right now i am not in the good mood, many incident happened today.
this is my first day in Istanbul, i came here with Turkish Airlines and they're quite recommended, the in-flight entertainment is superb but the food on the plane is.... yuck (a little bit disgusting). The food is cold and there's no taste at all.
The arrival time on Ataturk Airport is on 6 am but i spend my next two and a half hours in the airport because i faced several problems. The first problem is, Turkey Visa. The officer on Visa-On-Arrival section didn't received Euro from my Country (such a racist one!) i see what he's doing right there, a passenger before and after me paid using euro and there's no problem at all. While when it comes to my turn, he said that he only accepted US Dollar. There are no money exchange booth in that area and i didn't bring any US Dollar. I wandered around the area, greet and ask another passenger if they could exchange their money to mine. I tried to talk to the Turkish Airlines official because i'm their customer so i thought they will help me, but the fact is, they didn't give a fuck at all. I was very disappointed and mixed-up at that time. Luckily, i found a Philippines guy who said that i could exchange my Euro with his USD, $25 for 20 Euro, my faith to humanity restored :)
The second problem is, SIM card for my phone. There are three different provider booth when you exit from the baggage area, there are Turkcell, Vodafone, and Avea. I did some research before and found that Turkcell is probably the best in town. I wanna use their card but the booth is closed so i just bought Avea card for the total cost of 46 TL (6TL for the card, 20TL for the balance, and 20 TL for the data packet). All you need to do for register your card is just call 500, input your balance number from your balance card, and text "ABONE BB 1GB" and send it to 5555 to activate your packet data transfer. As for Vodafone, i didn't choose them because they're quite expensive.
After that i took Havatas (transport bus from the airport) to go to Taksim Square. It cost me 10TL. In the way to there i passed many beautiful scenery and go across the Bosphorus bridge.
When i arrived at Taksim is still 9am and for your information, the Turk has a habit of wake up late, 9 am is still too early for them. I came to my first Hostel which is Planet Paprika Hostel just to found that they're still sleep include the Hostel officer. Some local offered me to join their conversation while having some Turkish Tea (Cay) when the saw me sit in the front of the Hostel building feeling tired and lost. I decided to try another Hostel, Chambers of The Bohemes, which won The Best Hostel in Turkey 2009 from Hostelworld.com. The hostel located inside the Backpackers Heaven, Istiklal Avenue (you can say that it reminds me of Khao San Road in Bangkok). It was a nice hostel with Bohemian style as the concept. its located near cafe and bars so it stays crowded and noisy during day and night, not recommended for you who want a quite place to sleep. The Hostel cost me some 75 Euro for 5 days. I share my room with 3 Australian girls who have traveled Europe for 5 months and in the middle of their way to Cappadocia. Sometimes i feel envy with the citizen of a big country who doesn't need visa to visit Europe and another beautiful places.
As for my itineraries, today i visit Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia, and Topkapi Palace. They're in the same location and very easy to get there from Taksim square, you just need to take funicular transport from Taksim to Kabatas and after that you take tram from Kabatas to Sultanahmet, i recommended them for your first day itinerary.
For the transportation, you better buy Istanbulkart if you plan to stay in Istanbul for more than 3 days. It can be so easier and useful because you can use it for tram, bus and train, you just need to buy the card for 6TL and you can top up it whenever you want, it goes the same as Oyster card from London and EZ card from Singapore.
Today i also get my Moldova Visa because there's my next trip will be. The bureaucracy is easier than i expected, you just need to bring Invitation Letter, fill the visa application form and paid 65 Euro. I sent the form at 11 am and the visa is ready to take at 4pm.
Maybe some of you realized why i didn't put some photo here, its because i just LOST my camera :'(
The incident happened when i visited Blue Mosque, i felt so tired that i sat for a while inside the mosque and i feel sleepy, perhaps i even slept for seconds! after that i decided to continue my journey to Aya Sophia, i step out the mosque, put on my shoes and it took approximately 10 minutes for me to realize i'm not holding my camera, so i rushed back to the mosque just to found that it already lost. I'm angry to myself and a little bit sad because that means in the later part of my journey i can't take a nice photos. I just have my mobile phone to do so but the photo quality is very poor.
But you know, sometimes the bad story of a journey is even more interesting than good story at work. So i just have to continue my trip and shape my word skill so i can share it here nicely with just word (and perhaps some poor quality photos from my mobile phone)
Okay then, lets see what will happened in the day two :)
"in ode to my ex-camera, thanks for your hardwork"
"Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them."
- Paulo Coelho-
