[Roadtrip] WEMW : Istanbul, Turkey - Part 2
January 22, 2015
Blue Mosque;
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| Rainy day. Picture credit to Maryam |
It is an historical mosque in Istanbul, built between 1609 - 1616 and alhamdulillah, of course open for prayers and visitors. Although it is said to be closed to non-Muslim during 5 daily prayers, we can still see non-Muslim sit there in the mosque.
So, I must state that it is a great place for tourists to witness themselves how Muslim perform prayers and insyAllah, may they get hidayah from Allah to know more about Islam :) There is information room in the mosque for those who would like to learn Islam too. MashaAllah!
Called as Sultanahmet Camii, and why it is known as Blue Mosque?
It is because of the interior design that is made with many blue tiles. :) Art work!
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| The dome. |
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| Islamic designs. |
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| The chandelier. |
I thought the chandelier will be high up at the dome. :D Hihi. It is safe enough to make it lower, I guess.
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| Aha, the praying area for men is restricted only for men who want to pray. So, they have the advantage to see the front side of mosque :) |
By the way, there is no charge to enter Blue Mosque and it provides us with free plastic bags to put our shoes in and bring it inside. And since it is a mosque, women need to cover their head and don't worry, there are head coverings available too, still for free!
I think I found it awkward here with the mixed entrance for men and women. I mean, like there is less barrier between both genders to enter the praying area. Be careful to keep the wudu'. T_T Ahaa, places for wudu' for men, is when you enter the mosque. It was cold back then. ;p What we did was, just use bottled waters. Well, nowadays, people know it is enough to use a bottle of water for wudu' right? . :)
Done with praying, it was time to fill the stomach. Alhamdulillah, there was no problem to find halal food! Most Turkish are Muslim and they served halal food. even KFC. Wohoooo.
We went to this restaurant (I can't recall the name), and the main reason was that, it is once TripAdvisor's choice! Haha. Located close to Blue Mosque and we don't have that strength to find any other restaurant. :p We need energy! ^_^
Breads are free in restaurants in Istanbul, I think. And the soup was delicious. I was searching for the spices to make the soup, but no luck :p
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| Most of the customers are foreigners, and unexpectedly, we were in between 2 tables with Korean tourists. And the rest, mostly Asians. Haha. :D |
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| One of street close to the restaurant. New Year in Istanbul! |
So, what's next? Let's go to Taksim Square! We took metro from Vezneciler station. The token costs about 4 L per ride. Not that reasonable :(
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| Metro crossing river :) |
I used to think metro = subway = underground. But when I reach Istanbul, the metro here can be underground and can also be on ground. Similar to Munich, if I'm not mistaken.
And I should not underestimate the depth of metro station in Istanbul! There was a lift (going down) on top of Vezneciler metro station and escalators just beside it. I wonder why people use lifts, and they even wait for another trip when the lift was full. But, we just use the short escalators and thought we already arrived at the ticket machine.
Ya Allah, there was at least 3 - 4 floors down there, connected by escalators. Fuhh, it was really mental torturing as we were expecting the entrance to the metro on each floor we went. T__T
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| Black coats; most of them I can say. And we; colorful clothes :) |
And as we get out of the metro station, we can see this; the Taksim Square.
In the center, stands the Monument of the Republic; to remember the formation of Turkish Republic. Hmmm, suddenly I feel awkward knowing this. The monument portray the founder of the Republic, Kamal Ataturk. Hmm, his pictures were everywhere, even in most shops that we went. I can feel the strong influence he brought to Turkey T_T.
But still...... hmmm.
Maybe because it was night, I can't really see how big was the square. From my reading, this place is famous with public events like parades, protests and festivals. Basically, Taksim Square is the gateway to Istiklal street; which surrounded with many branded shops, restaurants, malls, and hotels.
One thing that I remember from this square was; I saw a policeman threw used tissue to the ground. T_T There were many other polices so I don't have the gut to pick it up as it was quite close to him. I feel sorry for him and myself.
