Ukhti Anna Ezaha: #14 Ezahaians In Turkey (Day 8

DAY 8 - CAPPADOCIA

In the morning, we woke up at 6 am and had our breakfast-in-bed at the hotel.
At around 8, the van came to pick us up for the day's activities; Green Tour -- This time we didn't go on our own but by a group trip ( which was less fun, actually :/ )
We first went to see the view/panorama of Cappadocia and my, the view was breathtakingly beautiful! Plus we were also accompanied by a super, super cold and windy weather.
After spending about 15 minutes taking photos and stuffs, we continued our journey to the Derinkuyu Underground City.
It is the largest one in Turkey and one of several underground complexes found across Cappadocia.
With the depth of 60 m, it is enough to have sheltered as much as 20,000 people alongside live stocks and food.
There were hundreds of steps and we had to bend down ( thank God I'm not that tall, haha otherwise I'd been a hunchback by now ) -- it was also very, very tiring.
Hence, my fear of narrow spaces as they call it; claustrophobia, almost made me out of breath. Nevertheless, we made it out safe and sound, yayy!
Our tour guide that day, named Camil told us a lot about the history; about how people used to cover themselves from the enemy underground when they were attacked ( I wonder how they survived in here -- I wouldn't make it in a day, pfft )
There were bedrooms, graves, ventilator systems and a lot more -- but we couldn't explore more because of our backaches, haha
About an hour and a half later, we finally got out of the underground city and made our way to Ihlara Valley.
Throughout our way to Ihlara Valley which took about 40 minutes from the underground city, there were mountains filled with thick, thick snow and we stopped a while for some photos ( I stayed in the van because it was so damn cold and I needed to chill man )
Then, we arrived at the valley and we had to take about 300 steps of stairs to go down to the valley, It was more like hiking, actually and it was tiring but it was all worth it when we saw the view of the valley.

Ihlara Valley, in winter

mi madre <3
Basically, during summer and spring the valley would be more greenish -- but that time, it was covered in snow. Plus, when we were walking, we saw a lot of holes in canyons that surrounded us there, and it was kind of interesting to think that people actually did dig them by themselves and lived there.

w/ the diva of the family

my precious
We took photos and walked for about an hour until we arrived at our stop for a drink, we had cay and juices. 10 minutes after, we continued walking to have our lunch at an Anatolian restaurant there.
When we were on our way to the restaurant, there were dogs around us and they surrounded us! Me, being scared of literally everything, couldn't help it but screamed and ran to the restaurant, haha. ( lepas drpd tu serik dah bila nmpk anjing )
Our lunch that day was a meal served in a clay pot, mine was meatball and it was, suprisingly, good! We also had this soup and bread as appetizers and fruits and of course, cay!
After lunch, we went on our van and went straight ahead to Selime Cathedral and as we arrived there, it snowed! Weehee
The place was so big, considering back then people used it as worship centres and some churches were located there as well such as the Virgin Mary Church. It was also a space of defense for Anatolia's earliest Christians.

love you tautautautautau
Until then,it started to get dark and they took us to our final destination for the day, well, not exactly a tourist attraction, instead, it was actually a shop that sells Turkish delights and sweets.
We tried some treats that we haven't tasted before and we started shopping -- we bought some nuts, several types of teas and Turkish delights.
After that, they sent us back to our hotel and we had our dinner; Turkish pizzas in our room -- then, we showered and called it a night.

(not my photo)

DAY 9 - CAPPADOCIA

At 5.30 in the morning, we woke up and by 6.30 am, we got ready to go on the hot air balloon. A few minutes after we arrived at the hot air balloon spot, we got told that it was cancelled for the day due to the windy weather ( so for those who intend to go on the hot air balloon, you'd better go here during summer or spring )
So, we went back to our hotel and had our breakfast, by 8, we were ready for that day's activity; Red Tour.

