Date of Visit: 16 - 20 December 2011
Yes, I went to Turkey, which is in Europe, no Asia... no I think is Europe... argh, who cares?! Turkey is right in the crossroad between Europe and Asia. Istanbul has a famous bridge that sort of links Europe to Asia. Funnily enough, the European side of the bridge is not lighted up. Recent economic activities have led me to concluded that the European side just does not have enough money to pay the lighting.
Sitting at the entrance of the Black Sea, Istanbul is kind of surrounded by water.
Anyway, upon my arrival in Istanbul, my first impression of the city: "Wow, this looks like Malaysia!" No kidding!
Being in the middle of 2 continents, Turkey experienced major influences from both sides. However, the most obvious difference I observed was the lack of huge churches/basilicas/cathedrals. Instead, they were all replaced by mosques. There are just mosques everywhere and the most famous of them have to be the Blue Mosque.
Actually, there is another famous ex-basilica/mosque around, and that is the Hagia Sofia. To most, both buildings look very similar, almost identical. I belong to that group of people, too bad.
Like most other European cities, the once glorious Ottoman Empire left behind many palaces in the city. They have their own distinct architecture which sets them apart from those of other countries.
Alright, enough of the boring mosques and palaces. Lets talk about the Turkish people. According to wikipedia, they are a very friendly bunch of people, to the extent of becoming too over-friendly at times. Apparently, they knew it themselves too and they seem willing to exploit their friendliness.
This brings me to talk about the few things I really hate in the city... touters. "Hello my friend... Come here my friend... I give you discount my friend..." I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND AND YOU ARE BEING FREAKING IRRITATING! Yes, I am that irritated by them. The worst of all was that every shop seems to have them. It is impossible to walk down a street without being approached by on of "my friends". So bring your earplugs the next time you visit the Grand Bazaar or the Spice Market, because you will be in an enclosed area surrounded by many "friends".
Another round of bitching before I continue. If you read the "Stay Safe" portion of WikiTravel, the section is about a million pages long, so it is important to know how to safeguard yourself when travelling here. Unfortunately for me, I did not read the section and was scammed. Here's how it happened: The 5 of us were walking happily down the road when a shoe shiner, who seems to be in a hurry, overtook us. Shortly after he did, the shoe brush that he clipped onto his small shoeshine booth dropped off. One of my friends, being a very nice person, picked up the brush and called for him. He took back his brush and looked really grateful to us. Probably being the only person wearing a leather shoe, he pulled me to the side and began shining my shoes. I, being naive, thought he just wants to show some gratitude to us. I even thought that I should tipped him a little after that. Unbelievable, right after he was finished with my shoes, he opened his palms and demanded for payment. What an asshole who deserves to rot in hell and burn in eternal flames. I asked him how much and he demanded for 15liras (7 Euros). I said no, I did not want the service and you did it on your own freewill. At this point, he decided he could not understand english anymore and just demanded money, while holding onto my foot. Thinking back, I should have just kicked the crap out of him. Anyway, I decided not to fight with him and told him I will pay 10liras. Apparently, it is more than what he expected and he accepted it. We left immediately after... This is my first time being scammed and lesson learnt. Never be a nice person when travelling overseas.
Funny thing was, about an hour after the scam, we spotted some suspicious shoe shiners again. I observed them carefully this time round and saw that one of them changed his shoe brush to a different hook when he saw us. After we walk past them, that shoe shiner decided to overtake us in a hurry. De ja vu! Hold and behold, his shoe brush magically fell too. The only difference was this time round, no one was nice to pick it up and return it to him. We just walked past the brush and stared at him. Sensing that his scam failed, he backtracked to picked up his brush, mumbling and grumbling all the way. Lol.
Alright alright, happy stuff now. Food! The food in the restaurants are not that cheap compared to those of mainland Europe, only in the streets then the prices are much cheaper. But we managed to find a very good seafood place that sells at a very reasonable price, and the food tasted great!
Desserts are also big here, with all the Turkish delights and Baclava and what not. They are all disgustingly sweet by the way.
Sadly I cannot say that I have really enjoyed myself on this trip. Probably because of the constant presence of irritating people, and that it is very similar to Malaysia. I wished I could have visited Cappadocia instead, because it just looks so much more awesome.