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| Istiklal street; crowded with people shopping with New Year's discounts. |
The streets in Istanbul, literally NEVER sleep; especially this one - Istiklal street. For those who love nightlife and shopping, this street is really suitable for you.
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| Mussels - Kupang? |
There were many street food; like Turkish chicken rice, roasted chestnut, roasted/steamed corn. My friend and I tried this! Mussels with lemon. It looks scary to eat at first and I thought it was still alive. 1 Lira for two mussels. Just say how much you want, the hawker will serve it for you. After finished eating, only then you pay. There were few people who can't stop eating it and he spent nearly 10 Lira for this (20 mussels!) . :)
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| For me the lemon covered the real taste of mussels, but it was really okay. I cannot imaging myself eating it without lemon. :) |
Actually, there was another reason why we was so excited to go there. We want KFC for late dinner! We used to have a halal fast-food restaurant in Hradec Kralove, Czech, called CFC - California Fried Chicken but we don't know why it is still closed till now. T_T Other than this, NONE.
Memories in KFC were kind of memorable too. Greeted with dirty tables; full with uneaten food left by the customers. There were fries on the floor, some ketchup too! T_T It was heart-breaking to see this.
Ordering the menu was not that easy too. :0 All menu were written in Turkish language, and of course the menu was not the same like in Malaysia; so we didn't really know what to order. But, the cashier was being good to ask us, what do you want to buy? How many wings, how many drumsticks and only then he suggested the menu that was suitable for us. :)
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| From metro to funicular |
Getting back to the apartment was another interesting story. Since we would like to reach closer to the apartment, we changed to tram. But, there was no direct tram from Taksim to Sultanahmet (maybe). So, we need to take funicular to Kabatas, then by tram to Sultanahmet.
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| Changed from funicular to tramvaj |
The funicular was a bit frustrating. Haha. I thought I can see the view of a part of Istanbul from the funicular like when I went up Penang Hill or Buda Castle of Budapest.
But, none! Ouchhh, the route of the funicular was NOT transparent. And it just feel like moving downwards in a building. T_T And to make it more frustrating, funicular and tram needed 2 tokens! Haha,
I took it as experience; to forget about the frustration. :D
At least, the public transportation here is efficient enough with no delay and clean. :)
After reaching the tram stop, we walked to the apartment. The funny thing was, we didn't know the way home!
But, none! Ouchhh, the route of the funicular was NOT transparent. And it just feel like moving downwards in a building. T_T And to make it more frustrating, funicular and tram needed 2 tokens! Haha,
I took it as experience; to forget about the frustration. :D
At least, the public transportation here is efficient enough with no delay and clean. :)
After reaching the tram stop, we walked to the apartment. The funny thing was, we didn't know the way home!
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| Still remember this picture in one of the previous posts? |
We stopped at one Kebab shop, trying to ask direction. He asked about the business card of the apartment. Ouch, we forgot to bring it. Fortunately, I have the picture above in my phone. It was a bit risky to show the phone to a stranger, But, we surrounded him against the shop, just to make it secured T_T
There was another sentences written between the red and blue-green part - Kucuk Ayasofea. Only then, he said he know it :) And he gave us the right direction, and we saw our car! Alhamdulillah.
Weird thing about parking here. Since the area is not that big to have a proper parking area, Turkish people said you can park anywhere, as long it doesn't affect other cars to use the road. Polices can warn you but they will not give you penalty. :D And we were already in Istanbul for 2 public holidays - New Year's Eve and New Year - making it confirmed to have free parking! Wohooo.
