(April 26 – May 11, 2024)
I have briefly visited Istanbul twice in the past. Both times I had a lot of fun, was amazed by the unique culture and scenery of Turkey, and always wanted to return there.
This time, we planned our trip into 3 Parts:
・Self Sight-seeing in Istanbul & Ankara
・Travel around Turkey by Group Tour
・Self Sight-seeing in Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
SELF SIGHT-SEEING IN ISTANBUL & ANKARA
This was our Itinerary:
April 26:
Visited Topkapi Palace, Istanbul Archaeological Museums, hagia sofia, Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque, stayed at Alhambra Apart Hotel Istanbul
April 27:
Visited Yerebatan Underground Palace, Suleymaniye Mosque, Egyptian Bazaar, stayed at Alhambra Apart Hotel Istanbul
May 5:
Visited Ankara Castle, stayed at Dr Aslan Apart Hotel
May 9:
Visited Grand Bazaar, watched Rhythm of the Dance Show at Hodjapasha Cultural Center, stayed at Seher Hotel
May 10:
Had Guided Tour at Dolmabahce Palace, visited National Palaces Painting Museum, stayed at Seher Hotel
We arrived on a very sunny morning. It took about 2 hours to take Havaist shuttle bus and Tram (T1) to our hotel in old town, and we need to buy an Istanbulkart at Metro station, in order to take the tram, but all in all, Havaist and the tram were very convenient.
After dropping off our backpacks, we immediately started sight-seeing. The old town was full of tourists lining up at various attractions, and all the entrance fees were much more expensive than I remembered.
Topkapi Palace entrance fee was EUR 75, including audio guide, but it has opened a much larger area than before. Also, unless any other western palaces, Topkapi is purely islamic looking an gorgeous, so I still think worth it.
After that, we visited the nearby Istanbul Archaeological Museums. It was the biggest archaeological museum in Turkey, and full of Romanic statues and tombs, very impressive indeed. Most of all, there was the Tomb of Alexander the Great, as well as other tombs. The tombs were like nothing I have ever seen before.
The entrance fee of hagia sofia was EUR 25. It was a very unique mosque because it was originally a Christian church. You can still find plenty of Christian paintings on the wall inside. It was very grand.
Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque was free to entry anytime except during the praying time (Muslims pray 5 times a day.) It was again very grand and mostly blue in color, thus also called the Blue Mosque.
My No.1 favorite is in fact Dolmabahce Palace. We booked Guided Tour online with Istanbul E-pass, EUR 38, but the entrance fee included free entry to National Palaces Painting Museum, which was a total surprise. At last, we spent about 2 hours in Dolmabahce Palace, but another 3 hours in the Painting Museum, so it totally worth it.
Dolmabahce Palace. has the most impressive ballroom that I have ever seen, very tall ceiling and complicated designs and painted ceilings. We were not allowed to take any photo or video inside the Palace, but the whole time I was staring at the ceilings, because so many rooms all had unbelievably beautiful ceilings… I could not take my eyes off them, and have no idea how they painted them. They were total art.
National Palaces Painting Museum had countless rooms, showing different artists (with different styles) paintings about the wars, Royalties, life styles, sceneries in the past Ottoman Empire period. All these paintings bring you back to an ancient world which was unimaginable.
We also walked through the Grand Bazaar (closed on Sundays) and Egyptian Bazaar, like any other tourists, but the prices of goods there were obviously much higher than market prices. I advise you definitely do not shop there. If you go down to Istimeye cd, or any further districts, there were plenty of local shops selling Turkish delights as well as any other goods at much better rates, and they were very fair, do not cheat tourists. I highly recommend a Soap Shop called Troy Soapun. Turkey is famous for its traditional olive oil soaps. I found all the traditional soaps that I bought in Turkey are very moisturizing and long-lasting smell.
Another district that we love was the restaurant streets along Kadırga Limanı Cd. and Turkeli Cd., as well as the fountain square near Ustad Sk. There were many beautiful buildings and nice restaurants and shops in that area, a good place for dinner. It is more like a district where local people would hang out, instead of tourists.
