#12 Ezahaians In Turkey (Day 1-3)

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ 

Assalamualaikum everyone, I hope you’re all in the best of health & doing well as always =) so, my family and I had to go on a trip to a beautiful & blessed country, Turkey and I’m going to share some informations + reviews about our trip there, hopefully this will help a lil’ bit if you’re planning to go there one day hehe. Plus, there are some special short videos that I made throughout our journey in Turkey, hope you'll watch that too! xx

DAY 1 - ISTANBUL

• We arrived at Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul after our 12 hours++ flight (including our transit in Abu Dhabi) and it was around 12 afternoon, after all the immigration businesses, we went straight to our hotel called Hotel Saba’ @ SultanAhmet by a van.

  

• ·      I recommend this hotel because it is close to the Blue Mosque & it’s easy to walk from the hotel to the city/tram station (it took about 10-15 mins) with beautiful view along the way.
• ·         After checking in, we went out and had our lunch at a local restaurant and yes, it was our first Turkish cuisine lunch. We had what they call Adana Kebab & Testi Kebab, which was interesting because they cooked it in a pot and they poured it in front of us (you'll see that in my video)
  
• ·         After lunch, we had a lil walk to take some photos in front of the Blue Mosque or the Turks called it SultanAhmet Camii. The weather was coldd like it was around 3 degree Celcius but nevertheless, we enjoyed our first moments in Istanbul! We also took some pictures in front of the beautiful & historical Hagia Sophia but then it started to get dark.
  
• ·         We walked to the city and had some coffee, and took a look inside some gift shops, jacket shops & many more. Few minutes after, we walked back to our hotel accompanied by the cold weather & the beautiful adhaan from mosques there, at that moment I just felt peace and I also knew that, I fall in love with that place <3
  
  
  
  

        DAY 2 – ISTANBUL

• ·         We started our day by having breakfast at our hotel (one perk of staying at Hotel Saba’ is that you get to enjoy the beautiful view of Blue Mosque & a part of Istanbul at the rooftop of the hotel) and also you get to enjoy Turkish breakfast. Well, they weren’t really my taste because they have all kinds of sauces and cheese.
• ·         Me? well umi brought chilli sauce all the wayyy from Malaysia and I took some bread + sliced meat + cheese + pepper + sauce (konon konon subway) and some cereal for that morning.
• ·         Honestly, my appetite is at its worst especially in the morning but I just ate as much as I could so that I wouldn’t be hungry during our journey that day.
  
• 
  
• ·         After breakfast, we walked to Hagia Sophia from our hotel (which took around 10-15 mins) and the weather was a lil bit gloomy and it was raining lightly.
• ·         Then, we met our tour guide named Fuad & he took us all the way inside & outside the building while explaining about the histories of the building.
• ·         Well, Hagia Sophia comes from these two words; Hagia means Holy while Sophia means wisdom. It was first built as a church but this building used to be the target of the people when there was a riot so it got destroyed multiple times.
• ·         Until then, it was redesigned as a mosque by the great Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh in 1453 after the downfall of Constantinople. Christians-related drawings like Jesus, Mary & many more were covered when it became a mosque and in 1953, under the command of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, it became a museum. 
  
• 
  
• ·         I could see a lot of combinations between Islam & Christianity in the building for example for Islam there were the names of Allah, Muhammad, Companions of Muhammad & a lot more and for Christianity there were the drawings of Jesus, Mary, Moses & many more.
• ·         It was indeed so beautiful that we couldn’t take our eyes off of the paintings and the drawings inside but unfortunately there was a construction going on at that time (as Fuad told us that the dome fell down a few times) so we couldn’t really enjoy the whole view inside it. Nevertheless, Hagia Sophia is still one of the best places there and I’m hoping that I could go there again one day.

• ·         After spending about 2 hours in Hagia Sophia, we went out and bought some hot corn for our little break before continuing our journey. Then, we went to the Basilica Cistern; it was built in the 6^th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian to provide a water filtration system for the Great Palace of Constantinople, Topkapi Palace and other important buildings.
• ·         Historical texts claim that 7,000 slaves were involved in the construction of the cistern.
• ·         The cistern was so beautiful but I couldn’t take many pictures because it was a lil dark in there, plus it also made me feel like I was living in that era, which was an amazing feeling. There were also this medusa heads that they called which is famous for its story; the origin of the two heads is unknown and is still a mystery (I also read that in the old days, whoever looked at medusa heads will be cursed and become a rock – and also other stories/ myths)

• 

  (not my photo)

• ·         This Basilica Cistern is commonly used as a location for a few famous movies like James Bond, The International and new; Inferno (also includes Hagia Sophia)

  

  not my photo

  ·         After the Basilica Cistern, we went straight ahead to the Blue Mosque/ SultanAhmet Camii --- when we visited that place, what amazed me is that they have this efficient system where they provide plastic bags to put in our shoes, and then we carry with us while we’re inside the mosque.
  ·         The mosque, as we all know, is indeed very, very, very beautiful and you’ll feel peace when you’re inside, we took pictures for few minutes and then we went out.
  

