Saturday 18 April 2009

Rumelian Castle

Hehehee no work on weekends! ;)

I think spring is officially here. The weather is hot and full of sunshine, though the wind coming from the Straits can be quite strong. We finally visited Rumelihisarı, an Ottoman fortress located on the hills (my legs gave away by the time we ascended the peak).

The stronghold has one small tower, three main towers, and thirteen small watchtowers. We went on all by climbing steep flights of stone steps, up AND down. It was built to control sea traffic through the Bosphorus and history wrote that they took only 4 months to complete the infrastructure. Since 1960 Rumelihisarı has been a museum and an open-air theater for concerts and musical festivals in summer.

Tolga is always the one reading and checking out these layouts/maps LOL

"Up hill, down butt (size)" is the motto of the day and guess who created it?

Rombongan beramai-ramai gathered for a group shot

This is the arena where concerts are held LOL

Perfect symmetry

The view is so damn beautiful.. makes me wanna cry! Fly! Fry! LOL

No more pink eye but drops are still necessary! B)

These pink flowers reminded me a lot of the sakuras but they aren't (but also very pretty!)


Tolga said basically I have covered all of the European shores of Istanbul making Bebek district my last (thanks to the Rumelian Castle LOL). It is the wealthiest neighbourhood there is and I couldn't agree more. Beautiful historical buildings, posh/antique/rare cars and bikes roaming the streets and luxurious boats afloat on buoys. People look different, smell different and even their dogs are champion breeds.

Bebek means "Baby" in Turkish, though there really isn't an explanation why the district is named like that.

Time of the tulips and they are also the national flower of Turkey
Not Holland. It is believed that Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq received them from the Sultan in the 16th century

Lots of erected poles LOL

We were rested at the park's bench and this shadow caught my eye ;)

I couldn't feel my legs when we got home LOL

6 comments:

JayneAi said...

whoa..nice nice...so sunny....here in Moscow the weather is going crazy...frm hot and sunny then raining then snowing and now its cold and windy again...sigh....

Gorgeous Ol' Eve Loves Vanilla. You? said...

Waaaahhh.. weather in Moscow sounds indeed crazy! Keep yourself adjusted to the change yaaaa. Don't fall sick!

:)

Anonymous said...

Rumelian castle really caught my eyes..awaiting for more touristy posts =)

love, Wai Keng

Gorgeous Ol' Eve Loves Vanilla. You? said...

I do hope to be a tourist again this weekend! :)

~fall3n ang3l~ said...

do tulips remind u of moscow spring time? )))

Gorgeous Ol' Eve Loves Vanilla. You? said...

I just did :)