We arrive in Istanbul Ataturk airport at about 8AM to a cool weather of about 14 degrees Celsius. The wind was blowing my face and I breathed in the Turkey air. I was finally stepping on the land that I had been dreaming about for so many months. It was almost unbelievable.
We board the bus and were introduced to our driver, Farouk, and our tour guide, Huseyin. As the bus made its way along the streets of Istanbul, I grabbed my video camera and start to record the views of the streets on a Sunday morning.
We made our way to the Blue Mosque which is world famous for its blue tiled ceilings and domes. Seeing it right in front of me was almost magical. It’s really beautiful and serene. It was calm and quiet and I feel like I can just sit there the whole day.
We then made our way to Ayasofia which is located just across the street. Along the way we bought semit, a local delicacy and it tasted like pretzels. Ayasofia was build about 500 years before the Blue Mosque. It was build as a church and was then converted into a mosque and now it’s a museum. You can see from the pictures that a church and a mosque were present due to the architecture of the building.
After Ayasofia, we took a 10 minutes walk up a hill to Topkapi Palace. It’s unusual how I’ve always imagines that palaces are European. However Topkapi Palace has displays of Arabic words and inscriptions as part of its history.
We were all tired and hungry by this time so we were drove to a nice place for a Turkish lunch. One thing you have to know, they will always start with salad which comprises of thinly sliced carrots, red cabbages and lettuces, and then there will be soup and bread, and then the main course and lastly dessert. Turks love to eat. I love the restaurant’s skewered chicken.
After lunch we made our way to Bolu which was about three to four hours drive from Istanbul. We stayed the night in Yurdaer Hotel Ayrilik Cesmesi Mevkii Bolu. It’s a boutique hotel opened by a local artist. It was almost like home and the key to the room was attached to those mini Converse shoes keychain. I was tired and a little hungry and thankfully about half an hour after check in dinner was ready to be served.
Soup was the nicest in this hotel, it’s like cream of mushroom and there were beans as sides and the main was nice but because I was gorging myself with the beans I got full.
My sister and I went back to the hotel room and took our long awaited shower and slipped into very clean clothes. I had a good sleep eventhough it was cold. I was probably tired. The weather was nice and cool and I miss the weather. I’m not sure if sweat exists. I did not sweat the whole time I was in Turkey.