  
  ·         When going out, they also provide bins for us to throw our plastic bags and I think this is really good as the place is a tourist attraction, definitely 5 stars from me!!
  

  
  ·         In the afternoon, we went on a cruise; Bosphorus Cruise and we had our lunch on the boat. The lunch was..mehh ~~ good, worth trying.
  

  

  
  

  

  my lil bro -- jimmy

  ·         After lunch, the boat started its journey and we went upstairs, it was an open rooftop so we could see & feel the view around us. The weather was very very cold plus windy as well, so we had to go up and down couple times to take pictures (we’re Malaysian, we’re not used to it hahah)
  

  

  excuse the pose

  ·         Hence, we also had a chance to try on  Turkish traditional clothes (Me, Jimmy & Jihah) and be a model for the moment (I have the photos but I wouldn’t put it online because it was really embarrassing huhuu).
  ·         During our cruise, we’ve seen a lot of historical buildings like castles, military schools and the remnants of wall from the old wars. We also stopped at a fishing village oh and did I mention; THEY WERE DOGS EVERYWHERE! They were tame dogs but hey, I still hate dogs (afraid, actually >.<)  We prayed jama’ Zohor + Asar at a small mosque there and they weren’t a lot of things to do because the time they gave us was pretty short.
  ·         By the time we arrived on the ground, it was already dark (around 530 pm or so) and we went to Grand Bazaar with a bus they provided. We didn’t really have the chance to shop because the place would be closed by 7 pm so we just walked around.
  

  

  
  

  
  ·         Then, we had our dinner at a restaurant named Aras (the food was okay, but really really expensive, I don’t really recommend this restaurant). Oh and yeah, during our dinner, it snowed! Honestly I haven’t got the chance to experience real snow falling down so that was first time and I got really excited (aka jakun). After dinner, we went back to our hotel and we called it a night. 

DAY 3 – ISTANBUL

• ·         We woke up at 5.30 in the morning and by 6.30, we went to the Blue Mosque for our Subh prayer. We walked there and the weather was really, really cold (hence my hungry-ness during that time). The feelings were different like you know you’re in such a blessed and beautiful mosque, in a different country, with different people, it was honestly so beautiful it made me cry.

  

  muka sedang bertafakur kononnya (plus jihah)

• ·         Then we went back to our hotel and by 8, we had our breakfast at the same spot, with the same buffet menu (already missed nasi lemak & roti canai at that time huhu)
• ·         After breakfast, we started to walk to Topkapi Palace and it took about 20-30 minutes. Our trip to Topkapi Palace was more about history and we also had the chance to see personal belongings of a few prophets like Daud AS, Musa AS, Ishak AS and not to forget our beloved prophet Muhammad SAW & his companions (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali) --- swords, beard and other personal belongings were displayed.
• ·         The palace was built by Sultan Muhammad Al Fateh, with the total area of 700,000 acre and it took us about 3-4 hours exploring a lot of things.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• ·         Then, we walked back and had our lunch at a local restaurant and it was so yummy! We had meals like meatballs, grilled chicken, mashed potato, rice and my fav; apple tea! (they still had that Turkish-taste yknow).

  

  rinduuuu

• ·         After filling our stomachs, we continued our journey to Jurassic Land (it was my lil’s brother, Jimmy’s demand) and we went there by tram & metro train. We took the tram from SultanAhmet to Yusufpasa and we went on the metro train afterwards. Jurassic Land is located in a mall called Forum.
  
  
• ·         The place was okay, nothing new to me. For those who have small kids especially boys, I would probably recommend this place because they’ll take you through the so-called experiment lab, 6D theatre & moving dinosaurs; which was exciting --- for a 17 years old hahah.
  
• ·         After spending about an hour and a half at Jurassic Land, we went shopping! The little ones (including me & my older sister) were already complaining about our sore and swollen feet. Yes, that day was probably the most tiring day because we had to walk a lotttt. But still, I got a new boots!
• ·         When we got back to SultanAhmet, it was already dark & umi and abah wanted to stopped by at a carpet shop there to buy some carpets for our relatives and friends and we were served with chay(Turkish tea) and apple tea.
  
• ·         After that, we bought kebabs – but we ate it at our hotel because everyone was so tired and then we called it a night.

muka sedang membetulkan tudung selebet

I'm gonna continue writing for the other days at my next entry, hehe. Oh and, like I said, I made a special video! Take a look and hope you enjoy! Salam Alaykum & bye for now xx

Find me on:

instagram: @annaezaha_

Youtube: Anna Ezaha