Turkey Day 1 to 2 Singapore - Istanbul - Canakkale

It's our annual CNY holiday!
This year we are travelling to Turkey and landing in Istanbul, the only city built on two continents: Asia and Europe.

We actually have booked our CNY trip last year Sept with ASA but 2 weeks before the flight, they called to say that the tour is cancelled! This is really very bad service from ASA as it leaves us with little choices and very little time to quickly find alternatives.

I had to take a day off just to settle the tour agency, getting my refund back and to book with another tour since I have already applied for my leave.

sigh
So this trip I'm going to CTC travels, flying via SQ. The flight was approx 12 hours and I watched 2 movies on the plane....and zzz.
Upon arrival at Istanbul airport, hubs bought a local sim card at 120Lira with 8GB from their local telco - Turk Cellcom.

 Our first visit of the day was Topkapi Palace, a Palace during the Ottoman Empire, now a museum with a wide collection of Porcelains and treasure.

The weather was pretty cold so we went into a museum shop after our walk to get a cuppa hot chocolate.

 above: Our guide Mette on the left.

 above: Lunch. Colourful, vivid and clean.

 above: my Istanbul magnet , 7Lira from Topkapi Palace Museum Shop

After lunch, we departed Cannakkale via Galipoli. One of the pitstops was at a Petrol station where I found a 5.5Lira magnum which is appprox $1.50 SGD!!!

And i bought some Turkish delight from the Petrol Station...it was really delicious. Regrettably I only bought one and the smallest box to try. Should have bought boxes of them for my colleagues. And there was a bit of a traffic when we got to the ferry terminal where our coach hopped onto the ferry across Asia side of Turkey.

Dinner was buffet style at the hotel.

Goodness...that's how fast Day 1 in Turkey flew by.