Travelogue : Istanbul Day 3

Day 3 proved to be the first day of fasting. 18 hours mind you. We were going for the long haul. Soo with that in mind we took it pretty slow. We stepped out of the apartment well after noon having prayed so that there would be less hassle.Today would only include the Basilica cistern as well as a stroll in the topkapi garden.

Take the funicular at taksim -----> kabatash - take tramway (T1) ------>; Sultanahmet station.

Similar to yesterday. In fact basilica cistern could actually be covered along with aya sofya and the blue mosque, if one has the energy to do something like that since they are just a few hundred meters away from each other.

Entrance fee to the cistern in 20 TL. On the net it said 10. But i guess prices have been hiked. Unfortunately the muze pass doesn't not work here so the line is inevitable. The place is a bit dark and the lighting is very minimal. I think they purposely made it that way to give you that old eerie feeling. The cistern used to hold water for the immediate community and water was transported from the mountains 19 km away. Now it's just  a museum and the water levels are pretty low with a few fat fishes swimming around. There are two very famous madusa head statues at the far east corner. There's supposed to be a reason why one is upside down. I don't particularly remember ^^v. The cistern is actually pretty chilly. The mortar is specifically made to be waterproof. Take care though it's a bit wet and slippery here and there.

We walked along the street for a little while to find this guy who was making calligraphy signs on these really nice backdrops. So we bought one for our room with our names on it. 25 TL. Its amazing the money you can make from just being creative.

Since it was the first day of a long fast we hung out at the newly constructed park next to the Topkapi Palace. There were a whole lot of people but the place was really nice, with families lying in the grass and kids playing at the mini water park. I must say people in Istanbul really know how to take it easy.

Welpz not much, if i can say so myself. We were trying to conserve energy. That night we bought ourselves some kebab for buka puasa. It comes with this yogurt drink called ayran i think which you can see people drinking left and right. Not like the yogurt drinks we have here though. I was actually surprised to find that it was thick and salty. And despite my love for salty foods it didn't really go down that well. But when you make it into a dip, it tastes better.

Terawih with my mom started at well past 11pm and finished close to 1 am. Sahur was around 3.30am. Not a lot of sleep really. But what to do..

Coming up : Grand Bazaar ^_~