During the time that I spent in Turkey this time, I found that most of the Turkish local people were extremely kind, gentle and honest. Everywhere I visited were very safe, clean and orderly. It is actually in the rules of Islam that they must treat people nice and stay clean. I feel like I have a better understanding of “real” Muslims after this visit, rather than what the TV and mass media always showing… I was particularly touched when they talked, they like to put one hand on their chest, and bend down their heads, as if they were speaking with their hearts.
When we were visiting Turkey, we drank Turkish black tea everyday. We love it so much that we bought back the tea leaves and the glass cups. We also love the apple tea and pomegranate juice that can be found everywhere. There were not much seafood served, but stuffed mussels sold on the streets were delicious. There are several types of kebabs in Turkey, but my favorite is doner kebab. Also, Lentil soup can be found in every restaurant is a must-try!
Ankara was a surprisingly interesting city that I wish we had more time there. On the way to Ankara Castle, there were very long streets of various shops selling many things, such as copper goods, leather goods, stones, antiques, craftworks, sheep skins, teahouses… We could easily spend all afternoon there.
Further, we found some streets of local shops, where local people buy their clothes, kitchenware… It was really interesting and they are very reasonable prices. We bought 2 big cotton cloths for our sofa.
We had a hard time looking for bus to commute from Ankara city to our hotel near Ankara Airport. It would be too expensive by taxi, so we looked for bus, but the bus no and schedule is different to understand… In the end, a local taught us an app called “EGO CEP’TE” which can be installed on the mobile. Although it is only written in Turkish, if you input the bus stop number, it will show in real time which buses will come in how many minutes. It was extremely helpful. We had to purchase an Ankarakart in order to take the bus, but the bus fee was extremely cheap, even through it was almost an hour ride.
TRAVEL AROUND TURKEY BY GROUP TOUR
We have joined “7-Day Turkey Classics Tour” at Fez Travel.
This was their Itinerary:
Day 1
Pickup from Istanbul, visit Gallipoli Battlefields in Gallipoli Gallipoli Peninsula, stay at Çanakkale Barbaros Hotel
Day 2
Visit Troy, Acropolis of Pergamon, stay at Kusadasi Boutique Ilayda Avantgarde Hotel
Day 3
Visit Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis, the former Greek village of Sirince, carpet village, stay at Kusadasi Boutique Ilayda Avantgarde Hotel
Day 4
Visit Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Travertines, Hierapolis, stay at Pamukkale Adem Pira Hotel
Day 5
Visit Silk Road, Konya, Sultanhani Caravansary, Mevlana museum, stay at Cappadocia Boutique Cave Gamirasu Hotel
Day 6
Visit Cappadocia, Goreme, Underground City Marvel, Goreme Valley Open Air Museum, stay at Cappadocia Boutique Cave Gamirasu Hotel
Day 7
Visit Ankara, Anitkabir, dropoff at Istanbul (We chose to be dropped off at Ankara train station.)
We felt that it would be too complicated and time-consuming to travel around Turkey by train/bus/plane ourselves, so we chose to join a group tour with Fez Travel.
I felt quite fortunate, because Fez Travel is a large travel agency with multiple branches in Turkey/Greece/Morocco, so we felt quite safe. We travelled by mercedes-benz mini-van the whole time, even had WIFI and USB docks on the van, so it was very comfortable. The tour was well-planned, and the tour guide was very knowledgeable.
We often had lunch at some service areas that looked like canteen, with long food bars, quick & various foods to choose from. When we stopped by restrooms in gas stations, we discovered some rotatable toilet seats with changeable plastic cover, which was quite interesting. We also stopped by Carpet, Leather and Ceramics shops…
I had no idea Instanbul was in fact the Capital of three Empires. Also, we really enjoyed the atmosphere, hotels and meals at Kusadashi, Pamukkale, and the Cave Hotel in Cappadocia.
