Travel with me #83 : Turkey, here I come!

Dear Steemit friends:

After spending quite a resort based vacation in Bahamas, it was time for me to travel somewhere with some more historical heritage. Prior to setting off on my next travels, I made sure to get some good rest and time with the family. As a frequent traveller, it can get quite tiring moving from one location to the next without taking a break to do absolutely nothing. Thankfully, I had ample time in the weeks after returning from Bahamas to recharge my batteries and prepare for my next trip.

My trip to Bahamas was for my birthday to celebrate being a quarter of a century old. And this trip is to celebrate my 1 Year Anniversary on Steemit!

So, without further ado, I present to you.. the country named after a bird! Yes, that's right, I'm in Turkey!
There are so many reasons to visit Turkey, and over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be showing you in detail all the wonderful places I've managed to visit, including the Hotels I've stayed at, the restaurants worth visiting, the ancient monuments and even the places to go shopping!

These are pictures from my very first day in Turkey, many of you might have guessed that I would visit Istanbul and you are absolutely right, how could you visit Turkey and not visit Istanbul?

Looking outside the window of the plane is becoming one of my favourite things to do on the plane. I used to request an aisle seat to make toilet trips convenient but foregoing the view from a window seat really was not worth the slight inconvenience and I decided on staying by the window.

Some of the best times to take pictures are at sunrise and sunset. As you can see, the sun projects a haze of pink across the vast field of clouds in view. It's like waking up to a baby's dream, surfing across pink clouds.

I had no idea that Istanbul would be quite so big. But after flying over it in a plane, I could really get a feeling of it's size.
It's suppose to be one of, if not the largest cities in Europe (I know technically half of it is in Asia but we'll get to that later). From the comfort of my seat, I can only agree because the city seemed to spread out endlessly in all directions right up to the edges of my vision.

After landing, it was the normal case of passing immigration with my Visa which I had prepared online prior to leaving. It's surprising how accessible Turkey is and in fact, is one of the few countries in the world that I can travel to without having to send my passport off for a Visa.

The airport is tidy, but seems to lack the usual manic "Duty Free" shops and last minute luxury retail stores. This is very welcome, because all I want to do is get out from there and see Turkey as soon as possible!

At the time of taking these photos, I had no idea the significance of Pigeons but later on I realised they are an integral part of the history of Turkey.

No wonder they are featured in this abstract piece of art on the wall. We'll talk about Pigeons and how they relate to Turkey a little more later on.

And finally, after getting an Uber from the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International airport, it was about 1 hour before I arrived at my first hotel in the "old city" part of Istanbul.

I was completely blown away by the architecture as I walked around nearby my hotel on my first day of arrival. Even though this part of Istanbul is geographically in Europe, it really feels much more Asian (the non oriental kind) at the core. There are Mosques in every direction you look, and only a short walking distance between them.

The mosaic designs are also subtly everywhere. Look at the side of the stools.

I was also happy to see many local snack stalls selling things like breads and sweetcorn. It's almost like a Chinese style night market stall except in the middle of the day, and with Turkish delights instead.

People here are extra friendly, the ones that do speak a bit of English - and that accounts for a small minority believe it or not, are always curious about "where I'm from" and it seems that is the common way that locals start conversations with tourists.

"Excuse me! Where are you from??"

Just a few minutes away from my hotel, the infamous Hagia Sophia Mosque. We'll have more time to visit this in detail in a later post.

This is my dear friend Tania, who is one of the best photographers I've ever had the opportunity to travel with.

For those of you who are familiar with the area and have visited before, you will know that just a few steps away from the Hagia Sophia, is the infamous Blue Mosque.

The Blue Mosque architecture is equally formidable as the Hagia Sophia, in-fact, the exterior seems a lot more "preserved". It also has a beautiful courtyard.

Many would say that the Blue Mosque is prettier on the outside than Hagia Sophia - which is prettier on the inside.

So we spent the first few hours just walking around the outside, enjoying the sheer scale of the ancient building and it's undeniable beauty.

In one of the entrances to the courtyard, there was a dog happily sleeping outside as if guarding the entrance.

He seemed to be woken up by my presence but wasn't too bothered about me being near him!

The entrance here is beautiful, I don't understand a word of Arabic but it looks so fitting with the Mosque's domes and spire in the background.

What I really like about the area is that there are so many home grown businesses / shops. Here is just one little street of merchants selling their carpets.

Drinking tea, or çay as the Turks would call it, is second only to breathing for the Turkish people. I love how deeply rich the colour of the tea is, and how petite the glasses the çay is served in.

Where 👥 / 🐱 = 10 Million

Population of Turkey = 👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥 (80 Million)

Population of Cats in Turkey = 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱

Yes, there is almost definitely a cat or two just about anywhere you look. I'm obviously overjoyed by this because as you know, I love cats and any country that adores cats, I automatically adore too!

