15D12N Turkiye/Abu Dhabi - Day 2

26/12/2023

2.30am flight on Etihad A321, shocked that there was no entertainment screen.  5hr hours international flight, wor, why??  Didn't expect this, will avoid their A321 in future.

Old man wasn't too happy but didn't further complain.

I just eat and sleep can liao.

Penne was nice, a bit salty, teriyaki chicken was very yummy, unexpected dish on a middle east airline.

This was Turkiye from the sky, super bling, more bling than other cities I had seen.

We walked one mile to pass immigration.  Istanbul airport was quiet in the wee morning at 6.30am.

Once we were out, there was one stretch of counters for transfers/transport, they do local tours as well.  So instead of taking cab, we gotten a private transfer to our hotel at 40euro.  Then subsequently, we used them for all of our transfers.

Apparently, they already had cars waiting at the carpark.  We just followed the assigned driver.  We walked pass the taxi stand where we were supposed to be lolxx...

We gotten a vehicle big enough for 8 pax.

We were out around 9am, late sun rise here.

Along the way, we saw cute buildings on hills and coastlines.  Istanbul was surprising more beautiful than I imagined.

Reached our very small boutique hotel after an hour.

 The door was locked.

Nobody picked up calls urrgg...   A shop owner next to the hotel said the person in charge probably went to the toilet lolxx...

Looking around, couldn't believe this place looked like a Europe city, it's beautiful here.

The hotel fellow finally came back, he kinda screw up and we had to pay cash for the accommodation.  But good thing he allowed us to check in at 10.30am without extra charge.

Saratoga Boutique Hotel S$196 for 2 nights.

18sqm, very basic.

The location was on a gentle slop behind Blue Mosque, about 10mins walk to Sultanahmet Station, the nearest tram.

After all was done in the hotel, we stepped out to look for lunch.

Arasta Bazaar was in our itinerary but didn't expect to walk into it while looking for the restaurant.

It was not crowd, quite chill for a start.

Looked exotic to us.

Pretty houses along the way.

Here we were, found Seven Hills Cafe & Restaurant.

It's a tourists' restaurant, not a bad thing (just kinda expensive), tourists love it for some good reasons.

We paid for the view.

Beautiful sea views and also the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia Mosque.  There were a few other restaurants nearby with rooftops too but only Seven Hills was crowded with endless streams of tourists.

View of Blue Mosque from the restaurant's rooftop.

The other side Hagia Sophia Mosque.

Full of historical charm with fearless seagulls lolxx...

First glass of turkish tea and not able to turn back.

Their black tea and apple tea very soothing to the throat de...

We had supper puffy soft fragrance rice and cream veg soup.

Grilled seabass came fresh, juicy, perfect.

Grilled meat.

Total came to for the above orders 1950TL.

Blue Mosque was build between 1609-1617.  I always wonder how people in the pass could build such a huge building without machineries.

Hagia Sophia Mosque existed since 360 AD (it was amazing inside).

With views like these, this restaurant win liao.

After photo taking, we fed the seagulls with fork.  I didn't hold tight and the seagull took it's food together with the fork and it even turned back to give me a "wtf?" stare.  Old man video-ed, it was hilarious, pity that not able to load here.

Christmas decors were still around.  Later we found out that they keep and use Christmas decors as New Year decors.

Walked pass Arasta Bazaar to get to Sultanahmet Park.

We were finally up close with the Blue Mosque.

Some parts of it were having restoration.  By the way, free admissions of all mosques in Turkiye.

Many tourists inside.  Mosque still in service and they would close during praying times.

Interior of mosque covered with art work.

No shoes, so you better have socks.

A few food carts in the park selling the same items.

Sesame ring breads.

Chestnuts and corns.

Looked very Indian in photo but was very bling in reality.

 

Walked in and couldn't walk out empty handed.

Bought this evil eye silver/crystal bracelet.

Even old man said it was really pretty.

Then we actually went back to the hotel to sleep and woke up for dinner, heehee...

We had to walk through Sultanahmet Park to get to the main street.  Raw chicken was on the rocks for cats and dogs.

We had pomegranate juice, no water or sugar was added, forgotten the price.

We were on the main street hunting for dinner, not the smartest thing to do cos it's expensive.  We should had looked into the small lanes instead.

Blue Mosque was red at night.

Sultanahmet station, most people called it a train but it's more like a tram to me.

This cross eye ginger cat outside a restaurant.

Went into this restaurant for economical rice, ended up it wasn't economical lolxx...

Their chap chye peng looked so delicious, and yup, tasted as good as it looked.  I always seen people on social media commenting Turkish food is lousy, I wonder where they went and what they ate??

715TL with 2 glasses of tea.

Shared the plate of rice with stir fried spinach (kinda over cooked but tasted not bad) and egg plant with stew beef which was damn good.

We love their tea so much...

This was what they called baked rice pudding.

Rice as desert was unbelievable but it tasted quite good and not weird at all.  Could still ate the rice grains within.  And this was not too sweet either.

After dinner, we walked around, and I was quite sure these contained overdosed of sugar.

Walked through the park in order to get back to our hotel.

This was Hagia Sophia Museum, kinda regret not visiting.

It was quiet and nice at night, we later found out this was a horse racing ground during 390AD.

Pillar erected by Egyptians at that time.

Back to our little place, had good sleep and prepared for Day 3.