Trip to Turkey

It's been so long since I last blogged that I'm not quite sure if I even know how to post pictures anymore. My company sent me to Israel for a 4 day workshop for a new company product with another colleague of mine, Berke who is from Turkey. Since a flight to Israel requires a stop-over at Istanbul, I decided to fly a little earlier and visit Istanbul. My colleague provided lodging at his place and also showed me parts of Istanbul. I met his whole family, his wife, older twin brother and his wife, his younger brother and father. Istanbul is strandled between the Asia and Europe continents. Berke's twin stays in Europe, while his younger brother and father stay in Asia, so we were crossing over between Europe and Asia a couple of times.

I left Singapore on a Friday and arrived in Istanbul at 5 am in the morning. We took a rest at this twin's place before starting the day. My collegue has not seen his wife for 2 months, so I did not disturb them and I booked a day trip on my own to see old istanbul.

It turns out that my day tour consisted of only me, a scottish girl and the tour guide. The tour guide is kind of eccentric, also I think I pissed her a little by asking her if the tour group was usually so small. Anyway, it was a good thing for me cos I don't need to squeeze with others, but I guess she took some offence. Anyway onward! During my tour from 9 am to 4 pm, I managed to see the Hippodrome and Obselisks, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and visit the Bazaar. After that, we headed for lunch, before proceeding to the Topkapı Palace and the Harem.

Blue Mosque

Haghia Sophia

GrandBazaar




After the tour ended, I walked alone on my own around Taksim Square. It was only 5pm, but it was already dark and since it was Saturday night, there were a lot of people out on the streets. My back was starting to ache from the day's walking and I didn't find anything too interesting as it is just your usual Nike, Accessorize, Coffee shops etc. I bought some Turkish delight and then took the Metro to a station nearer to my colleague's twin brother's house. I rested for a good hour, before we all headed out again to the same area where I was at 5pm. This time, instead of walking the main street which I was walking on, Berke and his family brought me through some smaller streets to reveal a popular dining street. There are restaurants lining both sides of the streets and tables and chairs outside on the streets, so that there is only a small passage way left for people to walk through. It's a nice bustling street where I guess a lot of locals like to go to for dinner. We had some turkish food, which I guess is authetic Turkish food, not like the standard kebab fare I get when I go to a Turkish restaurant on my own. We had some Turkish alcohol that goes well with honey dew (dunno why), Turkish cheeses, bread, youghurt, 2 egg plant dishes, plenty of salads, prawns and lambchops.

Berke and family.


After dinner, we headed off home for rest, where I slept in Asia at Berke's younger brother's apartment.

The next day, we went for Breakfast! I love European style breakfast! There were so many pastries, I wanted to try everyone of them, but of course, I can't. Cos I'm only here for one breakfast. :*( My main was bread toasted with Ham and Cheese and a sunny side up on top! Yum yum!! And they ordered a couple of other little pastries and cookies for me to try as well.

Breakfast

After breakfast, we took a walk around their neighbourhood. The neighbourhood is really nice and close to the sea. Supposely, the nearer the house is to the sea, the more expensive it is.

Seaside near their neighbourhood

Popular street

Their place is also near a major shopping street, so we went to take a walk there before we headed back to the apartment. According to Berke's younger brother Gorken, there are 3 zaras and 3 starbucks on the street alone, kind of like our Orchard Road then. Anyway, a lot of people were out having Sunday Brunch at the cafes lining the streets.







Soon, we had to head from Asia back to Europe where Berke's older brother was taking us to the airport. Here is rather bad shot ( i was in a moving car!) or us crossing the bridge from Asia side to the Europe side!

That's all for now.