This street leads to the Grand Bazaar, another place we'll have a look at together later.

I thought the multi-coloured houses were very pretty, it kind of reminded me of the multicoloured houses in Bahamas, except deeper in colour.

And that wraps up my first day in Istanbul, Turkey.

What adventures will I get up to whilst I'm in Turkey? Follow me to find out!

As always, I appreciate your upvote if you liked my post, follow me if you wish to keep up with my activities, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

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亲爱的朋友们，今天我在Steemit满一周岁了，好开心可以和大家分享喜悦。在结束了度假伊甸园巴哈马的行程之后，在足够的休息，“充电”之后，我决定下一个旅行去一个神秘又辉煌的国度来充实自己，这里既有看不厌的历史人文故事，也有绝佳的自然景观，这里就是土耳其，用一辈子也玩不完的国家。也许你很难相信我这句话，那就请跟我开始美丽的土耳其之旅，来验证一下这句话吧，在之后的文章中，我会带大家探索土耳其很多或惊艳或壮观的美景，去到很多小镇小城市，包括我认为值得推荐的酒店餐厅，名胜古迹，甚至，最适合逛街的地方。火鸡在美国也被叫做土耳其，据说把火鸡叫做土耳其很可能是15，16世纪土耳其商人取得，感觉很与意思，我决定之后会认真研究下土耳其和火鸡的故事，据说他俩的故事占了一部分世界史的内容呢。

现在我们就一起空降土耳其吧，土耳其横跨了欧亚两大洲，有着悠久的历史，是世界上重要的考古遗址，有着令人惊叹的自然地貌和环境，是一个包含了多元文化的古老神秘国度。来到这里的最大印象就是，这个国家比起其他欧洲国家，感觉和我更加亲近，虽然土耳其从地理上属于亚洲，政治文化上都属于欧洲，但是这片土地上的人能够理解亚洲的文化，这是让我很惊喜的地方。来到土耳其，怎么能错过伊斯坦布尔呢，这是土耳其最大的城市，也是其经济文化历史的中心，人口达到1440万人，是全欧洲最大的城市。凌晨4点起飞穿越了梦幻的粉色朝霞，最后终于降落在伊斯坦布尔机场，从空中看这座城市布满了密密麻麻红色屋顶的小屋子，非常可爱。来伊斯坦布尔旅游的游客爆棚，人们排队过关的队伍已经延伸出了规定的栏杆。机场整洁的通道两边是伊斯坦布尔城市的画像图，一条长长绵延着的画，感觉也画不尽伊斯坦布尔的故事。

这一次我把酒店定在了伊斯坦布尔的老城区，距离机场车程1小时，这里浓缩了这座城市历史精华的地方，集中了好多个重量级经典，例如眼前的圣索菲亚大教堂，还有蓝色清真寺，地下水宫等等，我会在之后的文章中详细为你们介绍。我们的酒店正位于蓝色清真寺，圣索菲亚大教堂的三角区域，所以到了酒店，我们就激动的出去四处游逛，看看周边都有什么。我不停的被四周非常特别又壮观的清真寺建筑所惊叹到，怎样的能供巧匠，才能建造这么不朽的杰出艺术作品呢。穿越热闹的集市，香气迷人的小面包和烤玉米让我直流口水，非常有生活的气息。当地人在街上不停寻找亚洲面孔，传来我耳边最多的一句话就是，打扰一下，你从哪里来，其实是想要推销他们商品给我。这是我的好朋友Tania，来自乌克兰的美女，是我认识最棒的摄影师了，这次有机会和她一起出来玩，拍到了不少好照片呢。

蓝色清真寺，圣索菲亚大教堂遥遥相对，很多人都说建筑里面的样子更加漂亮。在蓝色清真寺的门口，一直可爱的狗狗躺在台阶上休息，我不忍打扰它，只好远远和它合个影。最让我兴奋的应该数在这些景点周边，一条条小街上布满了卖各种土耳其工艺品的可爱小店，增添了老城的魅力。来到土耳其，更惊叹于他们一天6杯茶的习惯，无可否认他们对于茶的喜爱甚至超越了中国人，等候check in来一杯茶，逛街前来一杯茶，饭后又来一杯茶，我非常喜欢这鲜艳的红茶颜色，还有精致的茶具，这小小的杯子碟子十足展现了这个国家的神韵。好吧，说起土耳其的第一映像，另一个最大的特点就是猫了。如果土耳其人口 = 👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥，那生活在土耳其的猫= 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱。在这里还有一个热闹的集市看不见尽头，那就是大巴扎，汇聚了土国个大小特产，艺术品，工艺品的地方，之后我会带大家走进大巴扎好好探索一番。希望大家享受土耳其行程翻开的第一页，之后还有数不尽的有趣故事在等着和大家分享。