Istanbul

Merhaba!

The best part about living in Dubai is that you get to travel to a lot of other beautiful countries close by. This summer I had the opportunity to go to Istanbul, Turkey. The city is incredibly picturesque and full of history and culture. In fact I was quite surprised to find out that even though it is a muslim country, the Turkish people are extremely modern and live an European lifestyle. They do not speak Arabic or English but primarily speak Turkish and French.

Half of the city lies on the European continent while the other half on the Asian; connected by a bridge and the bosphorus. I was lucky enough to stay for a few days on both continents and even more fortunate to visit the city during the time of Ramadan, while watching the whole city light up every evening during Iftar time. The European side is definitely livelier and infested with tourists due to the well known historic sites such as the Hagia Sohpia, the blue mosque and others. This post is for all those who will be travelling to Istanbul or hope to some day. I will be covering the "must see" places and some basic general information about tour's/food/shopping etc. so read on if you must :)

Places to visit:

• Hagia Sophia
• Blue Mosque
• Topkapi Palace
• Dolmabahce Palace
• Grand Bazaar (Lots of bargaining required!)
• Bosphorus Cruise 
• Princess Islands

Topkapi Palace Entrance

Topkapi Palace (The Bosphorus behind)

Dolmabahce Palace

Topkapi

Grand Bazaar



Grand Bazaar

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque lit up during Ramadan

Hagia Sophia

Something to keep in mind while visiting the mosques - Women must be covered. This means that you should ideally wear jeans/pants and shirts and carry scarves. However, even if you don't, before entering the mosques, they provide scarves for women and cloth to wrap around your waist. Men must preferably wear pants as well instead of shorts. Also another tip would be to book a tour guide in advance online. Due to the number of tourists it can be quite a painful task to stand in the long queues and buy tickets to enter each historic site. Tour guides may be a little expensive, but it is completely worth it because of the following reasons:-

1. You save time and energy because tickets for each group are purchased in advance and you get an immediate entry inside
2. They provide you with a brief history of each site 
3. They help you cover only all the important sites so that you can skip some of the unnecessary ones
4. They cover all the historic sites together - you can accordingly book a full day tour or a half day tour
5. You can choose to take a walking tour (depending on the location of your hotel) 
6. Pick up and drop from and to the hotel

Princess Islands:- 

Once you're done visiting the major historic sites you should definitely take out a day to visit the Princess Islands. There are ferries that make numerous trips to the islands in a day. I would recommend to catch the one in the morning so that you have enough time to take a round of the island, have lunch and head back to the main city. The Princess Islands are made up of four islands. The fourth one is a major tourist attraction. You can take a round of the whole island on horse carriages or rent out a bike instead. The island is made up of beautiful houses perched on a hilly terrain over looking the sea. You can spend a whole day taking a round of the island while shopping for souvenirs.

Bosphorus Cruise:

You do not need to book a tour for the Bosphorus cruise, you can easily buy a ticket on the spot. The cruise provides you with a breathtaking view of both the European as well as the Asian side from close. 

Food:

To be honest, the food is out of the world. The streets are full of great restaurants so finding one is not a problem at all. However, you must try out some traditional Turkish Coffee/Tea and Baklava (traditional Arabic sweet) Apart from this, I would also recommend two restaurants:

• Seven Hills restaurant on the European side 

Rooftop Restaurant called Seven Hills - View of the Hagia Sophia Behind

View from Seven Hills

• Ciya on the Asian side for some authentic and traditional Turkish food

Also, I didn't have the chance to visit any of the other cities. I was eager to visit Cappadocia and a few other places. If you're travelling to Turkey, do visit some of these other cities as well if you can. I definitely will, on my next trip there hopefully!

I finally got done with my internship yesterday. It was quite hectic because of which I didn't visit many places though I did manage to go out often to different restaurants to try out various cuisines; like the Irish/Century village that I had visited a few days ago. But I became quite lazy when it came to updating my blog. So today I visited yet another mall known as Mercato Mall, however it was the cutest little mall I've ever visited and I could not resist uploading some pictures to tell you all about it. The Italian architecture was so so beautiful. It was a small mall so that was a huge break from the other malls that are humongous in size and you end up getting frustrated by the end of it from all that walking. This mall is perfect for a quick bite and scan of the stores and more than that it's to absorb in the surroundings and appreciate it's elegant, sophisticated yet adorable design & style. 

Mercato Mall

Mercato Mall

Mercato Mall

Mercato Mall

Century/Irish Village

Century/Irish Village

2015

So far so good!

This new year has already been so good to me in the first three days it self. I spent NYE watching the fireworks at the Burj which was splendid. The whole sky lit up with fireworks for 10 whole minutes and the streets were jam packed with thousands of tourists. There was literally no space to walk or drive your car. It felt like as if almost the whole world had gathered below the Burj Khalifa just to watch the fireworks. 

Also, recently I visited Souk Madinat which is a sort of a mall cum Arabian Market done up in a traditional middle eastern style! You can walk around the traditional market and shop for souvenirs as well as enjoy a meal at the waterfront cafes. These cafes are beautifully placed around man-made canals that run in between the market with the view of the famous Burj Al Arab in the background. I loved the concept at Souk Madinat because generally malls get extremely tiresome and monotonous but here you are surrounded by rich culture and heritage because of which it does not get dull for even a moment.

Nasimi Beach

The weather today was just perfect for brunch at the beach. Nasimi beach is at the Atlantis The Palm where you can either take a dip in the sea and relax by the bar or you could just sit more towards the inside and eat a meal while enjoying the view, take a stroll on the beach, take a ferry ride etc. The food was great and the music was even better. Across the sea you have a perfect view of the Marina Bay skyline. The place was packed with tourists sun bathing. I absolutely loved the intimate yet extravagant feel of this restaurant which also btw turns into a night club at night. It was a peaceful and relaxing afternoon!

Mum!

Shisha

Last night I went for Shisha with two friends at Cabana, The Address Dubai Mall. It was an open air terrace lounge with lounge beds by the pool side and comfortable couches and tables on the other end. The view was beautiful as always and it was an extremely windy night. The shisha was the best ever and the ambience was stunning. If you are ever in Dubai you should definitely visit this place just for the shisha and to absorb in the surroundings!

Girls night in!

Hello!

I haven't been out lately, with my internship and dad travelling and all. So today my mom, my grandmother and I decided to have a quiet and quaint ladies night in with some soup, music, veggies and candle lights. We gossiped and shared some epic stories. The candles along with the view from the house were extremely soothing. It was a beautiful Sunday night!

Lunchin' at the Atlantis

Today was tiring but beyond amazing! First off I went on a drive & then hit the Mall of Emirates for a quick scan. I've been here before earlier in the summer, but definitely coming back here more often to shop. The malls in Dubai are humongous and beautiful with all sorts of activities going on inside. In the mall of emirates you have the option to go skiing! Yes you heard that right. There's a whole area covered with snow inside inside a dome where you can go up the cable car and come down skiing (definitely have to try that next time as well)

Anyhow, the highlight of my day was not the mall but the lunch I had at the infamous Atlantis hotel at the Palm, Jumeirah. It was an all you can eat buffet at the Kaleidoscope restaurant at the Atlantis. There were literally 200 dishes, I am not kidding from Indian to Arabic, Thai, Chinese, you name it and it was there! Besides there was a huge section devoted just to various kinds of desserts, chocolates and candies. I just got back home from the lunch, boy am I stuffed!

Also, since it's almost Christmas time I saw some really adorable decorations set up at the Atlantis. Have a look :-)