My fascination with Turkey originated from novels. At first it was “The Museum of Innocence” by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. At that time, my mind was full of beautiful Füsun, how elegant the blue water of the Aegean Sea was, and how charming the ancient city of Istanbul was. Later came the French writer Levi’s novel “Istanbul Holiday”, a mysterious fortune-teller, the Asia Minor peninsula full of oriental style, and the love-seeking journey of a female perfumer. A movie plays automatically in your mind. So, in the autumn of that year, I started my Istanbul vacation.
Istanbul · The most beautiful skyline
Accompanied by the mellow aroma of coffee, the plane landed at Ataturk International Airport at 5:00 am . I took the light rail and wandered to the old city station of Sultanahmet, and my genius was bright. Almost all of Istanbul The old city was listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Cistern Palace and other landmarks Attractions are steps away. Therefore, many tourists have never left the old city for half a step since they came to Istanbul .
For the convenience of travel and to better experience Istanbul, I deliberately booked the hotel in the old city, although it was expensive. As soon as I stepped out of the light rail station, I was stunned by the sight in front of me. I had the Blue Mosque on my left and the Hagia Sophia . I seemed to have jumped into the scene of a novel. The Blue Mosque was built during the Ottoman Empire . It is magnificent and has domes of all sizes. It is really beautiful. In fact, the original name of the Blue Mosque is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, because more than 1/3 of the height of the interior wall is made of blue glazed porcelain fired by Turkish porcelain Iznik, which makes the whole mosque full of blue. It’s called the Blue Mosque. Although there are more than 3,000 mosques of different sizes in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque is absolutely unmistakable-only he has six towering minarets, and other mosques only have four. Only a mosque in Mecca can build six minarets, and when the Blue Mosque , Sultan Ahmed asked the minaret to be “golden”, the designer Mohamed Aga (Mehmet Aga) It was misheard as “six-rooted” (similar pronunciation), and as a result, the Blue Mosque has six minarets beyond the norm.
The red Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are across the street. It was built during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor and is the central church of the Orthodox Church. It can be called a monument of the heyday of the Byzantine Empire. In June 1453 AD after the Ottoman Turkish army invaded Constantinople, Mehmed II ordered that all Byzantine murals in the church be covered with mortar, all Christian statues were also removed , and the cathedral was converted into For the mosque, four tall minarets were built around it.
After the founding of the Republic of Turkey, in order to avoid religious disputes and better display this excellent cultural heritage to the world , the cathedral was converted into a museum in 1935 and opened to the public . Peeling off the layers of history, those glittering Christian murals can be seen again, together with the name of Islamic , it brings us not only the vicissitudes of life Beautiful and majestic, there is also a feeling of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect after fighting and fighting.
Wandering in the old city of Istanbul, time and space seem to bring me back to the heyday . Every stone road and every old house tells the story of the thousand-year changes of this ancient city.
Another great way to see the sights of Istanbul is by taking a Bosphorus cruise. All cruises depart from Eminonu pier. The Galata Bridge connects the old and new urban areas in the European District. The bridge is full of citizens fishing, and various boats shuttle on the sea. Countless seagulls hover above their heads, making one or two screeches from time to time. Call. Blowing the sea breeze, basking in the sun, and buying a delicious grilled fish bread while eating it in a daze , I still feel very comfortable thinking about it now.
Antalya Slow Life
Antalya is the largest city on the south coast of Turkey. It was founded in the second century BC and was an important port in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire . Its style is very different from Istanbul : laid-back beaches, palm tree-lined boulevards , and historic districts where time stands still.
Although Antalya does not have a single scenic spot, it is definitely a perfect combination of beautiful natural scenery and long history and culture . The richness of travel index is one of the best : a long coastline with mature resort facilities, well-preserved Rome The old town of Kaleici , the stunning ancient theater of Aspendos and the Temple of Apollo on the Seaside of Side. Whether you’re a beach-going holidaymaker or a history buff who ca n’t get enough of the old town and museums , you’ll find something to love in Antalya. No wonder, according to official statistics, Antalya was the city that attracted the most foreign tourists in Turkey in 2014 , surpassing the largest city Istanbul.
The old town of Kaleici is my favorite, from which we can still see the prosperity of the port city in Roman times . I entered the old city from Hadrian’s triple . As the name suggests, this is a gate with a triple arch structure, and the white marble material highlights its magnificence. In AD 130, when King Hadrian visited Phaselis in Antalya Province, the locals built this three-arched Corinthian column on the city wall for him , and it still stands today.
