turkey 07: day 2

sunday, 23/12/07

had breakfast: bread+butter+jam+turkish tea. at d so-called open terrace of our hostel. d sun was shining brightly thru d window n it felt nice. menarik! perot pon sudah berisi. then our adventure in turkey started! yea~

berjalan kaki menuju ke tmpt feri nk g Selat Bosphorus. on d way stopped at a shop (again) n bought some nice postcards. ehe. it was quite chilly outside. we walked until we reached some kind of city i guess, where there were lots of shophouses. n i saw McD! (kat turki halal) hehe. then saw d sea! nice~~ 2 get to d ferry we need to cross d jejambat (?). d view from up there was cool!! when we reached wut i call as jetty, there were lots of ppl. then some guy came n offered us his boat trip.

n we agreed. so we walked, which was quite far from d crowd, to his boat. naek bot. but no life jacket! hoho. but it was cool!~ n really COLD too. d sun was bright n d view was breathtaking. u can see both d europe n asian side of turkey. n i got 2 hear my 1st azan here. it felt...very nice. undescribable~

d boat stopped at Ortakoy. i thought there was some significant place to visit but it was actually juz a shopping place. lots of stalls selling things like gloves, pashminas etc etc. i was walking with kak mira n kak amani (im always walking with d akaks, kn?) i didnt buy any, which i regretted later bcoz i found dis cool green gloves n i couldnt find anymore afterwards. =( got back on d boat. altho d scenery was beautiful, i found it hard to concentrate bcoz it was SO COLD! i was freezing, ok? when we got back 2 d 'jetty', one of d fishing rod from d bridge got stuck 2 our boat n we heard d sound of a loud crack. ooppss. i think d fishing rod broke! kesian org tu. sum1 was shouting angrily from above. but thinking back, mata kail tu bole terkene one of us! scary~

it's lunch time! a guy from a restaurant started calling out, "malaysia?" ehh?? cane derg bole tau psl msia ni?? but little did i know..so we ate at d quite posh restaurant. takot gk mahal tp he promised 2 give us discounts. perot pon da lapa. ape lg kan. mkn la fish sandwich kat situ. but it was too dry. so we asked 4 chilli sauce n mayonaise. tgk2 die kuarkn yg besa punye. haha. myb x pnh ade org mintk kot? next stop: Galata tower!

Galata tower is somewhat up d hill. huhu. penat woo mendaki bukit. nk msk kene byr 10ytl. turki ni satu je la x best. sume tmpt nk g kene byr. if im not mistaken, ni la tmpt di mane sultan muhammad al-fatih tgk d whole istanbul. from up there. agak tinggi la. gayat gk tgk bwh. n d 'corridor' cm sempit gk n kene cm penyek2kn bdn utk kasi org lalu. it was scary, especially when u hv to lean against d penghadang! but true, i think u can see d whole istanbul from up there.

then stopped at a mosque (which i forgot its name) to pray. while waiting, some of d Turkish ppl talked 2 us. sgt menarik. bcoz derg cm sgt berusahe nk ckp ngn ktorg eventho derg xde la reti sgt english. body language played important role that time. i came 2 realise that english is not THAT important. yea, we in msia stressed so much 4 english (which i admit is quite useful), but english is not everything. a guy, whose niece we talked to even offered help to us, which was very nice. so we asked direction to our next stop: Suleiman mosque

it was dark already. we were following d direction some guy showed us. we reached an area of shophouses, which weirdly, all were closed. we were also walking up d hill which seemed endless. we juz followed d signboard until we came to a poorly-lit alley. then came a police in a car, stopping us. time tu da pelek. ade ke ktorg wat salah pape? then he said sumting like we're goin 2 a dangerous area! hah?? ape lg, ktorg pon tuka arah n ikot jln yg die tunjuk. alhamdulillah~ naseb baek terselamat drpd ape2 yg x elok~

at last smpi. tp pegi toilet dulu jap. ehh?? g toilet pon kene byr?? n tade la lawa sgt pon toiletnye. ish2. pelek btol. n d weirder thing was, d mosque was closed soon after we arrived. x smpt pon nk masuk. masjid pon bole tutup eh? punye la susah ktorg nk smpi. so tape la..g mkn kat kedai dpn Suleiman mosque tu.

malangnye, d guy cannot speak english at all. n he started to talk in Turkish, which we obviously dont understand. but he looked excited to have us there n we felt kesian plak la kn. we wanted to order but everytime he juz said "sabar, sabar." some of us were already restless. then suddenly, came d food. aik? x order pon cane leh dpt mknn ni? tp mkn je la. sedap! reminded me of nasi paprik. huhu..

bile nk byr, die tibe2 tuleh 180ytl. we were like, "what??" but luckily we bargained everything n it went down to 80. haih. we felt cheated, u know. bcoz we didnt even ordered n suddenly we hv 2 pay 4 sumting we initially dont want. but myb he didnt even understand wut we're saying. so d lesson is: jgn mkn kat restaurant unless at least one of them can speak english!

d adventure didnt stop there. we had trouble finding our way back. we first followed a couple, who seemed like tourists. but they started to follow a dark road n d area seemed dodgy. perasaan time tu x terkate. tibe2 ade plak some guys at d dark alley. ok. time tu mmg bertawakkal sungguh2. alhamdulillah everything is ok. eventually we arrived to d main road n found our way back to Sultanahmet, back to our hostel. wut a day~

that nite, d heater went off so all of us were freezing while sleeping