Final Days in Istanbul

The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) has an interesting history. It is the third church to be built on the site, having been used as a church originally and later as a mosque. It is currently a museum and at the time of my visit (Jan 2015) was undergoing restorations inside. From 537 to 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral however was also also a Roman Catholic cathedral between 1204 to 1261. The building was converted into a mosque from 1453 to 1931 after Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. It was opened as a museum in 1935. Consequently, there have been continual efforts to remove the plaster to reveal the original interior.






Slow removal of the plaster that was placed after it was converted to a mosque.





Very close to the Hagia Sofia, the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayı) is one of the largest cisterns that lie under Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century; it is incredible to think that it is that old! The cistern is 143m long and 65m wide with 336 marble columns, spaced at 4m intervals.







There are two Medusa heads and it is a mystery as to why they are there. There is a rumor that they were moved from a building of the late Roman period. The cistern wasn't as cool as I thought it would be and was both a little underwhelming and a little creepy. But still worth a visit.

There are so many mosques in Istanbul and so many more than I had expected. I visited my second mosque - Rustem Pasha Mosque- (which was a little difficult to find) and unlike the Blue Mosque, it was blue-r and almost deserted.

Not Turkish food but one of the best burgers I've had in my life was at Virginia Angus near the Grand Bazaar.

Testi kebabs are a combination of meat and vegetables cooked in a claypot. It originated from the Cappadocia region and is an experience as it is sealed after filling it with the ingredients and breaking it is the only way it can be opened to be consumed. As it is an Anatolian specialty, naturally it was on every menu when I was in Göreme. However I didn't try it when I was there (rookie error) and searched high and low in Istanbul on my last night. As mentioned before, food in the old area was quite expensive and the testi kebab I had at the restaurant was significantly more expensive than what I would have paid for in Göreme. But nonetheless it was super tasty and interesting to watch how the claypot was cracked open. Plus I also got a free shot of amaretto from the bartender!


Overall Thoughts
What was interesting was to compare and contrast the different areas in Istanbul. The old town, Sultanahmet, was so different to Beyoğlu and Beşiktaş which were a lot more modern and reminded me a little of the suburbs in the US. Actually, in the old town, it reminded me of Hong Kong with the sheer volume of people and the tight alleys. I also visited one of the largest shopping centres in the world (Şişli Kültür ve Ticaret Merkezi) which was insane.

Turkey was an incredible country with amazing people and food. Although I didn't enjoy Istanbul as much as I would have liked, I loved all the other cities/towns that I visited. Turkey was so different to every other place that I have visited and I really loved the country despite all the mishaps. I definitely want to return one day to explore more of the beautiful country, notably the south west region. 

Mittagong

Australia is in the last month of autumn now and the temperatures are finally starting to drop here in Sydney. In my opinion, one of the best parts of autumn is the changing colour of the leaves. However, most of the native trees in Australia are evergreens rather than deciduous. Although there are a few around Sydney, I wanted to go somewhere which was known for their autumn leaves and that is how I ended up in the town of Mittagong in the Southern Highlands.







It took me three hours, via one bus and two trains, to reach Bowral, a larger town next to Mittagong. I was only in the town for 10 minutes before I left again on the train. In Bowral, the trees had already lost most of their leaves so I decided to head back one stop to Mittagong.

I had also wanted to visit the abandoned Mittagong Maltings factory. It was built in 1899 and was owned by Tooth & Co before it closed in 1981. I have always wanted to explore abandoned buildings and this one seemed quite easy to access from what I read online.












It was very eerie. It is next to the train line however slightly outisde from the main streets of the town which made it quite isolating. I also went by myself (which is kind of a big no-no but I couldn't get around that problem). I went up one flight of wooden stairs (yikes) to peek into the first floor which wasn't very interesting. For a brief moment, I did consider climbing another flight however I saw that the landing had fallen through (although the actual stairs were intact) and decided against it. Safety first. What was interesting was that in one of the main buildings, equipment had been left behind including what seemed like a wooden conveyor belt and some machinery. I was reckless enough to climb up a reasonably high wooden ladder (why was everything wooden) but there wasn't anything interesting to see that would have justified me potentially injuring myself over. Overall a very cool experience but I think I will have to find a friend next time.









Now onto the main reason why I travelled to Mittagong. The leaves! The trees on the main street had already lost their leaves but the side streets were still super pretty!









I also went to Mount Gibraltar which is a whopping 863m above sea level. It is a collapsed volcanic core and is thought to have formed 150 million years ago. Mount Gibraltar is also the highest point between the Illawarra Coast and the Great Dividing Range. There were so many large estates (yes estates) and they were incredible although it was a little awkward that I was just walking on the shoulder of the road.

Royal National Park

Although I am "stuck" in Sydney for the forseeable future, I have realised that this doesn't mean that I have to stop exploring. There is so much of Australia that I haven't seen yet and there is so much that I want to see. However, flying to the other side of the country is also not feasible at the moment and this is why I have resorted to day trips from/in Sydney.



The Royal National Park is the world's second oldest national park (after Yellowstone in USA) and is south of Sydney. The first and only time I've been to the Royal National Park was in highschool for a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. I remembered the Coastal Walk to be stunning however a little challenging at the end. This time, I wasn't walking the entire Coastal Walk - since it is 30km-  however I wanted to find the Figure 8 Pools near Palm Burning Beach.











Due to the crazy storm earlier that week in Sydney, I expected the track to be muddy. However, I forgot that branches/ trees might have fallen over the track and that the ground would be covered in leaves. It was a little challenging at times since some sections of the track had turned into a small stream and I wasn't sure if it was meant to be a stream.









The Figure 8 Pools are on a rock shelf and are only accessible during low tide. I had researched the times for the tide which was how I had organised my day. However, when I started the walk on the rock shelf, the tide was starting to rise and I wasn't 100% confident that I would make it back to the beach in time before it reached high tide. The prospect of being stranded or having to clamor across rocks to get back to the beach with high tide didn't sound very enticing.









The walk back to Otford was as challenging as I remembered it to be. The difference was that this time I didn't have a 10kg hiking pack but it was still hard since it was predominately uphill in muddy terrain.

There aren't any shops near the vicinity of the train station aside from Otford Pantry, a cafe known for their homemade apple pies. I'm not the biggest fan of apple pie and when I saw that there was strudel on the menu, I ordered it. What I received wasn't a strudel. It was more like a fruit cake on a bed of apples. Tasty, but I really wanted strudel.







Thankfully I was inside a bus when the crazy hailstorm reached Sydney. I was actually on the Harbour Bridge and the bridge was slightly flooded with little hailstones floating in the water. Madness.


An incredible sunset.
I didn't find the Figure 8 Pools which was my entire aim of the day which was a little disappointing. Not sure if I will try to reach them again anytime soon since it is a 2 hour hike each way to reach the pools.