Yes, I went to Turkey, which is in Europe, no Asia... no I think is Europe... argh, who cares?! Turkey is right in the crossroad between Europe and Asia. Istanbul has a famous bridge that sort of links Europe to Asia. Funnily enough, the European side of the bridge is not lighted up. Recent economic activities have led me to concluded that the European side just does not have enough money to pay the lighting.
Sitting at the entrance of the Black Sea, Istanbul is kind of surrounded by water.
Anyway, upon my arrival in Istanbul, my first impression of the city: "Wow, this looks like Malaysia!" No kidding!
Being in the middle of 2 continents, Turkey experienced major influences from both sides. However, the most obvious difference I observed was the lack of huge churches/basilicas/cathedrals. Instead, they were all replaced by mosques. There are just mosques everywhere and the most famous of them have to be the Blue Mosque.
Actually, there is another famous ex-basilica/mosque around, and that is the Hagia Sofia. To most, both buildings look very similar, almost identical. I belong to that group of people, too bad.
Like most other European cities, the once glorious Ottoman Empire left behind many palaces in the city. They have their own distinct architecture which sets them apart from those of other countries.
Alright, enough of the boring mosques and palaces. Lets talk about the Turkish people. According to wikipedia, they are a very friendly bunch of people, to the extent of becoming too over-friendly at times. Apparently, they knew it themselves too and they seem willing to exploit their friendliness.
This brings me to talk about the few things I really hate in the city... touters. "Hello my friend... Come here my friend... I give you discount my friend..." I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND AND YOU ARE BEING FREAKING IRRITATING! Yes, I am that irritated by them. The worst of all was that every shop seems to have them. It is impossible to walk down a street without being approached by on of "my friends". So bring your earplugs the next time you visit the Grand Bazaar or the Spice Market, because you will be in an enclosed area surrounded by many "friends".
Another round of bitching before I continue. If you read the "Stay Safe" portion of WikiTravel, the section is about a million pages long, so it is important to know how to safeguard yourself when travelling here. Unfortunately for me, I did not read the section and was scammed. Here's how it happened: The 5 of us were walking happily down the road when a shoe shiner, who seems to be in a hurry, overtook us. Shortly after he did, the shoe brush that he clipped onto his small shoeshine booth dropped off. One of my friends, being a very nice person, picked up the brush and called for him. He took back his brush and looked really grateful to us. Probably being the only person wearing a leather shoe, he pulled me to the side and began shining my shoes. I, being naive, thought he just wants to show some gratitude to us. I even thought that I should tipped him a little after that. Unbelievable, right after he was finished with my shoes, he opened his palms and demanded for payment. What an asshole who deserves to rot in hell and burn in eternal flames. I asked him how much and he demanded for 15liras (7 Euros). I said no, I did not want the service and you did it on your own freewill. At this point, he decided he could not understand english anymore and just demanded money, while holding onto my foot. Thinking back, I should have just kicked the crap out of him. Anyway, I decided not to fight with him and told him I will pay 10liras. Apparently, it is more than what he expected and he accepted it. We left immediately after... This is my first time being scammed and lesson learnt. Never be a nice person when travelling overseas.
Funny thing was, about an hour after the scam, we spotted some suspicious shoe shiners again. I observed them carefully this time round and saw that one of them changed his shoe brush to a different hook when he saw us. After we walk past them, that shoe shiner decided to overtake us in a hurry. De ja vu! Hold and behold, his shoe brush magically fell too. The only difference was this time round, no one was nice to pick it up and return it to him. We just walked past the brush and stared at him. Sensing that his scam failed, he backtracked to picked up his brush, mumbling and grumbling all the way. Lol.
Alright alright, happy stuff now. Food! The food in the restaurants are not that cheap compared to those of mainland Europe, only in the streets then the prices are much cheaper. But we managed to find a very good seafood place that sells at a very reasonable price, and the food tasted great!
Desserts are also big here, with all the Turkish delights and Baclava and what not. They are all disgustingly sweet by the way.
Sadly I cannot say that I have really enjoyed myself on this trip. Probably because of the constant presence of irritating people, and that it is very similar to Malaysia. I wished I could have visited Cappadocia instead, because it just looks so much more awesome.
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