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*