jC's holidays- ep10: last day in Turkey :(((

Today will be the last day of my trip. It means that I gonna say goodbye to this lovable country -Turkey. Actually Turkey doesnt mean the turkey we eat in Christmas Eve. The name of the country is actually Turkiye. My tour guide couldnt understand why the western country pronouce it as Turkey. LOL!
We departed from Hotel Sheraton at 9.30am. It was quite late compared to other days of the journey because our schedule wasnt that packed.
First of all, we visited Blue Mosque and St Sofia Musuem. These two buildings are so near to each other within walking distance.

jC and the Sultan Ahmet Camii Mosque, better known as Blue Mosque :)

It was named as Blue Mosque due to the blue tiles inside the mosque. And it is the only mosque with six minarets in the world.

I like the feeling of this photo! Snapped by Enzy.

Before entering. Another nice shot too :P
I love the greenish grass!!!

We were asked to take out the shoes before entering the mosque to show our respect. But I was requested to wrap myself in this grey clothes! ISH -__-# The reason was I just wore a short dress and stockings, that all. Wrapping in that grey clothes made everybody stared at me and non-stop asking me why and why and why. I felt so embarrasing and wanna dig a hole for myself to jump into!!!

OMGOSH :O Nightmare~
HAHA! Trying to make fun with the sarung and a plastic bag of my boots :X
Finally out from the mosque. I quickly take off the grey clothes and back to normal. Smile =)

Another candid shot huh?

It started to rain after we visited Blue Mosque. We ran quickly to the St Sofia Museum which is just located opposite to the mosque. But still, I was wet!! My aunt immediately help me to wipe the water droplets on me. Not because of me, but her 1800 bucks leather jacket. LOL!

The St Sofia has been a cathedral and a mosque last time. Now, it has becoming a magnificent museum. It was the third largest church in the world after St Paul Church and St Peter Church. Its mosaics, stained glass windows and decorated domes create an atmosphere of breath taking beauty.

with the African? I dunno.

Just went next to her and asked : 'Can I take a picture with you?' xP

Acting emo and lonely. No act, I am lonely in reality. xP

Both Christian and Islam elements mixed in the background. The angel and the Arabic words.

LOL! xDD

If you could turn your palms 360 degrees, your dreams will come true! I was able to turn half round, does it mean that 50% of my wishes might come true?? :D

Then, we visited the Underground Palace. This was an extra destination for us :P The underground palace wasnt palace, it was a aqueduct. Just like a water tank in the olden days. I personally think this is a noble building. Another smart act of the people last time!

It was me again!! ^^

After the lunch, we went to take boat to view the scenery between Asia and Europe. This river is the boader between Asia and Europe. It was freaking cold on the boat. The sea breeze was cool and it was still raining. Luckily I did wear my gloves. ;)

LOL! Wrapped myself like this because of the stupid rain :X

An University.

With another youngster. HAHA! She doesnt look like her age. Much much more younger than it :)

jC with the boats.

The very last destination we went before our trip ended was the Spice Market. This is a market which sell a lot of rempah. As you can see, the rempah-pawah were all over the place. It is not as huge as The Grand Bazaar, but somehow it is a nice place to shop! We were given 1 hour to shop here.

Lotsa spice sold here. woaaaah :D

5pm. It was the time we left the spice market and heading to the Antaturk Airport. I said goodbye to my most affable and cute tour guide - Mr Sanol! I miss him. I miss his voice. I miss he saying 'Gudniden' which means good morning to us every morning we met him in bus. T_T

I will remember you, Sanol ~~~

WE. The last photo for the trip! :(

Not to forget to record down here that our plane flew to Jordan Queen Alia Airport and gonna fly back to Msia at 1.30am. It was superb suffering to wait for the transit there for 2 hours ady, who knows, the heavy snow in London made our flight delay!!! I waited in the airport for 4 hours. Really dying and worring. Besides, my knife and scissors in the hand luggage were taken when underwent the luggage scanning. I was not mean to it. I knew all these things are prohibited but I did not know there were small knife and scissors in my bag. I was shocked and felt nervous when the pegawai not allowed me to check in and pointed at me T_T

Luckily we smoothly take the plane at 3.30am (9.30am Msia time) and arrived Msia at 8 sth pm. It made my ass get burnt again!!!

I can conclude that Turkey is a nice place to visit. I love it and miss it very very much!!!