SELF SIGHT-SEEING IN NORTHERN CYPRUS (TRNC)
We booked a local direct flight from Ankara(ESB) to TRNC(ECN), and then back to Istanbul(IST). This was our Itinerary:
May 7:
Visited Girne, Kyrenia Castle, stayed at The Port of Kyrenia Hotel
May 8:
Visited Gazimagusa, Kapalı Maraş (Ghost Town/Restricted Area), Maraş Plajı, Othello Castle, Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, stayed at Royal Goddess Guest House, Walled City
May 9:
Visited Northern Nicosia, Buyuk Han, Samanbahçe Quarter, stayed at Djumba Hotel & Cafe
I have learnt a lot about Cyprus during this trip. Initially, we chose to visit Cyprus simply because it seems to an island country near Turkey, can access by short direct flight. It was only after we booked the flight that we noticed that Cyrus is divided between northern Turkish district and southern Greece district.
Since we arrived from Ercan Airport (ECN), we can only travel within Northern Cyprus, cannot cross the border, so I picked 3 most popular towns in ERNC to visit — Girne, Fumagusta, and Nicosia.
We were not sure how to travel within ERNC until we arrive there. Fortunately, immediately we found airport shuttle bus (Kibhas) to Girne, very convenient.
Girne was a charming seaside town, full of tourists, shops and restaurants. Our hotel was at the town center. We walked over to the port, immediately fell in love with it. It was perfect, sunny day, relaxing cafes, shinny blue sea and full of luxury yachts and fishing boats.
Right next to the port stood that the magnificent Kyrenia Castle, looked like from a movie set, and the entrance fee was only TL 50. The inside of Kyrenia Castle turned out to be huge, consisted of many walls and courtyard, museums about its shipwrecks and found, its prisoners in the past history. The view from Kyrenia Castle was also unbeatable. In the end, we spent all afternoon only visiting the Kyrenia Castle, remaining evening on the streets and cafe in Girne.
We found a shuttle bus company called Kombos to take us to Fumagusta. It took about an hour and half to get there. The natural landscape and plantation of Cyprus was so beautiful.
Fumagusta was totally different from Girne. It was quiet, much fewer tourists and shops. We had to cross a gate into the walled city. There were many ruined churches and buildings. Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque was the most beautiful of all. It was originally he Latin Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, now become a mosque. It felt interesting to hear Islamic praying from a church. There was a very nice cafe shop right in front of it, we ate ice-cream, lunch and drank coffee there.
We heard from a Turkish couple on the shuttle bus that the restricted area (Kapalı Maraş) has only been opened for visitors since 4 years ago, and there is even a beautiful beach (Maraş Plajı) inside. Only one part of the restricted area allowed visitors, and there was only one entrance/exit in Fumagusta. There were several buses with Turkish tourists. Some tourists even rent bicycles or electric kickboards to ride inside the empty streets in the restricted area.
The whole area looked like movie set of Biohazard. It looked like the world has remained as forty years ago, except half-built mansions, half-fallen houses and shops with broken glass and worn furniture. It was a very unique experience. I walked along the streets, imagined what had happened 40 years ago…
The hostess of Royal Goddess Guest House, Walled City had lived in London before. She was very nice and have good taste. She provided excellent breakfast with her handmade jams and lemonade in the beautiful 2nd floor dining room.
We found another shuttle bus company called Itimat to take us to Nicosia. This time the shuttle bus was bigger and took many stops and over an hour. Some local people also take it to the university or other places. It seems that the public transportation in Cyprus is not easy.
Nicosia is the capital of Cyprus, with much more shops and traffic. We walked through some bazaar, found Buyuk Han. It was a fascinating place, so ancient yet so well-preserved, a perfect place to wonder for a relaxing afternoon.
We saw the border in Nicosia. Both Turkish and Greek Customs said that we could cross, but we were so scared, never did.
I’m really glad that we visited both Turkey and TRNC. Although there were still many places that we were unable to visit, due to the time limit, we had a really good time. There were so many fond memories that I cannot possible state them all. Just like what the Turkish Airlines has been advertising — Turkey has it all.