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| This is another place to park the car. just, it is not free. And risky thing is you need to give your car key to the guard. Like you can see in the picture, they park the car blocking one another to save space, so, they need the car key to move the car. |
As I mentioned earlier, most streets in Istanbul never sleep. We can still see many people around but the scary thing was, majority of them were male. T___T I wonder where were Turkish's women. So, I think, if you are a girl/woman, take this into account and think to go to Istanbul with at least a friend to accompany you. :)
We reached the apartment near midnight, had KFC for supper, had a tablet of Ibalgin (like Panadol), and prepare to have a good sleep for tomorrow's adventure!
p/s - I tried to use the same chronology like I had there, so, sorry if you can't understand the transition of one place to another. T_T
Part 3 next, :)
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah,
150121
[Roadtrip] WEMW : Istanbul, Turkey - Part 1
January 21, 2015
Wohoo, more posts about the trip will be coming soon :) I'll try to write few posts before get back preparing for final exam of next subject.
Teaser
Teheee. :D
When time was limited for us, we tried to get back to our target destination by walking along the road beside the sea. Fortunately, we found a couple who were heading to the same direction and actually at that time, we can easily see lots of tourist buses, vans and taxis heading the same way as us. :)
Tourist attractions spotted!
We walked along Arasta Bazaar to reach Blue Mosque. I will cover Blue Mosque later, yea.
One of interesting architecture is this;
The Milion Stone
I just knew that this stone used to be a starting point of all roads to reach Constantinople in Ancient Rome. And it was used to calculate distance from cities all around the world to Istanbul.
View from the Milion Stone. You can see distances from some cities on the signboards. :)
Not just that, there was a wooden floor (pelantar kayu?) with more cities and the distances. So, generally, distance from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur is 11300 km
After walking for few more meters, we arrived Topkapi Palace! Alhamdulillah.
So far I remember, for previous post, we finally arrived Istanbul and slept soundly. Fantastic sleep! Haha.
Now, let's explore Istanbul!
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Teaser
Teheee. :D
We started our day in the afternoon (I guess, we were so tired back then. :p). After having 'breakfast', we planned to cover Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia for the first day. So, we walked out from the apartment then, suddenly we reached the sea. What? Why sea? Oh man, we were walking to the opposite direction from the center! T_T *facepalm*
Tourist attractions spotted!
We walked along Arasta Bazaar to reach Blue Mosque. I will cover Blue Mosque later, yea.
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| Arasta Bazaar - we can go shopping here, but there are more places to do so; we just skip pass it through :) |
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| Roadtrip buddies! <3 |
The first thing we should do that time was to change some money. How can we buy the tickets or food if we don't have Turkish Lira? haha. The currency was 1 Euro = 2.70 Lira. More better currency rate when you walk along the main straight road of Sultanahmet (along the tram).
My friend bought some Turkish Delight - to eat while we walk. They are very sweet to me. Phewww, but I can't resist them, they are tasty!
While walking to Topkapi Palace, there were so many interesting places to stop by and of course for taking few pictures of memories :D
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| Sweet Turkish delight! - picture credit to Maryam |
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| Baklava! - Special for people with sweet tooth. hehe. picture - credit to Maryam |
My friend bought some Turkish Delight - to eat while we walk. They are very sweet to me. Phewww, but I can't resist them, they are tasty!
Turkish Delight (like hard jelly of starch and sugar - with many flavours!)
Baklava (sweet pastry with many layers - filled with nuts, and sweetened by syrup/honey)
While walking to Topkapi Palace, there were so many interesting places to stop by and of course for taking few pictures of memories :D
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| We-fie with Turkish-tourists. Supposedly, we just asked a guy to take our picture, but, just realised he was in a group of this!. Loud group. Haha. :p |
One of interesting architecture is this;
The Milion Stone
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| The Milion Stone |
I just knew that this stone used to be a starting point of all roads to reach Constantinople in Ancient Rome. And it was used to calculate distance from cities all around the world to Istanbul.
View from the Milion Stone. You can see distances from some cities on the signboards. :)
Not just that, there was a wooden floor (pelantar kayu?) with more cities and the distances. So, generally, distance from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur is 11300 km
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| Missing home. T_T |
After walking for few more meters, we arrived Topkapi Palace! Alhamdulillah.
