Turkey

After much consideration, we finally decided to join Sri America Travel Corporation S/B for our trip to Turkey! This time, I went to Turkey with my elder daughter and 2 other friends. Turkey is a huge country. It's population is around 85 million (compared to Msia is only 32 million). 

DAY 1 : KLIA

We met with our Msia tour guide Wyson and the other travelers in KLIA. We are taking Turkish Airlines direct flight from KL to Istanbul.

DAY 2 : ISTANBUL - BOLU

We have total 2 meals in the 10 hours flight. One is 2 hours after depart and another meal is 2 hours before landing. The food served is actually VERY GOOD!

Once we arrived in Istanbul Airport, we immediately went to change for our first day of travel - ISTANBUL CITY TOUR!

BLUE MOSQUE

It was disappointing to find out that the blue mosque is actually under restoration. Hence, we are only able to visit a small part of it. It only take us 15 mins to finish visiting. Hence we are not too fascinated about it. (We actually have very high expectation on the visits to the mosques, particularly on its history and architecture).

Exterior of Blue Mosque

The dome in the middle (with the scaffoldings)

Interior of Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque at the back

HAGIA SOPHIA

It is an easy short walk to Hagia Sophia from the Blue Mosque. Half way through, we bought a local Turkish donut suggested by our tour guide. Well, it is worth a try. It is slightly harder than our Msia donut, something like Auntie Annie's I would say.

Hagia Sophia as backdrop

Turkish Donut

Hagia Sophia from distance

At the outside entrance

The Entrance where we need to take off our shoes

Inside the mosque

We are required to cover our hair (ladies) and remove our shoes before entering the building. 

Well, we actually have a local Turkish tour guide - Billy, briefing us on the history. 

A little summary and history of Hagia Sophia:

> built in 5th century AD as Cathedral

> converted to a mosque after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 14th century (1453)

> converted into a museum during Ataturk ruling under secular Republic of Turkey (1935)

> recently converted back to a mosque recently due to political reasoning (2020)

TOPKAPI PALACE

HIPPODROME

The hippodrome was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The Hippodrome has long since disappeared, what remains of the serpent column and two original obelisks in modern downtown Istanbul.

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