/hr!
The uncle dropped us at this place and said the Grand Bazaar is just inside. Ok, so we believed, paid him 30Turkish Lira (about 21sgd) and left the cab. Then we realised that its just near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia so we thought we could cancel the tour that we just booked. Its like duhhh right, we can just head to the blue mosque so easily why take a tour.
There's those shoe polishing small vendors along the streets and they polish those black shoes to a sparkling black shine.
The sun was so freaking scorching and just so happened to have a turkish ice cream shop! Bought an ice cream for 5TL. You can choose to buy different sizes which also comes at different prices 3TL, 4TL, 5TL. That guy will try to toy around with your ice cream, wanting to pass it to you and the next moment he flipped it around and point the ice cream to your nose. The ice cream kinda sucked, like a lil sticky-ish icy texture and the flavour isn't nice. So you pay for the entertainment.
Walked around in search of the bazaar and its damn far, took around 30mins to walk there. Stupid cab driver just anyhow drop us by the road. Istanbul is full of con-men and this lazy taxi uncle is just the first incident that got us pissed off.
The shops sell gold, but I guess its just plated gold instead of fully gold jewelleries. They also sell those small pieces of gold (5g) which looks like sim card in the phones. I wonder whats the point of buying since its just one small sheet of gold.
There's interesting things to look at when you walk into the lanes, like colourful lamps that doesn't fit into my room decoration, painted bowls, pashima scarfs and etc. It's nice to window shop less those annoying shopleepers who kept trying to strike conversations with you. That's how they try to talk to you as you walk past "China? Korea? Japanese? Taiwan?" That's like so high eq right? Gets damn annoying after awhile and even if I feel like getting something I'd have abolished that thought of being bugged by those buggers.
Then when we were getting famished and walking along few eating places, this annoying guy just kept following one of us and bugged us to eat at their restaurant. Initially he said the food is only 7TL, and thats why we went in. Its freaking hot even though we sat under the fans. Even the kebab looks good in that picture above, it actually taste worst than dog food - dry, weird smell, unpalatable. And worst thing, when the bill came, it amounts to 205TL for 6 pax, like wtf right. The pita bread he brought for us cost 21TL and we didn't even know it was so expensive. So lesson learnt: never ever get persuaded by those cheats unless you confirm the price before you sit down and start eating. This is a land of conmen.
In the end back at the hotel, we didn't cancel the tour when we can actually tour those places by outselves.
Took a tour by Plan Tours to several places - Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, some random mosque, Topkapi palace.
Passed by these architectures which were erected in the 4th century. The tour guide was trying to explain the significance of these but I just couldn't catch what he was saying!
Those irritating top peddlers who will throw and spin a top in front of you to promote the tops but in fact they are just annoying the shit out of me.
Headed to Blue Mosque, which is also known as Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Its named as blue mosque cos of the blue tiles adorning the interior.
View from the outer courtyard.
The devotees will wash their hands and legs at this area so that they are deemed clean.
Rules before entering. Ladies has to be well covered. They provided cloths to cover my shoulder and legs, and plastic bags to put shoes into. Still quite tourist friendly i guess.
Thats the interior of the mosque which is lined with more than 20,000 tiles. At different levels in the mosque, its lined by different tiles. At the lower levels, the tiles are more traditional in design, while those at the higher levels are more flamboyant in designs with flowers, tulips etc. The higher levels are dominated by blue paint and thats how the name Blue Mosque arises.
The prayer areas
The overall view of the Blue Mosque from outside.
Then headed to Hagia Sophia. The entrance fee is 20TL, but in the tour, its all included.
Hagia Sophia is interesting as it envelops a mixture of christianity and islamnic elements. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, and was initially a Greek Cathedral under the ruling of the Roman Empire. It then turned into a Roman Catholic Cathedral under the Latin Empire, and finally into a Mosque when Istabul was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. Its now converted into a museum.
The central dome of the museum.
The Comnenus mosaics
Next, we were brought to the carpet shop, where all the carpets are handmade. There's those which are a mixture of cotton and wool, wool only, purely silk and the prices of course differs as well.
To differentiate a handmade and machine made carpet, take the ends of the carpet. The handmade carpet would have knots which you couldn't tug open. The ends for the machine made carpet is not knotted and could be tugged open.
Cost of the carpet is around 1000++ TL for the lower end ones, inclusive of shipping to any countries, custom taxes.
Lunch at a restaurnt by the sea. The cold dish doesnt taste good but other people seems to be enjoying it much.
Doesnt taste that nice either. Small piece of chicken breast, and salty rice. Only the mash potatoes are nor
Headed to the RÜSTEM PAŞA MOSQUE, designed by the court architect Sinan for the Grand Vizier of Süleyman The Magnificent exhibiting a typical sample of Islamic architecture.
Its located above a row of shops where the rents for those shops are supposedly to finance the Mosque
See those rectangular shapes on the carpets? Thats the space allocated for each one to kneel and pray in.
The mosque is famous for its usage of large quantities of Inzik tiles in a variety of floral and geometric desgins.
The tiles used in the mosque are on sale just right after you step out.
Next is the Topkapi Palace. It was the was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years as well as a venue for state occasions and royal entertainments.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city.
This is the Imperial Gate where the sultan enter the palace.
The tour guide used the newspaper as his flag.
Towards the large Gate of Salutation leading into the palace and the Second Courtyard. No one apart for official purpose and foreign dignitaries were allowed passage through the gate. All visitors had to dismount by the Middle Gate, since only the sultan was allowed to enter the gate on horseback
Enderûn Library
The grand kiosk which beyond this, could get a panoramic view on the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus.
Room of treasury where treasures are displayed. No pics allowed in the rooms.
This hollow tree had fallen victim to a fungus that has completely hollowed out their trunks, over the course of centuries.
Yawns, sunset along the way back.