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| Here we are! |
It is a really nice historical place, especially to learn and see the era of Ottoman Empire. With 30 Lira, I think you can cover basic areas of Topkapi and if you more money and time, please, buy the tickets for whole Topkapi. During winter, it is closed quite early, about 4.45 pm if I'm not mistaken. T_T
Refer this website for more details.
It is a very big place to walk in, so I suggest to spend a day / half a day here. And come early morning on weekdays, when it is not yet crowded. So, you can cover the whole exhibits and rooms. We didn't take the audio tour guide - it is quite expensive but we were mesmerized enough with what have been exhibited to us :).
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| Large Gate of Salutation (Babus Salam) |
This is Gate of Salutation known as Middle Gate; leads into the palace and the Second Courtyard. The tower looks more like - Byzantine style than Ottoman.You can enter Topkapi after buying tickets at the booth around here. :) Long queue of course!
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| The garden inside. |
Topkapi is full of Ottoman's architecture. There are large collections of stuffs used in that era. Like porcelains, jewelries, weapons, shields, armors, calligraphic manuscripts, treasures. What I can say, as time goes by, most of the items are more well decorated. :)
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| One of the exhibition room in Topkapi. |
Some exhibitions do not allow tourists to take pictures, maybe due to fragility of the items. Maybe. Or their exclusiveness. No worries, just enjoy all of them by your own eyes!
Since we only have few hours in Topkapi, we needed to make the tour memorable. The first building we went was enough to make me happy. What did I see? :D
This!
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| picture credit here |
The Sword of Fatih / Mehmed II / Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror! I'm sure you know who is he. A guy at the age of 21 who conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire. It was like battling against the strong empire that time!
I love all calligraphy on all swords - how it inspired them to go on battles with hearts remembering Allah. And this one quoted from Fatih's sword.
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| picture credit here |
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“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (in the name of Allah, the most beneficient, the most merciful). Praise be to Allah Almighty who blessed religious faith with lustrous & lucid verses and sharp & shining swords. Salat and salam upon our noble Prophet Muhammad and his household who are attributed with the most exquisite, lucent words.
Bless and strengthen Mehmed II, son of Murad II, the poignant sword that is drawn in the name of jihad; the Sultan of ghazis and mujahideen that strive to glorif the holy men of Allah; may the necks of enemies of Shariat become the scabbard of his sword; shed your grace on the ink of his pen.
Son of Osman, son of Orhan, son of Murad, son of Beyazit, son of Mehmed; may Allah cleanse them with the heavenly waters (zulal) that streamed by the swords of ghazis and place the under the shadow of swords in heaven. Amen ya rabbelalemin (God of all universes).
Strong words; smile with tears.
Another corner of the palace, it has beautiful view of Bosphorus. Bosphorus is basically the strait that form the boundary between Europe and Asia which make the place we stand here as the 'European' side of Turkey :) It is a narrow strait, with metro and roads connecting both sides.
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| Behind there, the 'Asia' side of Turkey. |
After feeling wish-to come-again-but-satisfied with Topkapi, we went to Blue Mosque to perform prayers. :) Oh, have I mentioned, we can hear Adzan here all over Istanbul from the mosques. Alhamdulillah, the feeling was just peaceful. :) Smile smile smile!
InsyAllah, I'll continue soon in Part 2.
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah,
150120
[Something to Ponder] How Do Trees Survive Winter?
January 16, 2015
If we have the opportunity to observe the Earth in different seasons, the first thing we should say... Alhamdulillah. SubhanAllah, we need to assure ourselves that everything happened in this world is under a control. Of whom? Allah, the God. :)
He controls every activities of nature. I guess, most of us love to spend time with nature, right? Get surrounded by all trees, being alone or accompanied by friends in the middle of the forest, watch the sunset, waiting for sunrise, perform prayers in the jungle, explore the rivers and seas, enjoying the beautiful shape of clouds and their flow. :)
Beauty.
Self-relaxation.
Peace.