the map of Cappadocia
We first went to the Open Air Museum; this place contains some rock-cut churches and it has also been a member of UNESCO World Heritage List since 1984.
It contains around 6 churches; St Barbara Church, Apple Church, Snake Church, Dark Church, Carikli Church and Buckle Church -- but we only went to three of 'em.
We spent about an hour there, then we went to the Fairy Chimneys also contains rock churches. I didn't go in any of the churches but some of my family members did; they told me that there was an unpleasant smell... of pee, huhu and I was like, woo no thanks, haha
We got to take a few photos and there were camels as well, then we bought some ice creams because, the cold never bothered us anyway *like a boss* (lame!)
After that, we went to the Cavusin Seramik and there, they showed us the process of making seramic plates and souvenirs and a lot more. Umi and Abah bought some souvenirs and later on, we went to the mosque for Zuhr and Asr prayers.
We had our lunch at Han Restaurant, a buffet restaurant and the meal was good :)
Moving on, after filling up our stomachs, we went to the Imaginary Land, what's funny was that the tourists usually used the vary-shaped rocks as a reference to a lot of things like dolphin, camel, mushroom, pig and a lot more ( want more? go see it for yourselves ;D )
We also went to Three Beauties which was also, one of the most beautiful spot in Cappadocia.
For our last destination, we went to a weaving school and we had the chance to watch the whole process of weaving carpets. The carpets sold were very, very beautiful but unfortunately the price.. made my parents laugh, haha it was so damn expensive!
After that, we said goodbye to Camil and headed back to our hotel, continued our journey back to Istanbul which took 9 hours, YES 9 HOURS! We departed at 5.30 pm and arrived at our hotel in Istanbul at around 3 in the morning.

DAY 10 & 11 - ISTANBUL & BACK TO MALAYSIA

After having breakfast at our hotel, Saba Hotel, we went straight ahead to Grand Bazaar by the tram.
Since we didn't have much time to shop the first time we were there, that day was the ultimate day of shopping! We bought a lot of stuffs like souvenirs, shirts, carpets and many more.

i seriously, miss this view.
One thing I notices when we were shopping, some sellers used to suggest and bring us to their friends' shop like at first it was okay... but then it made us feel annoyed, actually. Plus, some sellers were also kind of rude and their face would change when we cancelled our intentions to buy their stuffs. Like, chill man! But still, some were really friendly ( over-friendly pun ada juga )

Aslan the carpet guy

please take me back here :')

After about one hour and a half at Grand Bazaar, we continued shopping at the shops outside of Grand Bazaar, and then we went to buy some more carpets.

ini budak sudah lapar
Then, we had lunch suggested by the carpet guy, we had the usual Turkish cuisine meals, kebabs and stuffs. After lunch, we went back to our hotel to pack our bags and rest.
By 7, we got ready to go to a Malaysian-Chinese Restaurant at Sultanahmet called New Asian Restaurant, which only took about 20 minutes walk from our hotel with out tour guide; Abang Junaid for the last time.
We had tomyam and other Malaysian meals like Kailan, rice (real rice!) and a lot more. Plus, we ( umi & abah, actually ) met our hometown-mate from Batu Kurau, Taiping and he is a chef at the restaurant ( oh what a small world ) and then the Batu Kurau started to pop out of nowhere between the three of them, hahaha
Then, we walked back to our hotel and we did our final check for tomorrow's flight back to Malaysia :'(

i'm getting emotional now..
In the morning, as usual, we had our LAST breakfast at the hotel, we said goodbye to the beautiful view and then by 9, a van came to pick us up to bring us to the airport. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our last moments in Turkey. Gule Gule Turkey! <3

Well, in a nutshell, our journey in Turkey taught me a lot of things and made me open my eyes about history. I never liked history honestly, but I enjoy learning the history of Turkey; about Sultan Muhammed Al-Fateh, Constantinople and much more. And even though we didn't get to visit the whole Turkey, we already felt like home there. The environment, the food, the people, the weather, even though they're different from our home here in Malaysia, those are the things that made our vacation special, and meaningful. We've learned a lot of things here, as well as to strengthen our imaan. For example, it was hard for us, the ladies in the family to take wudhu in such weather but nevertheless, it made us remember the sacrifices of the people before us.

I know that Turkey can never run from history and I've wrote a lot of facts in all my entries so I'm asking that if you realized that I wrote any of the facts wrongly please, do tell me =) Lastly, I want to thank my parents for giving me this opportunity to go to such an amazing place. Thank you for not bringing me to cliches places but this,because Turkey is something else. Thank you to our tour guide, Bro Junaid and our driver (don't know his name) for bringing us and being patient with our naughtiness, pleased to meet you. I also want to thank my readers for spending your time reading my entries, I hope you'll learn something from it, in shaa Allah.