Istanbul Aku Datang: The Finale

Day 7: We arrived from Cappadocia about 8.30am and went straight to our accommodation, Hostel Mavi Onur, also at Sultanahmet but a different area of Sultanahmet compared to the previous accommodation. Since we can’t check in yet, we freshen up and left our bags before heading out again. 

We walked around Sultanahmet Square and head to Spice Bazaar for some shopping. We noticed that the shops around the Spice Bazaar sell the items cheaper compared to shops inside the bazaar. After a few hours of shopping, we went back to our hostel to check in, pray, and head out again in the afternoon for Bhosphorus River Cruise. The cruise cost 12TL and it lasted for 1 hour and a half. The cruise along the Bhosphorus went all the way till Bhosphorus Bridge, the bridge that connects two continents together (Asia and Europe). 

Back in Sultanahmet Square

Ready for our tour

Bhosphorus Bridge, connecting two continents. Europe on the left and Asia on the right

Maiden Tower Lighthouse

Day 8: We continued shopping, this time its at Grand Bazaar. After a few hours of shopping, we had something some snacks at Sultanahmet Square and stopped by Little Hagia Sofia, which was near our hostel. Little Hagia Sofia was initially the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus and was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman period. We went inside the mosque, took some photos and then we went back to our accommodation. 

last day in Istanbul

Variety of scarfs

Queuing for nuts and baklava

We;re done with Spice Bazaar now it's last minute shopping at Grand Bazaar

Foggy Blue Mosque

Little Hagia Sofia

Inside the mosque

 

 

Delicious Turkish Sweet

We then packed our bags, checked out and took the public transport to Ataturk Airport. Our flight back was delay for an hour and we only reached Doha at 1am in the morning.

Goodbye Istanbul

Doha at night

Day 9: Since it was early morning when we reached Doha Airport, we tried to sleep but we cannot. So, we decided to use the free wifi there and stayed awake most of the time. At 8am we board the plane back to KL and reach KL at 8pm Malaysian time. 

Overall, it was a trip that I truly enjoyed. Turkey is a country that is rich with history and a place that I would recommend for people to go. The trip was a bit short for us as we also wanted to go to other places such as Ephesus and Pamakulle but we didn't have the time. It's a bit hard to take long holiday when you're working. 

The trip costs about RM4.5K. We only spent 1000TL (exchange rate 1TL=RM2) throughout the trip including accommodation, food, travel, attractions and a bit of shopping. If you want to shop more, it may be higher. Nowadays, there's also a lot of cheap flight to Istanbul for less than RM2K. For myself, since I bought the tickets last minute, it costs me RM2.5K. So my overall expenditure for this trip was RM4.5K. 
So that's all for my Turkey trip.