Istanbul, not Constantinopole

What a holiday it is.

I went to Istanbul, Turkey with a group of friends one day after the holiday officially commenced. Back to basics, the initial intentions (niat) would vary between individuals, and verily we get only what we wished for. Honestly, my mixture of goals for this trip were almost all fulfilled. History, people, local delicacies, shopping, peace of mind, friendship, and yep, olives..well there maybe some cracks and holes here and there but heck, how do u interpret 'ideal' when nothing is as perfect as the only Creator above?

Blue mosque at night time from the top of a building

Turkey post-Attaturk is as half confused as I am. You see the stunning Aya Sufya (Haghia Sophia) with large dome and golden walls only wasted for the eyes to be seen when she can accomodate a lot of people for prayers. Great job Attaturk, she is now a museum. Once we were stopped by a local man, (thanks to one of the trip members who put himself out as if we're so well off, I must say half of the trip were so interesting because of this :p) he mentioned he's as poor as any Kurds could be and gave us good bargains for some turkish made table cloths for the fact that we share and practise the same faith. We, eaten by sympathy, bought few and opened his rezki for the day. Only later on the way back to the hostel we bumped into him by the roadside having his shoes polished while he recommended us this place down the road called the 'English Pub' with drinks and live belly-dancing. Wow, I got more confused there and then.

Nevertheless, the Turks in general potrayed me their strong faith in God, though their practise would still be questionable (well who am I to judge that). With population ratio for M:F nearly 5:1, I must say the 4 of us girls got special attentions when it comes to bargaining for cheaper price when shopping (and broke some of the guy's hearts for a cheaper apple tea deal hi hi). Never had I travelled to a place where eating was a bliss; easy coz everything is halal, and super cheap. Tell me where in the world could you get a kebab for EUR0.70? (Irish price EUR6 +/-). And God the rest; the pomergranite juice, the profiterols (ok I know u can get this anywhere else in the world but I thot I had the best one in Istanbul), the apple cay (tea), the hamburgers (oh drooling), the pistachios turkish delights, and the olives, hmm.

Turkish apple cay, profiterol, Turkish coffee

Now that I'm back to the real deal in Dublin, half of me still wanting to be off reality and live on holidays forever. I gather the best way to see life is by putting oneself as a traveller; moderate insecurity, a lot of vigilance, specks of adventures, a lot of learnings, and for most of the time the uncertainty of what future beholds make one connecting oneself to the Creator more so than any other time. Afterall, we're only travellers on our journey to the eternity ain't we?


Well, the holiday shall continues. It is an interesting one indeed..

post-scriptum: Yah was in Dublin 2 days ago. She's graduating about the same time I will next year inshaAllah. She mentioned about the travelling she's done 5 years living abroad, which was none (other than yearly visit to Dublin for PUISI). I asked why, she said, "Buat apa nak pegi visit tempat tu untuk tengok2 sedangkan kau boleh tengok kat depan komputer je semua tu.." He he, Yah, you've not changed a bit.