Istanbul

Istanbul, largest city of Turkey with its 1538 square kilometers and 12.800.000 people living there. Especially known for the Hagia Sophia and the Bosphorus bridge. Motorsports fans will certainly know Istanbul for the Istanbul Park, a beautiful race circuit.

Hagia Sophia

Who does not know the Hagia Sophia? Shame on you. It is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was a former Orthodox basilica, later a mosque and since 1935 it is a museum. Every tourist that come in the Hagia Sophia, will be astonished. The monument is a good example of the Byzantine architecture. On the inside you can see paintings, the big dome, superb decorations, the great marble door,… the different parts of the 82 meter long building are all impressive. Going to Istanbul without visiting the Hagia Sophia is something you can’t do as a tourist.

Bosphorus Bridge

One bridge connecting two continents is a gravity anchored suspension bridge with steel pylons and inclined hangers. Made in three years from 1970 to 1973, it is the 4^th longest bridge in the world. The total length is 1510 meters, the width is 39 meters and the height is 105 meters. In the first four years of the existence of the bridge, pedestrians were allowed to walk on the bridge. Today no pedestrians and no trucks are allowed anymore.

Istanbul Park

Motorsports fans, that part is for you. We went to Istanbul Park, one of the best race circuit in the world. Take a look to the website of the circuit. You’ll be astonished about the amount of activities that are present there. There was no race when we were there but people are allowed to walk on the circuit to see what race drivers see when they are in their cockpit. Long straight lines but also difficult corners.

To see the whole city of Istanbul, we would certainly need 2 or 3 weeks, But we have to continue our trip. We are going to quit Turkey now. We hope you enjoyed our four Turkish blogs. See you next time in Bulgaria..

Goodbye Haluk

Today was the last day with our private guide Haluk before we went to the capital of Turkey, Istanbul. This morning, Haluk said he had a surprise for us. We were quite curious. We leave at 3a.m. with the car in the direction of a unknown place. Suddenly we arrived in a very crowded city, called Afyon. On the first sight, Afyon hadn’t something special but when we turned 180°, we saw one small but high mountain in the middle of the city. It was called “the Black Rock”. Now some of you should say: “well it’s just a mmountain in the middle of the city” but when we looked better to the mountain, we could see a castle on it. But it wasn’t a normal castle, it was built on the same shape as the mountain. The Kara Hissar, that’s the name of the castle had been built with stones of the same color of the mountain to give an impression to camouflage. Here you can see a picture of the mountain in the middle of the city and if you concentrate, perhaps you can see the castle. If you can’t, you can take a better look by clicking on that link.

We also saw the Ulu Kami Mosque. The mosque had been built in 1272. The most important character is that the wooden roof is supported by only 40 wooden pillars. That was a very typical example of the architecture in that year.

A third thing we visited was the museum (Istiklal Harbi Müzesi) of the Liberation war against the Greek people in 1922 in Dumlupinar. We can also see a memorial of the war in the park near the city hall. In the museum, we saw some weapons both armies used, the different strategies they used, the important turning points during the war etc. It was a very interesting visit in that museum. You can find more info by clicking here.

After having a good day in Afyon, we came back to Antalya, said goodbye to Haluk, Dilek and the children and took the airplane to go to Istanbul, our last stop in Turkey.

A day of architecture

After a good night in the house of Haluk and Dilek, Haluk asked us if we wanted to go to Konya. He said Konya was one of the most beautiful places in Turkey for the architecture. For us it was OK so we went to Konya. And we can confirm Haluk said the truth. On this post, you will see a lot of pictures of the beautiful buildings. The first thing we’ve done, was a visit to the Museum. We learnt a lot of things about the history and the present situation in Konya. We walk further and saw a big building. We asked Haluk what was that big building and it proved to be a post office.

Konya is one of the most religious centers in Turkey. That’s why the inhabitants of the city has a sumptuous mosque called the Alaeddin mosque.

Konya also owns the biggest university in Turkey with around 76.000 students. We also visited the cultural centre, the Konya Train Station, the Alaeddin Hill Park, the Kombassan Tower and much more incredible places.

It was difficult to put all our pictures, so we made a collage.

On the way back to Antalya we passed through Isparta. In that city there was one special thing. Their main economic activity is the creation of rose water and rugs. We did not stay too long in Isparta but we can say it was a interesting stop and the inhabitants are very hospitable, just like Haluk and his wife.

As you can see, not much text on that post of our blog. That’s because Konya is a city you have to SEE. Lots of images in our heads. Icons.. is the meaning of Konya and that’s not a coincidence.

Türkiye'de Hoşgeldiniz

When we arrived at the airport in Antalya, we did not know what the sentence above meant. But when we asked it to a inhabitant, he said we were welcome in Turkey. Turkey is a huge country. We asked the same inhabitant how many people were living in Turkey and we were astonished when we heard his answer.. around 74 million inhabitants.

Our first goal today was to find somewhere to sleep. After talking a bit with our Turkish friend (in English of course), we asked some interesting places for sleeping. His answer was: “ Yes, in my house” . We accepted his offer and we followed our friend Haluk to his house. His house was very beautiful, as you can see on the picture. We met his wife and four children. They received us like nobody else. Turkish tea (Çay) was offered as sign of welcome. During the teatime we made meetings with each other.

Haluk is the boss of the house. In English his name means ‘good nature’. His wife Dilek means desire, wish. And then we have the four children. One boy and three girls. The name of the boy is Berk and the meaning of that name is strong, solid, firm. He is the youngest of the family but like his name says he is very muscular. And then we have the 3 girls: Yildiz, Suleand Melek and the respective meanings are star, flame and angel. We liked their way of being so familiar to us.

But we were here to visit Turkey so we asked to Haluk what were the most beautiful places in that country. Living his whole life since he was born in Antalya, Haluk suggested to be our guide in that city and show us the most beautiful places. So we did not know the city so we agreed. Today it was beautiful weather and the fact Antalya is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, Haluk took us to the Lara beach. Lara is a district of Antalya and has the longest beach of Turkey.

After that, we went to Kaleici, the historical centre of Antalya. Kaleici has been restored after the second world war and now it is the most touristic place in Antalya with its clubs, hotels, bars and restaurants. Very beautiful city with a mix of Lycian, Pamphylian, and Hellenistic -but mainly Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman- architecture. In that picture you can see an old clock in the Kaleici.

Everybody was a bit Hungry and to thank our guide for the great welcome we’ve hd, we decided to invite him for lunch. The only thing he had to do is find a typical restaurant where we can eat local things. He knew exactly what we were searching and led us to a very small restaurant at a corner of a street. Apparently he knew the boss of the restaurant and he asked an assortment of delicacies.

First of all, the owner of the restaurant served a glass of Raki. And do you, readers know what raki really means? Well, we will tell it to you. Raki means milk of lion (just because it is white like milk and strong like a lion). And then the great lunch began. Lots of strange things were served just like Kapuska and Sehriye Corbasi (soups), Taratorlu Mydye Tavasi, Kimali Enginar (meats) and Cacik and Zerde (deserts). After 2 hours of talking and savoring those delicious things, we decided to go home. So as you can see, not a very difficult day today but really emotional to see how people are doing everything to make us happy. Once at Haluks’ house in the evening, we ate some other specialties friendly offered by Dilek and the children. After eating, we all went to the living room for a last cup of tea. They were also curious to know how life was in Belgium and so we changed some interesting information about culture, architecture,… Finally we went to bed for another interesting day near Antalya. See you next time ;)