That's the end of my travelling diary. Thanks for your attention, earthlings~ :D

-END-

jC's holidays- ep9: Travelling around Ankara and back to Istanbul

SO, I have a good rest in Hilton? I bet not. I kept wake up in the midnight. Now I know every hotel is the same no matter how many stars it owned or how famous it is. LOL! Branded doesnt mean the best. Okay, after had a enjoyable breakfast, we were ready to depart for the next station again. When I out from the hotel, I found that it Snowed last night! Too bad I didnt realise it :(

The small snowball made by my aunt. LOL xD

Then, we went to Ankara Castle. It wasnt a castle larrr, just an old town of Ankara. Ankara was just a small town in 19th century and merely 50 thousands people staying here. But now, it had turned out to be the Turkish capital. Thus, the Turkish government ordered the people staying in the old town moved out and made it as a travelling spot.

This was the only chance I played snow in Turkey! :X
The old town of Ankara :)

From here, we could see the whole town view in Ankara. Candid.

We were just given 45 minutes to walk around the old town and browsed through some old houses. After taking photo, we went for shopping again. A MUST for the ladies. Everybody was keen to buy nuts, almonds and so in the stall outside. There were so many stalls and choices there. I was sorry that I am not a nuts lover.

With the stalls :D

The next station we were going to stop was the mausoleum of Antaturk. He was the Turkey's greatest leader in modern times. All the Turks respect him so much. He is the father of Turkey, just like Sun Yat Sen is the father of China in the China history.

The 20 members in our group and I'm the youngest :)

We again! I like the building behind.

With the soldier. He stood so straight that made you think he was a patung :P

*JUMPPP!* It was a tough task to snap the jumping scene. :X

Acting emo again :)
With the kids there. They were cute!!! It is hard to find me out @@
My tour leader - Enzy, my aunt and I =)

Really envy that he had already travelled 10++ countries in his age of 25,6 and earn money at the same time. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone, sambil playing sambil earn money. Somehow, he said it wasnt enjoyable to travel himself and it is a job, not as easy as I thought. :(

With plants agaaain :P
With Iraqs tourists.

These were the only two places we visited in Ankara. After that, we had another 4-5 hours drive back to Istanbul. The snowy view at the roadside made me reluctant to close my eyes and slept. It was amazing and beautiful!!! The mountains beside were all covered by a thick layer of snow. WOAH! :O

Arent they looked great? :)

Reaching Istanbul. Heading to Europe part after crossing this bridge. =D

We reached Istanbul at around 5pm. It was much more earlier than we expected 'coz there was no traffic jam today! So, we had our early dinner in a Chinese Restaurant. The dishes there were quite nice, much much better than the chinese dishes in the Shanghai Restaurant we had in Jordan.

There was only one old man serving us in the restaurant. He was so old until his hands shaked when he took the dishes. We all felt pity for him T_T and thus I helped him to serve. HA! I love the old man and sincerely respect him from the core of my heart. He looked like my idol -Dato Sim Mow Yu who had just passed away 2years ago. The hardworking spirit and his determination. The old man made me think of my grandpa who had also passed away too :"( My aunt and I nearly shed a tear there. This old man was 81 years old but he did not want to pass his lifetime like that. Though he might be weak and even trembled when serving us, though he might feel difficult when walking to and fro the kitchen and the tables, but through his satisfying amiable smile, we all knew he loves this work and enjoyed working!! How could I stop loving this old man? I LOVE HIM!!! And when I'm typing this post now after 10 days of my trip, I could still recall his actions vividly. I am going to cry missing him, missing my grandpa and missing my idol. :(((

Taking photo with the old man. I sent my most respectful salute to him. I would always remember him. His working spirit. :")

We were staying in Hotel Sheraton again. I like this hotel because there were four computers there for me :P Since we got nothing to do at night, we followed Enzy to go strolling in Taksim Square again. We went there by taking MRT. I enjoyed visiting places this way than taking our travelling bus and rushing from place to place 'coz I could experience the local life this way.

Boon Kian Teacher and me. In the MRT Station. ;)
Posing! xP

Posing again :P

The mural in the MRT Station is impressive!!

The MRT is just like the LRT in Singapore. Nothing special. We paid 1.75 lira per way no matter how many stations you stop in the token exchange machine. In the MRT, we met a pair of couple from Switzerland and talking with them in CHINESE! They learnt Chinese in Shanghai. They travel around the world with bike. Cool right? Those European can just leave their work for travelling after earn enough money and back to work after they finished it. How relax are their lifestyle. Jealous :P

Reach Taksim Square!!! It seemed like more bustling at night. We went strolling and shopping along the street while Enzy went for alcohol again. LOL!

Fulled of Christmas decoration.

We back hotel by taking MRT again at around 10pm. It was tiring. Tomorrow will be the last day in Turkey.

-TO BE CONTINUED-