Istanbul has a long and fascinating history which encompasses over centuries and three prominent eras. It starts with era of Bayzentine nation, followed by Romans and then era of Muslims ( othoman empire).In closer vicinity of meters only, you will find symbols of all these historical eras and you become deeply impressed by greatness of this historical city.
We reached Istanbul SAW airport around 11:00 clock in morning. SAW airport is around 51 KM from istanbul city and it took around 2 hours to reach our hotel which was located in Bayziat area of istanbul city. I was horrified by seeing traffic jams on road of istanbul but it is a fact that like all other big cities of world , istanbul also facing issues of traffic. They have both trams and metro in istanbul city , but still traffic jams are common in city.
Our hotel was small but clean. Main advantage was that it was very closed to main tourist attractions like blue mosque, hagia sofia , Grand Bazaarand Topkapi palace. We were able to reach all these places by walk , within 20 minutes.
We started our first day with a short visit to Grand Bazaar and istanbul university, followed by Bayzait Mosque. All of these locations were very close to our hotel so we took advatnage of that and visited all of them in same afternoon/morning.
Second day , we visited Blue Mosque and Hugia sofia. Both of these places are really wonderful.The only thing which i disliked about hugia sofia is that Government has converted it to Meuseum. I think they should retain it as either church or Mosque , but converting it to a meuseum makes no sense.
Third day , we went to Ayup Mosque to pray fatiha for our great muslim saint and close friend of our prophet (PBUH).
We then visited Topkapi palace which was constructed in Othmon period of muslim era. It is a fantastic palace with all its walls full of Gold. It is a memorable palace , and give you a memory of fantastic and glorious era of othmon empire.
Last day we went to Emunono port to catch a hour based ferry trip. They charged us around 9 lira per person. It was one and hour long trip but really memorable. I advice all travelers who visit Istanbul not to miss this golden oppurtunity.
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