Saturday, June 16, 2007

Istanbul Trip Day 1 (21 May 2007)


We arrived at the Erboy Hotel in the afternoon. We had free airport transfers!! It was great and hassle-free. When we sat down and waited for our room to be ready, they served us our first cup of Turkish apple tea. It tasted really good! We loved it! :D


We dropped off our suitcases and went out walking around the city and feel the place! The first impression of Istanbul was very lively and a bit strange as we've never seen anywhere like it before. It was totally different and amazing!

The next thing we had to do was change some local currency. The exchange rate was not bad. After we got the money, we felt a bit peckish and went to Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi for dinner. This restaurant has been around since 1920. Their famous dish is Turkish Meat balls (köfte). Many people go there just for that. :)


Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi


After we had the nice dinner. Roger wanted some dessert. haha So we went to Saray and had the super delicious pudding called sütlaç (Turkish rice pudding). mmm lovely!


We've also sampled the baklava. It was nice but a bit too sweet for our taste. :) Glad that we tried it though.


Lovely park and Hagia Sophia.


When we first saw the Blue Mosque, we were like WOW!! Very spectacular and impressive. Definitely have to go inside and check it out!


And here is street food, Grilled sweet corn.


Selling dried fruit... I think! haha not sure


Beautiful Turkish lamps. Wish we could bring one back!

I've done lots of research on the net before we started our trip.
http://www.letsgoistanbul.com/
http://turkeytravelplanner.com/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/

End of Day 1

1 comment:

Oya said...

Stella, looks like you had great time here. Did you go to the cafe in Tunel you asked me before?