Page 2 - Turkey 2019

Saturday 8th June, 2019. past our pick up time for the taxi I hotel around 13:00 and spent the
walked back to the hotel to be told rest of the day exploring the local
oday we flew from Zagreb in we were waiting at the wrong spot, area and finding something for
TCroatia to Istanbul, Turkey. anyway we were eventually picked up dinner - pizza was good with the
We were up early for our 05:30 at 06:15, still in plenty of time for our local beer!
pickup to the airport, after waiting 09:10 flight. Arrived in our Istanbul

About Turkey destination. Its natural beauty is country’s place as a crossroads
Capital - Ankara abundant, with great stretches of between Europe and Asia. Over
With its covered bazaars, whirling sandy beaches and romantic rocky the past few decades, the country
dervishes, sultans’ treasures and coves. Travellers will find Turks to has dramatically improved its
Byzantine mosaics, Turkey is both be exceptionally gracious hosts, tourist infrastructure
a cosmopolitan and exotic which makes sense given the

About Istanbul • The city of Istanbul is divided into • The famous Trojan Wars took place in
Istanbul’s roots can be traced to two sections by the Bosphorus Western Turkey, around the site where
the mid-seventh century BC. This Strait, one half in Europe and the the Trojan horse rests today.
city-state of Byzantium was an other in Asia. The European side of • Julius Caesar proclaimed his
important centre of trade and Istanbul is divided again by the celebrated words, “Veni, Vidi, Vici”
commerce for the next thousand Golden Horn, a 7 kilometre inlet (I came, I saw, I conquered) in
years. from the sea that is spanned by a Turkey when he defeated the
• In the early fourth century AD, pair of bridges. Pontus, a formidable kingdom in the
the Emperor Constantine made it • On the southern side of the Golden Black Sea region of Turkey.
the new capital of the Eastern Horn is the Old City, which in • The Basilica cistern, by Hagia
Roman Empire, renaming it Con- ancient times constituted the Sophia, is just one of 17 major
stantinople. entirety of Byzantium. It is there cisterns that dot the Old City.
• In 1453, the city fell to the that most of the Roman, Byzantine Istanbul’s cisterns were once fed by
Ottoman Turks, led by Mehmet II and Ottoman monuments are found. a complex of aqueducts more than
(“the Conqueror”), after a hard- • Tulips are originally from Turkey. 60 kilometres long. The best
fought siege. Mehmet renamed the The blooms were exported to the preserved ones stand on the edge of
city Istanbul and began at once to Netherlands in the 17th century. the Belgrade forest near the town of
rebuild and repopulate it. Greeks, • Istanbul is the only city in the Kemer.
Armenians and Spanish Jews were world built on two continents
encouraged to immigrate there.