First Day in Istanbul

Assalamualaikum! As promised, I am back with another post updating about my trip in Turkey! It's our first whole day today and we had a fun but tiring day... I was very happy!

We first woke up at 6 am - 6.40 was prayer time. My father prayed at the mosque, but the rest of ours didn't follow so I guess we'll be going tomorrow. We had breakfast while witnessing the sunrise! The view from our hotel room faces the sunrise and Ito was so beautiful! We took so many pictures of it but we couldn't capture its real beauty.

We did a bit of tidying up before setting off at around 9 am to Gulhane Park. It's quite a walk there, but we took pictures along the way on the streets of Istanbul. Our plan for the day was to venture to Topkapi Palace Museum, but we decided to circle round the area first. The museum was right next to the park, so we didn't have to walk too far to enter.

The day was colder than I expected. Everyone wore winter jackets but I thought only a sweater would suffice - I wasn't entirely wrong, but I wished I had put on something warmer.

Topkapi Palace Museum was a colossal maze! There were so many places to visit in there - just the Harem alone already took 90% of our time there! The Harem was the sultan's private rooms, along with the royal family. The servants and the army had their quarters below the royal family's apartments. We visited almost every room, it was all very intriguing. There were ancient inscriptions from the 14th century Ottoman Empire, three different mosques, and a lot of sinks. Somehow there were sinks everywhere, there might even be three in one room. I am yet to find out why.

Some of the places we entered were the soldiers' dormitories, their bathhouses (old toilets), the Queen Mother's apartments, a huge hall where they hold events (I forgot what they're called), and no other than the Sultan's apartment itself, overlooking a large pool, which was, of course, empty.

Besides the Harem, we stepped into the courtyard, where my father said roses bloomed in spring. There was also a library, a museum of belongings of the prophets and sahabahs of Prophet Muhammad, the palace kitchen and pantry, and an area overlooking the ocean! The view was so breathtaking, we couldn't go a metre without snapping photos.

Well, eventually Yusuf grew tired and started whining, so we couldn't stay longer. My own feet hurt as well, so around 1pm, we finished our tour at Topkapi Palace Museum and walked uphill (torture! Especially for my dad as he had to carry Yusuf) to a Malay restaurant called Nur Muhammad for lunch. 

When we were done and a bit recharged, we headed home via the Hagia Sophia. We stopped outside to take pictures, but we didn't enter. I guess everyone's already tired, and the line was too long, so we enjoyed the exterior view first. We're still staying in Istanbul the next few days so we have lots of time to visit it.

It was 3pm when we arrived at home. We all rested a bit, and enjoyed the view out the window of Haggai Sophia and other historical buildings. Our Istanbul tour continues tomorrow! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next update!

Assalamualaikum!