day 7: random walking around on last day in istanbul

even though we checked-in and subsequently went to bed so late the previous night, we still dragged ourselves out of bed early, coz lovely lily missed the istanbul part of our tour and i'd promised that i would be her impromptu tour guide for half a day before flying back to dubai.

buffet breakfast at the hotel before setting out. the breakfasts here were the best we've had while in turkey... 

 of course the first stop would have to be the icon of istanbul, the blue mosque... i did my best to remember what my guide told me, to tell them to lovely lily. but in order to save time, we didn't go into the mosque.

next, i brought lovely lily to the hipodrome... the weather was quite overcast that day, and as istanbul is situated to the north as compared to the other places we've been, it's still quite chilly even though it was well into spring...

very cool tourist police! 

next i wanted to show lovely lily the hagia sofia, but queue was too long! tips: always engage a guide when visiting touristy places, because they get to skip the queues at the entrance by showing their tag.

then i thought we could go to topkapi palace, as it wasn't in my tour itinerary (it being closed every tuesday, the day of my tour in istanbul). but omg, look at that queue! it's a sunday, so everywhere's filled with tourists!

in the end,  we decided to join the queue outside the basilica cistern, coz it looked to be moving quite fast. i've not been here too, so i don't really mind paying for the entrance ticket (which i think was 10 turkish lira = RM 17).

ok here, read about it yourself, but it doesn't give much info about what the cistern was used for in the olden days. so if you wanna know more about the basilica cistern, it's better to click on the link of the photo above.

view of the underground cistern from the top of the stairs we descended...

whoops, photo lopsided a bit... 

the head of medusa at the base of a column. no, i didn't forget to rotate the photo! according to legend, since anyone who looked into medusa's eyes will be turned into stone, the head will be placed upside down so that they don't end up with too many stoned tourists in the area! :P 

another medusa head at the base of another column, but this one was placed sideways... 

 tear patterns on a column... the other columns are plain without patterns.

next, we wanted to go to the grand bazaar, but i forgot that it's a sunday and the grand bazaar is closed on sundays! luckily we found a side street nearby  that has lotsa stall selling knick-knacks...

a cute lil evil eye pin that one of the stall owners pinned onto my camera strap...

when we got back to our hotel, we saw that the van for our airport transfer was already waiting there. as it turned out, there was a cycling event that day and a lot of roads will be closed. so in order for us to arrive at the airport on time, the tour agent sent over their van earlier. but we were out and they couldn't get hold of us. luckily we've already packed and just needed to go up to get our luggage from our room!

 we made it to the airport in good time, with enough time for a quick bite as we were starving! here's my last meal in turkey, popeye's chicken, while lovely lily had burger king.

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*phew! finally i concluded the posts on my trip to turkey! sorry it took so long... will try to do better for my next trip, which will be happening in october! *excited*

day 6: more walking in cappadocia

after a very cold night in our cave room, we woke up to this sight!

hot air balloons dotting the cloudless blue, blue sky!

we felt a tiny bit of regret for not booking a hot air balloon trip, but just a tiny bit lar... coz it's quite expensive and it being our 2nd final day in turkey, we're sorta low on funds. also, we'd need to wake up rreeeallly early if we were to go for the hot air balloon ride, coz we'd wanna catch the sunrise. so tho' we were sad for missing it, we were also quite glad for the opportunity to sleep in a bit.

we had our breakfast outdoors on the terrace one floor beneath our room. quite a standard fare... i simply love their fresh bread eaten with assorted jams... yums!

as we were sitting outdoors, tho' the air was chilly, the sun was shining quite brightly. so the hotel people pushed of the huge umbrella for us to hide under. when i looked down, i discovered that they used marble slabs to weigh down the umbrella! marbles really so cheap in turkey, that everything is made of marble?

after breakfast, we were picked up by our tour guide for the day's tour.

walking tour along the red valley, which took about an hour plus...

panoramic view... can you spot a horse at the far left corner? cappadocia actually means "land of beautiful horses", so maybe in the ancient times, this place has lotsa beautiful wild horses...

old men and women tilling the land to plant grapes the traditional way! what backbreaking work... i seem to have been transported back to the olden days...

 arriving at the edge of the red valley...

panoramic view from the top of red valley...

going down to the red valley... a rather hot day to be trekking :(

we saw more pigeon houses along the way... 

a couple selling nuts and dried fruits along the way... they were very gracious and kept asking us to sample their nuts and fruits. a welcomed break from our walk!

some of the places we passed...

some of the paths were formed by wind and some by water...

sometimes we passed through these jungle-ish places...

this is another stall we came across... this one even has a carpeted sitting area with shades! 

that's a bottle of turkish wine i'm holding... in turkish, wine is called "sharap", which sounds very much like "shut up"! now how can we ever forget that, right?

i was wondering what these cute lil earthen wares were for... can you guess?

off we went again, after a short break...

it was a bright and sunny day... which explained me getting sun-burnt on my scalp, coz i forgot to pack my hat along!

we came to another cave dwelling, this time belonging to a nun. a few of my tour members went up (via a back entrance) but i decided i am too lazy have seen enough cave dwellings for this trip.

at yet another stop, this one selling a mixture of pomegranate and grape fruit juice. really sour and yummy, tho' a tad expensive!

we arrived at this place at the end of our walk. this is cavusin (pronounced "chausin"), the oldest cave settlement in the area. there were people still staying here till as late as the 70s, with the last family moving out in 1976 after the government ruled the place unsafe for habitation due to erosion. some parts are still open for tourists, but some of us decided not to go up, choosing instead to sit in the shades of one of the many coffee shops while waiting for the group of japanese boys to finish exploring the place.

after lunch, we went to kaymakli, an underground city that spans 8 floors! but only 4 floors are open to the public now. this city started out as early as the hittite times and has expanded over the centuries where the locals used it as their living quarters when various marauding armies passed through here.

see that big round slab of stone on the left? that's a stone door, where it can be rolled over the doorway to close off access from the enemies

the inside of the cave city is surprisingly cool, due to these air tunnels that spans all the floors to ensure that the dwellers do not suffocate...

the walkways between sections are really narrow, where we can only walk bent in single file! the people in the olden days must be really small...

next stop was to the jewelers... just a short stop coz none of us were interested in buying anything.

tree of evil eye. the evil eye has a deep-seated tradition in turkey, which is said to originate from medusa's eyes in greek mythology.

at the end of the tour, we were brought back to goreme, where we decided to take a walk into town in search of an early dinner. this is a doner kebab, different from the kebabs i had on my 1st and 2nd day in istanbul.

saw this cute display on our walk back to sarihan cave hotel & pension...

walking back to our hotel... the weather got quite chilly towards the night.

on the upper terrace of our cave hotel, waiting for our van to come pick us up to the kayseri airport for our flight back to istanbul that night... 

awesome sunset over cappadocia!

we got back to istanbul in one piece, but i had to pay for excess luggage coz the allocation was only 15kg and i was only like 2-3kg overweight! wth... and they were quite strict, no negotiating at all. they just tell you straight, "please go over to that counter over there and pay for your excess luggage. then come back here to get your boarding pass." 

anyway, we got back to istanbul in one piece and checked-in again at yusuf pasa konagi, at about midnight.