Turkey Day 8 Safronbolu - Istanbul

This morning was the simplest breakfast!!! OMG. It was bad IMHO. anyway at the next Petrol station, there was Burger King. So hubs immediately went there to get a burger.

Drove back to Istanbul to take a Bosphorus Cruise trip. Here we caught another pokemon which we didn't have! YAY!

Lunch was at a restaurant near the ancient site Hippodrome. Next we visited the Blue Mosque.

 above: Blue Mosque with 6 minarets.

 above: interior of Blue Mosque filled with colourful tainted windows.

after visiting Blue Mosque, we went down to the Grand Bazaar for some shopping. Here I bought a Medium sized Turkish table Lamp for 50Lira, Turkish Apple tea with 2 cups 20Lira, a candle holder 20Lira, Evil eyes at 2Lira where I bought 10 for my tree back home.

hubs was eyeing at the beef kebab...so we ate there and I had a cup of orange juice. Total bill was 40Lira.

 we bought some roasted chestnuts to try. Not as "wet" as Singapore.

 above: I bought evil eye bracelets for 5Lira each. Buy 10 free 1!

above: Turkish Tea (left), scarves from Safronbolu (middle) and packets of dried fruits (right)

Turkey Day 7 Cappadocia - Safranbolu

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBS!!!
This morning drizzled slightly. After breakfast we left Cappadocia for Safranbolu, the World Cultural Heritage list by UNESCO in appreciation of the successful efforts in the preservation of its heritage as a whole.
Lunch served was chicken in a big metal plate with lots of bell peppers. And the restaurant also sells souvenirs and local produce. Should have bought my lokum aka Turkish delights here. It was quite cheap!!!

Other stuff which i bought along toilet breaks at Petrol Station are Olive oil hand and body cream. Comes in tube and different sizes, approx 8 Lira to 20 Lira. The more you buy, the more free tubes you get.

 Late afternoon, we reached Safranbolu! Clustered houses built during the Ottoman period.

After checking into our little hotel, the guide brought us one round around the "village", it's a short circuit before he left us to do our own free and easy time. This is where I bought most of my stuff throughout my entire Turkey trip!!!

 I bought little traditional wooden houses that were magnets at 1 lira!

 Had my first Turkish coffee here! and a Safron Tea too.

Along the streets, i bought wooden toys for my boys. Wooden Dominoes 3.5Lira, Wooden cube 2 Lira ,Tangram 2Lira. Hand painted porcelain bowls for my MIL at 3Lira each. I bought 2 porcelain pot coasters at 5Lira each.

 above: Turkish Coffee 7.5Lira and Safron Tea 7.5Lira

Beside the coffee stall, there's a another store manned by an old man whom i bought 3 cotton dresses and matching cotton bags from him. The cotton dresses were 15Lira each, cotton bags 5Lira each and I bought one big matching bag at 10Lira for myself!

Dinner was back at the hotel which was really simple. after dinner, we quickly made our rounds again. And this time I bought cotton throw 20Lira, scarf with tassels around the ends 20Lira and we shopped at a local supermarket.

I bought more handcreams at the supermarket. 6 tubes for 24Lira, 2 cans of fruit juice and 1 Nestle bitter chocolate.

Good night!

Turkey Day 6 Cappadocia

We woke up so early for our hot air balloon ride at Cappadocia but alas it was too windy whilst our balloon was filling up with air and they had to stop it.

 blurry photos because the sun is not up yet!

back to the hotel for my breakfast before we set off for a carpet making tour.

Did you know that the carpet in Turkey are made of cotton, wool and half-an-half (half cotton, half wool)

 Went to an underground city of Serhatli. I'm never a fan of underground spaces. So I wouldn't comment much here...wasn't my favourite part of this trip. But i bought a scarf here at 20 Lira.

After which we went to view some pottery work. WOW they now can make pottery luminate in the dark!

 Lunch was beef! hey...something different but some of the tour members don't eat beef and so they were very unhappy because they were served cold vegetables.

 Next were several stops to view the different rock formations of Cappadocia. It's quite amazing!

 

Sufi Dance of whirling Devishes - very sombre. It's actually quite ritual. To some of my tour members, they found it a bit disturbing but I suppose it's a cultural thing.

 next up was something more uplifting - Belly dance! And I also got to try the local Raki! It was quite potent, somewhat like Vodka.