Assalamualaikum
Alrite, the journey begins! The very first place to visit was Aya Sofia, or some called it Hagia Sofia. Basically, what is it Nawal?
Actually, it was a church when it was built. Then, after the 1453 conquest (I’ll get back to this later), Sultan Muhammad Fatih changed it to a mosque.
*the entrance*
Entrance to this museum was a bit expensive, but since it is among most important place to visit, never mind! When I first step into this place, I was very amazed. Subhanallah. What a huge historical building. I was touched to see its transformation. To see a big board, which on it written Allah, Muhammad and 4 caliph, the feeling was indescribable.
What so special about this place is, it is very unique. It shows the transformation of a church to a mosque. After being transformed into a mosque, the minarets, minarets and mimbar was added.
Sadly, it was again transformed into the museum after the secularization!
The second place we visited this day was Basilica Cistern.
*me with Kak Fida*
The fee for this place was 10 lira. It was quite expensive to a small place like this one. But we decided to just pay. When I stepped into it, me and Nad were like, whoaaaahhhhh worth our 10 lira!! Haha, this place is magical!
Dim, dark, and wet yet amazing! Walking through it, Nisha the storyteller told us the history of this place. It was once the cistern that filtrate the water and supply to main building in Constantinople. I murmured alone, “wow, hebatnya orang zaman dulu2”
During daurah (before the journey), they told us that in this place, there’s Medusa column. Haha, I am really interested in Medusa since she has snake-head hair and her eyes can transform someone into stone (believe me, this is just legend, and it’s not true hahaha). So I was so excited to go to that column. Then, this was what I found hehehe
Yay! I met Medusa haha even only as simple as that. Medusa, y u know more scary??
Allahuakbar.. We heard azan. Time to pray. We went to Blue Mosque.
Blue Mosque also known as Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Why blue?? It is called blue mosque because of its interior design which mostly in blue. But, nowadays, the blue colour isn’t obvious as ancient time. Still, to have chance to pray in this historical mosque, alhamdulillah 
What’s next??? Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum!
Errkkk again, the entrance fee dissapoint us. We decided to just make a photo outside, and story telling of its history outside.
The building of the museum used to be the Ibrahim Pasha Palace. Who is Ibrahim Pasha?
Ibrahim Pasha was the first Grand Vizier in Ottoman Empire. He has no royal blood at all. So what make him so special until he could own a palace?
During childhood, he was sold to Anatolia, where Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent got his education. There he became best friend with Sultan and at the same time, he received his education there too. Ibrahim Pasha was very talented that te got promoted rapidly by Sultan until he said to Sultan to stop promoted him to avoid any misunderstood. Sultan Sulaiman gave this palace to him as the gift. Sultan swore that under his reign, Ibrahim shouldn’t be executed. But due to jealousy of the wife of Sultan, she accused Ibrahim for doing bad and at the end, Sultan executed him after taking back his oath. But, Sultan already gave chance for Ibrahim to run away but Ibrahim chose to stay true to Sultan. Sultan regretted his decision after the execution.
The story of Ibrahim Pasha really touched me. How fate of someone could change drastically. Wallahualam.
In front of this museum is Hippodrome! It was once a place where horse ‘s races took place. But it was completely destroyed by earthquake and only 3 things remained.
And last place to visit…. Grand Bazaar!
People said, shop till you drop! But Nawal…. not yet! Today is just the first day! Haha ;p
Day 1 : I came without expectation to Istanbul. No at all. But then, Allah had widen my eyes, and Istanbul seemed so interesting, beautiful to me. I'm falling in love with Turkey <3 <3 Alhamdulillah!
What about day 2? Wait……… Assalamualaikum!
mana next day! especially panorama museum. next entry please~ :D
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