Turkey Yum Yum ..or Turkey Wow!!
Sunday, January 03, 2010
After a quiet Christmas, we were all looking forward to the trip to Istanbul. On Boxing Day morning, we went to the airport at 10am, checked in and hung out at the Qatar Airways Lounge whilst waiting for our flight at around 2pm. [Oh! 2pm! Listen to my heartbeat lalalala :p]
There wasn't a lot to do there, we drank soup and ate fruits, and I spent away the time looking at Samsung Corby online. Hehehe. Finally, we boarded the plane and I excitedly browsed the touch-screen personal tvs for movies to entertain me throughout the 4-hour flight. I watched Bandslam, which was quite funny.. then I played sudoku and bookworm and slept abit here and there. - which reminds me. Next time im having a meal in the plane, I will not ask for chicken.. they never come with rice! :( thanks to mummy, she swapped her lamb with rice for my chicken so i got to eat the delicioussss rice!
We arrived at Istanbul around 6pm (?) and the ride to our hotel took about half an hour. The hotel was just like the one we stayed at in Switz. I have to admit, my geography knowledge is at a minimum level, I thought Turkey would be like Qatar, with lots of sand etc.. but in fact, it is more to the European style.
First fact of the post: There are two sides to Turkey, one on the Europe side and one on the Asia continent. (during our tours, we get to go back and forth between the continents in a day! haha)
Our room at Garden House
Pretty soaps :)
Next, we were picked up from the hotel to the Hoş Seda Kumkapi Fish Restaurant for our dinner. There were A LOT OF fishes! I even made a joke ... it is quite lame though. As usual.
I was eating the fish..
and I said...
"Something feels fishy!"
.... hohohoho cough.
Hoş Seda Menu
Across the street, there were many other Kumkapi Restaurants.. and we were also entertained by the people playing violins and trumpets, like those across the street.
We went to bed early that night and woke up for breakfast around 7.30am, to be ready for our first tour by 8.45am. The tour bus from Senkron Travel Agency picked us up - and we were on our way to Princes' Island and ASIA! It was a full day tour with lunch included. We departed from the European side to the Asian side by driving through a bridge across the Bosphorus sea.
Copying from the booklet as well as from what we personally saw, the asian side is mostly residential and very different to the European side.
The bridge across The Bosphorus
Second fact of the post: There are 70 million people residing in Turkey - with 16million alone in Istanbul!
Third fact of the post: The European side of Istanbul is mostly the commercial and financial part compared to the residential Asian side.
Then, we embarked on the boat to go to Princes' Island. It was really cold!!
On the way to Princes' Island, with the water trails behind us!
Finally! We arrived at Princes Island after a half hour ride. It was a small town, with nothing much to do really. There were A LOT of cats...
We went on the Phaeton Tour - a horse-drawn carraige, as there are no cars "aloud" in the island. Haha, that was a mistake on the booklet, but we all know it meant to say 'allowed'.
Photo time: Daddy and I climbed up front- normally we'd sit at the carriage behind
I went up a second time with Veep, but u can hardly see our faces here. They just look like pale blobs.
Then, after about an hour of free time, it was lunchtime, and we went to one of the restaurants with the rest of the tour group and the tour guide (she was really nice!). Had fish again, but this time it was fried, so I didnt really like it >____<
Before long, it was time to go home!
I'll leave you all with the favourite photo of the day!
cat caught on a tall tree!
Labels: family, holiday, photos, travel, Turkey
4 comments:
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that was just the first day right?
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Sounds really fun! Then I guess you guys can make the statement that you crossed 2 continents in a day time! Not only once but for a few times. Haha!
Btw, nice pics!
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Makan turkey then go Turkey. Hahahah!!
Anyway, I thought it was so cool to walk to Switzerland for brunch.. who knows, you can cross over to a different continent back and forth in a day!! Mann... I lose to you all d :P
Anyway, I think should be quite entertaining with the spelling mistake. Hahaha!!
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jazz, yep just first day. i will blog about the second day soon. hehe
lingdi, haha i agree about the sentence. :p thank you!
lxjie, walking to switz is still cool! coz its like, u walk into a country from another! how cool is that! :p we had to go on a ferry, or get driven across continents haha
Pretty soaps :)
that was just the first day right?