Old Istanbul City

It's been a week plus since I returned from my trip and I still haven't unpack all the souvenirs that I bought. I guess unpacking them means I've to look for a place to store them and I'm running out of space at home :P Anyway, I really should get down to sorting them out and delivering them to my friends before they become antiques.

From where I left off in Istanbul (I have no internet access when I left Istanbul)... we did not visit the Grand Bazaar the next day (8th Aug) as we spent too much time at the Spice market. Also known as the Egyptian Market, the spice market sells lots of spices, turkish tea, coffee, turkish delights, nuts, souvenirs and many other local stuff. This place is also famous for pickpockets, so beware if you're going there. Many of the stall owners thought we were Japanese and we keep hearing 'konichiwa'. When we did not respond, they went '你好'. Good try :)

We found most of the things that my mother wanted to buy here - nuts, tea of different kinds. The hospitable turks kept offering us to try their nuts, turkish delights and tea, if we want to be downright kiasu, we could actually skip lunch by filling our stomach at the different stalls ;) But being nice and civilized people, we didn't do that of course. We only tried apple tea from two shops and we gave them business too.

On our way out, we stumbled upon a shop that sells stones and accessories. Everything looked so good and the prices were unbelievable too. The cheapest necklace costs 1YTL (approx S$1.15) and the most expensive one that I paid costed me only 3YTL (S$3.45). Of course there were other accessories of higher prices but they were too chunky in my opinion.

Lunch was at a famous kebab restaurant just outside the spice market. Besides the good food, our eyes had a feast of the Bosphorus Straits too.

We visited the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) after our late lunch. Considered the epitome of byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia is one of the most visited historical sites in Istanbul. Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia was later converted into a mosque in 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Istanbul, known as Constantinople then. In 1935, the church-turned-mosque was converted into a museum and it stands till today. Entrance fee is 10YTL (S$11.50).

Standing opposite the Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), our next destination. It was built in the 17th century by Sultan Ahmet I as a rival to Hagia Sophia and is the only mosque in Istanbul to have six minarets. Most mosques have four, two or just one minaret. We didn't stay there for long as we were trying to beat the evening traffic but we did not succeed.