turkey 07: day 3

monday, 24/12/07

had d same breakfast again n headed 4 topkapi palace. as d name suggest, it's a palace where d Ottoman sultans live 4 almost 500 yrs (if im not mistaken). like any other palace in d world, it is surely beautiful n all but wut makes it different is d Islamic characteristics of it. u can see from d entrance itself. had 2 pay 10ytl to enter. there was even military guarding d place. uuu..scary~ hehe. we got ourselves d audio guide so that we know wut we're seeing

1st we enter d Harem, which is like d place 4 d empress n sultan's concubines. i think it orginated from d word 'Haram'. tp cm confuse la. bole ke ade gundik2 dlm islam? hm? ade gk cite psl guardian of d place. it must be a black guy n di'kasi'. wah. scary ok? d sultan also hv eunuchs, which is like gundik LAKI yg di'kasi' gk. waa..apekah? those were among bizarre things i found out. n of coz d building is very beautiful, full of calligraphy of quranic verses esp at d entrance. compared to other visitors, i think we muslims can appreciate it more as we can read it! rase cm...x terkate~

then comes d 2nd part of d palace: d museums. there were at least 4 separate buildings displaying things from Ottoman n non-Ottoman empire. not really a fan of museums actually. but wut struck me was d last museum, which displayed things from islamic heritage. things like the Prophet's n Khalifah's sword. it was like telling bout islam from d beginning, about d Prophet..which kinda make me sad. ok. i know Ottoman empire is rich, strong n all but look where it got them to? d Ottoman museum was full of throne decorated with gold n gems, totally contrasted d last museum. it's d THE cycle. islam was weak, getting stronger when we even conquered almost 2/3 of d world, be ustaziatul alam, got rich, LALAI, falls~ astagfirullah~~

then we juz looked around d palace~







then it was time 4 lunch. we're free to eat anywhere we like. i went with qilah, kak amani n kak mai n we found a nice restaurant! we even got discounts 4 d food. huhu. in turkey, u MUST bargain, or else RUGI LA! then actually we planned to go 2 basilica cistern but cancelled it. there was nothing much about it, juz sistem pengairan zmn dulu2. hehe. kene byr plak tu! so, we decided to go 2 Grand Bazaar. activity: shopping!~


i dunno how i ended up walking with kak mira, fiqa n kak fiesya. as usual, im d only not buying anything. but thankfully, mcm terjangkit plak sindrom beli byk2 from derg n i bought several things. yeay! everyone was calling out "malaysia" everytime we passed their shop, n it got scary. pelek btol la..tp ktorg mmg bargain btol2 la. ade dis one shop, derg x reti pon ckp english. we bargained thru d calculator! mcm maen tekan2 no la. agak lawak la..tp experience yg menarik~ n obviously time shopping tade la nk amek gmba pape kn?



we were among d first ones coming back to our hostel. menarik. kaki da stat saket da time tu. ye la, byk gile kot jln. but we still didnt hv dinner. so me n kak mira went out to look 4 a place to eat. jln punye la jauh. haha. last2 g beli hotdog+pickles kat gerai n mkn dpn blue mosque, which is actually dkt sgt ngn hostel. huhu. pusing punye la jauh~

blk2 hostel ade tea. org hostel tu kasi. hoho. mkn la ngn biskut. sedap! heater was ok again so tdo dgn nyenyaknye~~