Turkey Wow!! Part II
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Day 2 At Istanbul, which according to Wikipedia, was historically known as Byzantium. :)
On this day, we went on our second tour which was also a full day tour with lunch and entrance fees included. We started off the morning with breakfast at 8am, like the day before, and before long, the tour bus picked us up. We were then assigned to a different tour van- and off we went. We also noticed that our tour guide looks A LOT like
Choi Jung Woo who acts the character of Park Tae Soo in Shining Inheritance.
He took us to Haghia Sophia - which is also called the Church of Divine Wisdom. It used to be an Orthodox church, but the Muslims converted it into a mosque in the mid-1400s. It is now a museum, showcasing the walls decorated with many mosaics.
Haghia Sophia from the back
A mosaic of Virgin Mary and Jesus
As the church was converted into a mosque, the mosaics were covered with plasters, hence when the plasters were removed to reveal the mosaics, most of them were ruined.
The mosaic in detail
After that, the tour guide took us to Taksim Square, and to another church, where we saw this statue of the Pope.
Later on, we were brought up to a hill, I forgot the name of it, to see the magnificent view of the Bosphorus bridge and the sea.
After that, they drove us to a restaurant for lunch. This time, we had chicken shish - and we witnessed an angry cat scowling at another cat, in the entire duration of our lunch. tsk tsk. what an angry cat! Wish I taped it!
After lunch, it was Cruise Time!! :)
We went on the Cruise on the Golden Horn and Bosphorus, enjoying a boat ride around the areas, whilst looking at all the buildings including the Rumeli Fortress. To be honest, I only saw a few things, and then I just laid my head down on the table... because I felt so seasick! The whole cruise ride took more than 2 hours with many things to be seen, including The Legendary Maiden's Tower. I only woke up to look at it for 5 minutes and laid back down. Hehehe.
Because the sea was so rough, the tower was closed, and we weren't able to step off to ave a look around.
Besides that, we had a stopover at Kanlica Village, which is famous throughout Turkey for its yoghurt.
Our boat at Kanlica Village
It was raining a lot during the day, so it wasn't that fun to walk around. All we wanted to do is get back into the boat and be on our way.
Another boat similar to ours, cruising along...
A bridge.. don't know the name of it :p
Finally, we arrived back at the European side of Istanbul, and they sent us back to our hotel. That night, because it was raining heavily, we decided to eat at our hotel again. Mummy and I had lamb shish whilst Daddy and Ivy had spaghetti~
We then hung out in the hotel room and before long, it was bedtime! That ends day 2!
Morning scenery from our hotel room
Labels: family, holiday, photos, Turkey
2 comments:
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Kapersky blocks your blog from my computer :(
I gotta shut the Kapersky to view it..
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hmm.. her blog got sth. haha..
know wat, we can become travel agent cos we travel so much, lol.
As the church was converted into a mosque, the mosaics were covered with plasters, hence when the plasters were removed to reveal the mosaics, most of them were ruined. 
After that, they drove us to a restaurant for lunch. This time, we had chicken shish - and we witnessed an angry cat scowling at another cat, in the entire duration of our lunch. tsk tsk. what an angry cat! Wish I taped it!
Kapersky blocks your blog from my computer :(
I gotta shut the Kapersky to view it..