Turkey Day 3 Canakalle - Berama - Kusadasi

Good Morning Turkey!!!
i slept so well...i think i must be dead beat.
Today I'm wearing my new earrings - dream catcher with tassels. Really loving it so I'm taking a selfie here.

After breakfast, we drove to the infamous wooden horse from the Troy movie starring Brad Pitt. After the movie, the producers decided to gift this Wooden horse to Turkey and here it is. Now for visitors to take photos with.

 Drive to Bergama Town Center.

 Common juice in Turkey - Pomegranate! Must try.

 Lunch - buffet style and the restaurant sells plenty of souvenirs where I bought some.

I bought 3 Troy pouches (red) 5 Lira

Troy Magnet 7 Lira

Evil Eye keychains 2 Lira

after lunch, we drove to an open field and took a photo of Acropolis from a distance.

along the way, our bus got stuck along a steep road. The driver had to find a huge stone to drive over it to "lift" the front of the coach and all of us had to get down the coach to make the coach lighter. It was a scene! All the locals watched as our driver tried his best to maneuver the coach.

 above: Basilica of St John the Baptist

It was a lovely weather. and it's winter time now.

The sky is so blue. The afternoon sun shining down on us.

We stopped over at Basilica of St John the Baptist and I bought a stack of marble coasters ($15 SGD) from a stall. Lucky for me that I bought it there and then as I didn't get to see these marble coasters anywhere else along my Turkey travels.

Dinner was buffet style at a hotel where we were spending a night. They had a bar and we ordered 2 glasses of red wine. So shiok and now I'm feeling that I'm on a holiday with my glass of wine.

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.

Valentine's Day Present

this year, we both gifted each other a Xiaomi phone.

cos my screen has been cracked by Jade who loves to snatch it from me and throws it on the floor. And whenever I take a selfie or wefie, the image will be blurry because of the crack that is directly on the camera lens.

for hubs, I think his Xiaomi has been serving him for the past 2 years pretty well and i guess it is time for him to change and to have couple phones together!

Korean BBQ at Gyu Kaku (Star Vista)

Meat lovers!!! This is one Wagyu Buffet you don't want to miss or at least give it a try. There are 4 cuts to choose from if you are taking the $64.90++ buffet and it's not just the top row above, there are plenty of beef cuts to choose from the menu below.

 The seafood pancake - please give it a miss.

i especially loved putting the kimchi, garlic and chilli paste onto a fresh bed of lettuce and wrap my hot BBQ sliced beef! OMG. it's really quite delish!!! It was mouth watering just watching hubs grilling the meat on the stove. And the charcoal burner, they will change it for you once you BBQ for a long time or when the charcoal is finished. For the wire mesh, they do change for you too after a few rounds of bbq.

The buffet menus includes staples like rice, noodles, veggies, bibimbap, seafood, mushrooms and even ice cream desserts.

i'm definitely coming back even though the buffet price per pax is on the pricier side but I think it's pretty worth it.

My bamboo bag

trending. bamboo bag.

online buy.

think i can only bring it out on weekends....