Motor vehicles are prohibited from entering the old city, and the irregular stone roads and cobbled alleys are winding, even if you hold a map, you will get lost. But what does it matter? The hotels, cafes, and shops Ottoman-style old buildings are as exquisite as artworks, and you will not be disappointed wherever you stay. It’s just that you have to show off your bargaining skills when shopping, because the prices of things in the old town are generally high.
Aspendos Ancient Theater is the largest and best-preserved ancient Roman theater in Asia. It does not have any high-tech, but its acoustics are not inferior to modern theaters. Even a coin dropped on the stage can be clearly heard. Hear voices. The most amazing thing is that this is a “living” ancient theater that hosts the Antalya Opera Festival and Ballet Festival every summer. Pavarotti also held a concert here, without using any amplification equipment, the audience in the last row can still hear mesmerized.
The Antalya Museum is one of the best museums in Turkey . It has won a world-class museum design award. It has a collection of precious cultural relics from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, as well as Roman and Byzantine stone tools . Artifacts unearthed by Sidney and Side are also preserved in the museum , and the sarcophagi and sculptures are particularly impressive . If you just want to go to Antalya to enjoy the sunny beach, live on the Kemer beach in the west , where there are many high-end star hotels with private beaches , and the accommodation fee generally includes three meals a day and afternoon tea. Even the drinks in the internal bar at night, plus the hotel often organizes various sea activities, you will not feel bored if you leave the hotel for three consecutive days.
Antalya is such a slow city. Strolling in the old city, eating delicious Turkish meals, visiting museums , and swimming in the deep Mediterranean Sea, the best life is like this.
Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon
When it comes to Cappadocia, do you see colorful and romantic hot air balloons in front of your eyes? Cappadocia, located on the Antatolian Plateau in central Turkey , is known for its fairytale-like speckled rock formations. Here, there are undulating mountains and ravines . Among the ravines and valleys are ” stone pillar . This unique landscape is also known as “fairy chimney”.
Cappadocia’s unique landforms made me think I had come to an alien planet, and the Hollywood blockbuster “Star Wars” was filmed here . Therefore, Cappadocia is one of the most suitable take a hot air balloon tour. Even if I spend all the good luck in Turkey, I am willing to exchange for the good weather of the hot air balloon. At first, there were only 4 companies . Due to the popularity of hot air balloons, businessmen who smelled the smell of banknotes flocked to it. Now there are more than 100 companies, large and small. Every morning, hundreds of hot air balloons slowly rise together with the sun. When you watch the hot air balloons shuttle through the “fairy chimneys” all over the sky , you will indeed have the magical feeling of being in the movie screen .
Frankly speaking, because I saw the hot air balloon accident on the news more than once, I was still a little nervous before the ride, thinking that the hot air balloon was floating freely in the air. In fact, when I was in a hot air balloon, I realized that it is a controllable aircraft with a certain flight path, and the direction and altitude of the flight can be manually adjusted. Immediately I breathed a sigh of relief, immersed in the beautiful scenery of the sunrise and the “fairy chimney”, dizzying. It was the first time to watch the sunrise at an altitude of 1800 meters. The sun showed its first ray of light behind the distant mountains . It was soft and warm, and gradually covered the mountains and the earth with a pink coat. The people on the hot air balloon cheered together. It ‘s the best interpretation of “heartbeat”. The empathetic hot air balloon pilot purposely manipulated the hot air balloon to float over the vast “fairy chimney”, allowing us to overlook the unique karst landform from the air. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the volcanic eruption hundreds of meters of volcanic ash and cooled lava. The vicissitudes of life, wind and rain erosion, those loose, fragile materials and land merged into one, and the remaining strange rocks and caves are exquisite. When the hot air balloon flies over the ground at ultra-low altitude, those white cave houses seem to be within reach. An hour passed quickly, and the hot air balloon landed firmly on the ground. The driver greeted us to start a short celebration, everyone poured a glass of champagne, everyone formed a circle, held high He raised his glass and drank it down, cheering. The driver hot air balloon flight certificate to each tourist.
In addition to hot air balloons, Cappadocia actually has a lot to see: the World Cultural Heritage Goreme Open-air Museum, the majestic Uchisahil Castle , the ancient Goreme Village, the most peculiar shape , the most concentrated distribution of volcanic stone cone group Difrit Canyon. Turkey has all the travel elements you want.