That's what we will feel right?
Filling the desire to get away from the hectic life in the city, dirty air full of development and industry. Get rid of that.
Happiness.
Well, Allah gives us the nature to treasure and learn through it.
So, let us learn something and be grateful of it. :)
Have you ever wonder how do trees survive in winter?
Have you ever realised why in winter, some trees do have leaves while some do not?
Have you ever think what are actually behind the gold, beautiful autumn leaves before winter?
If you are the same as me, have no idea about it, why not, spend few minutes watching this video :)
If you don't mind to share what come across your mind after watching it, please leave some comments below :D
I don't know why, I reflected myself by this video on what happened around us recently. Most incidents happened in our country, I keep track although only by social networks.
I just want to conclude that, if trees have be given guidelines and ability in its own way on how to survive in winter, so do us, the humans. We have the guidelines to live and survive in this world. Al-Quran & sunnah. :) And even, Allah lends us, humans to have ability to think before making decision. Why not we use it wisely and reminds ourselves on what is good and what is not?
And it is He who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?
Dan
Dia lah yang menghidupkan dan mematikan; dan Dia lah yang menentukan
pertukaran malam dan siang. Maka tidakkah kamu mahu berfikir?
- See more at: http://quran.islamicevents.sg/23/78/80#sthash.oNbqtw9N.dpufAnd it is He who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?
Dan Dia lah yang menghidupkan dan mematikan; dan Dia lah yang menentukan pertukaran malam dan siang. Maka tidakkah kamu mahu berfikir? (al-Mu'minun 23:80)
And it is He who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?
Dan
Dia lah yang menghidupkan dan mematikan; dan Dia lah yang menentukan
pertukaran malam dan siang. Maka tidakkah kamu mahu berfikir?
- See more at: http://quran.islamicevents.sg/23/78/80#sthash.oNbqtw9N.dpuf
I know and I admit, we tend to do something beyond our control. It will be like, " Ouch, what have I done? I don't want to do it at the first place. It was out of control."
It is normal, I guess? But, Allah gives us friends and family to remind each others. That's one of the reasons why we have them in our life. Right? :)
Please, don't get angry if we are reminded on something bad we did. Humans do sins, and Allah is always with us to listen to our stories (He always know it, just want us to share it with Him) He is here to receive our repentance too. :)
p/s - For the postcards winners who haven't give details, please do so yea
p/s/s - Have a final exam on Monday. remember me in your prayers :)
v Educational Center, Fakultni Nemocnice
150116
[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 5
January 14, 2015
Sofia-Istanbul
approximately 560km (6 hours - non stop driving)
ETA - 9pm Wednesday
As I mentioned in previous post, most places in Bulgaria are named with their alphabets which made the journey more difficult. With no coverage of car's GPS for Turkey, what we did was, try to get to Svilengrad (one of the nearest town to the border of Bulgaria and Turkey).
From Svilengrad, we need to continue driving to Kapitan (this is the town for entry into Turkey). I just knew both Bulgaria and Turkey are neighbours with Greece. Excuse my Geography. T_T
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| Glad to see the word Istanbul. :) Image - credit to my friend's Instagram :D |
Still in Bulgaria, if I'm not mistaken, while heading to Svilengrad, we nearly got ourselves into accidents. Twice. T_T It was nobody's fault actually. The weather was very bad. There was a sudden heavy snow, the road was icy (with melt snow) but still covered with fresh snow. Emm, I hope you can imagine.
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| Before the snow storm. Can still see previous cars' marks of tires. |
Walking / driving on fresh snow is not as bad as on old snow (when it becomes ice). People usually fall down when walk on slippery ice while fresh snow gives more grip.
The first incident was when a car in front of us suddenly brake and gave emergency light. So, my friend slowed down and gave emergency light too. While there was another car behind us, it looked like the driver also try to reduce the speed. But the car started to slide to the right and left. Fortunately he managed to stop the car without hitting the back of our car T_T
That was so close.
