Turkey Istanbul

7th August 2011

Turkey has been the one of the countries that we have always wanted to visit.Simply because of its rich history and culture. 10 nights and 7 days in the historically known Constantinople and Byzantium has allowed us to marvel at the beauty of Western Turkey and visited four of its biggest cities.

On the first day, we landed in Istanbul , I so love the city ( that I listed as one of my top favorites after Paris and New York) and had made up my mind that I would visited it again It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. Istanbul is a designated alpha world city.

Most of the architecture in Istanbul is primarily known for its Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, but its buildings reflect the various peoples and empires that have ruled its predecessors. Genoese, Roman, and even Greek forms of architecture remain visible in Istanbul alongside their Ottoman counterparts, Our first stop is the predominant Haga Sophia. The building is interesting as it has remnants of Christianity and Islam design and influence in one building. It started off as one of the largest cathedral in the ancient world, afterwhich was converted to a mosques, where the mosaics are plastered, minibars and minarets were added after Constantipole was conquered by the Ottoman Turks Under Sultan Memed II.

Next was the Tokapi palace. It is one of the largest palace in Istanbul and was occupied by the Ottoman Turks. The palace was one of the Unesco Heritage Site. When we first entered the site, it was designed with the same concept that it would be a self contained little town like some other palaces that we have visited in the other parts of the world. It has many courtyards and of course different function rooms.While listening to the stories told by the guide in the first courtyard, I could already visualize how the courtiers are assembled to host the different ambassadors from around the world. Then hubs and I quickly hopped over to the second and third courtyard where we managed to see many of the artifacts , the porcelain collection, the treasury, the arms collection and not forgetting one of the biggest diamonds and emerald that the royal families have worn.

As time was a little short... ( the downside of a tour package), we quickly went through the various rooms and visited the outer gardens which is my favourite part of the palace. Over here, we have a panoramic view of the Mamara sea from the palace. With the nice Mediterranean weather, Hubs and I spent a good 20 minutes marveling at the beautiful scenaries.

We then proceed to the the Blue Mosque. What a magnificent mosque in the classical period and being one of the largest in the world, with , 6 minarates, 8 domes. According to our tour guide, when you have 6 minarates in a mosque, it signifies that this is a mosque visited by the royal family.

We linger around the inner courtyard while the guide was giving a history of the mosque. It happened to be the fasting month when we visited Turkey so we could see lot of people which provided such a great view of the exterior of the mosque.

The interior view featuring the prayer area and the dome.

Before we say good bye to the blue mosque, there is this area where everyone has to washed their feet before they left or entered the mosque

Next we had a quick stop over at the hippodrome.It was the heart of the sporting and political life of old Constantinople.Monuments decorating the Hippodrome include the 3500-year-old Egyptian granite Obelisk of Theodosius, brought to Constantinople by Emperor Theodosius in 390 AD. You'll also see the spiral bronze base of a three-headed serpent sculpture brought from Delphi in Greece.At the southwestern end of the Hippodrome is the bare stone Column of Constantine Porphyrogenetus, dating from the 10th century. Just west of the Hippodrome is the Binbirdirek Cistern ("Cistern of 1001 Columns"), worth a look.

After lunch, we started our journey to the hotel that we are staying in Kudasi. Over here, we were ready to depart from the European Continent and take a ferry across the Mamara sea to Asia continent ( Anatolia). What an exciting and life time experienc!!

After 3 hours ride, we finally reached our hotel in Cannakale , checked in and retired early with the beautiful sunset hues.