Another incident was, this time our car slide left and right; nearly fall from the road (the road is higher than sidewalk, at least half a meter) There was a tree too. Alhamdulillah, my friend didn't get panicked and she tried her best to stop the car. The car was not speeding before, but I think maybe because of a small hole on the road that cause the car to be imbalance after that.
That was also so close. Really.
Istighfar.
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| Assalamualaikum Turkey! |
We continued the journey until we arrived at the border! Alhamdulillah, we got closer to Istanbul.
But, the challenge didn't stop yet. T_T
I just read somewhere; the border between Bulgaria and Turkey has the largest road customs in Europe! Entry into Turkey was not as simple as we thought. We needed to pass at least 3 officers - passport control > car control > final booth.
Unfortunately, most of cars who pass through the customs that night was stranded there for almost 2 hours. Including us. They said, our problem was because we use rented car. I don't understand how that can be a problem. We already showed them the car's identity card, car's insurance, prove of car rental.
The memorable thing of what we did there was....
Car X-RAY!
I really cannot brain this. :O
X-ray was okay for us to follow. But, when they told us to remove most of our stuffs from the car, it felt like something heavy dropped on you. It was really cold outside with strong wind, that was really painful. Most of our bags were checked too.
All procedures went well. And they found nothing was wrong.
Hmmmm.
I don't really understand how tolls work in Turkey. They don't have vignette but they have these systems - HGS / OGS. HGS means H?zl? Ge?i? Sistemi (Fast Transit System) - in which you will have electronic toll-payment device on the car screen. We cannot pay the toll cash or by credit card at the toll booth. Difference between HGS and OGS is that for HGS, you can pass the booth with normal highway speed limit, but OGS you need to slow your car.
I hope, we didn't get any traffic fine. As we stopped at almost all petrol stations (RnR) looking for ways to pay for it, but they keep saying we can do so at next 10km. The same sentences was answered when we stop at the next RnR. Suddenly we realised we were already at the toll booth T__T What to do.... we just pass through it as the booths have no gates.
We arrived Istanbul after midnight.
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| Take this picture so that we don't get lost finding way home T_T It helped! There was actually another line between red and green - Kucuk Ayasofia. |
Another problem was when we do not know how to get to the hostel. Roads in Istanbul was so complicated for us, but finally we managed to arrive near Blue Mosque. But still, where can we find the hostel? There was misunderstanding with the hostel owner as we don't really know how to describe our location.
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| The narrow road to the hostel. |
The roads near the hostel were mostly one-way. And Turkish drivers really got on my nerves when they keep honking horns when we drive slowly. When we arrived at the hostel, it was already 3am. Since the area is not flat, we find problem too on how to park the car. We, the drivers strongly feel not good to park on a hilly, narrow road. The hand brake was not that strong. We can't imagine the next morning to see our car 'kissing' another car.
While two of us went to look for the hostel, the drivers decided to park somewhere far-but-not-that-far, on flat road. :) Unfortunately, we didn't know how to get back to the hostel T___T. The roaming rate in Turkey for our Czech phone numbers was really high. And we almost lost contact with each other at the time.
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| Where ever you go while travelling, make sure to bring your hostel/hotel/accomodation card. Even though you don't understand the map, local people can help you :) |
The place where we stay that night was not actually the one we booked online. Some misunderstandings happen but the person we deal with; offer us another place. Alhamdulillah. It was still nice, I think; actually it was better. But, it was big enough for us with 3 bedrooms of 2 beds in each rooms, a big living room and a kitchen. We were afraid if they charged us more. After discussing, alhamdulillah, we don't have to pay extra.
The price is 19 Euro per person per night. I guess, the price was okay as the place is located close to Ayasofea and Blue Mosque :)
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| One of the rooms :) |
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| The common area for all guests :) |
We had a very good sleep after 2 days sleeping in the car. :)
Walk around Istanbul on the next day. Excited. :D
Till then,
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah
150109
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