Istanbul With Kids: Visiting Istanbul SEA Life Akvayrum

Having visited and had super fun seeing the Dugong at Sydney SEA Life Aquarium, we wanted to visit another aquarium during our family holiday in Istanbul. When we did our research on kids friendly places in Istanbul, we found out that there's SEA Life Akvaryum in Istanbul. Of course we put it in our itinerary right away! 

It is located inside a huge shopping mall called Forum Istanbul. From the first time we arrived at Forum Istanbul, we saw a huge advertisement of the Istanbul SEA Life Akvaryum.

Welcome to Forum Istanbul Shopping Mall:)

There are 2 huge aquariums in Istanbul, please don't get confused. We visited the one with "SEA Life" brand which belongs to the same group company with SEA Life Sydney, SEA Life Bangkok, etc, which is called Merlin Entertainment.

It was not difficult to find Istanbul SEA Life Akvaryum, the sign inside the shopping mall was really clear. Other than SEA Life Akvaryum, there's also Legoland Discovery Center inside the Forum Istanbul. However, we didn't have the chance to visit the Legoland Discovery Center. We spent hours inside the SEA Life Istanbul.

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Mengunjungi Topkapi Palace Istanbul

Saya harus memulai posting ini dengan menulis: inilah tempat di Istanbul yang paling berkesan untuk saya. Sebelum mengunjungi Topkapi Palace, saya sudah riset mengenai koleksi barang berharga yang ada di sana. Tentunya yang sangat ingin kami lihat adalah pedang Nabi Muhammad SAW. Dan saat saya melihat sendiri pedang tersebut, Subhanallah, saya sangat rindu kepada Rasulullah SAW. Tidak terasa air mata pun menetes. 

Topkapi Palace merupakan sebuah istana di atas bukit yang dibangun atas perintah Sultan Mehmed II, dan menjadi kediaman resmi Sultan Utsmaniyah selama lebih dari 600 tahun.

In front of Babusselam Gate

Kami menghabiskan waktu setengah hari untuk melihat semua koleksi peninggalan sejarah di Topkapi Palace. Dan karena saya sangat menyukai tempat ini, posting mengenai Topkapi akan dipenuhi banyak foto. Setiap sudut di Topkapi Place terlalu indah untuk tidak diabadikan:)

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Sholat di Little Hagia Sophia Mosque atau Kucuk Ayasofya Camii

Salah satu hal yang paling saya suka di Istanbul adalah mengajak kedua Kiddos untuk melihat keindahan berbagai masjid yang ada di sana. Selama ini kami jarang mengunjungi masjid ketika liburan ke luar negeri. Karena jalan-jalan kali ini adalah ke Turki yang merupakan negara dengan mayoritas penduduk Muslim, kesempatan mengagumi keindahan masjid tidak kami sia-siakan.

Setelah menulis tentang Hagia Sophia, mari kita lanjutkan cerita mengenai masjid yang berbentuk mirip Hagia Sophia, dan berada hanya 3 menit jalan kaki dari apartemen Airbnb yang kami sewa di daerah Fatih, Sultan Ahmet.

Dari luar memang tampak mirip dengan Hagia Sophia, namun dengan ukuran kecil. Orang Turki menyebut masjid ini dengan nama Kucuk Ayasofya Camii (Camii dalam Bahasa Turki artinya masjid).

The peaceful mosque of Little Hagia Sophia

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Mengunjungi Hagia Sophia di Istanbul: Gereja, Masjid dan Kini Museum

Hari ini perasaan saya sangat sedih. Sejak bangun pagi hari, Iwan sahabat saya mengirimkan pesan whatsapp di group kepada mr.husband, "Ne, ada kudeta di Turki". Ya Allah, sungguh berat ujian untuk Turki...

Pengalaman liburan di Turki (di dua kota: Istanbul dan Cappadocia) setelah Bandara Ataturk diserang bom bunuh diri pada 28 Juni 2016 yang lalu, membuat kota ini sepi dari wisatawan manca negara. Saya kemudian membayangkan bagaimana jumlah turis akan terus turun, setelah peristiwa kudeta ini.

Padahal Istanbul adalah kota yang sangat menarik, yang memiliki masjid yang indah, juga berbagai peninggalan sejarah yang sangat terawat. Kami mengunjungi berbagai museum di Istanbul, and we seen many amazing things!

Museum pertama yang kami kunjungi adalah Hagia Sophia (dalam bahasa Yunani), atau Sancta Sophia dalam bahasa latin dan The Church of the Divine Wisdom dalam bahasa Inggris. Sementara itu, orang Turki menyebutnya Aya Sofya.

Our Kiddos were on the 2nd floor of Hagia Sophia

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Fish Sandwich (Balik Ekmek) at Galata – Istanbul

The famous fish sandwich or in Turkish called "Balik Ekmek, was our “most wanted” Turkish food before we arrived in Turkey. It was started when mr.husband saw a tv show about one traveller who was enjoying Balik Ekmek near Galata bridge in Istanbul. Ever since, we talked a lot about the Balik Ekmek: how the sellers made the sandwich on a boat, how big the portion was but on the contrary how small the tables and seats are.

Our bucketlist checked on the second day we were in Istanbul. In a search for a beautiful sunset, we went to Galata Bridge. However, as we took pictures first of Ramazhan Iftar at Sultan Ahmet area (breakfasting), we arrived too late for the sunset.

We had just missed the sunset around Eminonu Bus Terminal and the Galata Bridge

We arrived just few minutes after the iftar, so the stalls were full, but we managed to find our tables. There were up to four stalls, we stopped at the first one (actually we didn’t know which one to choose:p)

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Ramazan (Ramadhan) Iftar at Blue Mosque - Sultan Ahmet Istanbul

It has been a dream of mine to feel how it's like to enjoy Ramadhan in other muslim country. I would like to learn the different culture, food they consume at Iftar (break fasting time), and the night prayer that we called tarawih.

This Ramadhan of 2016, I spent two weeks in Istanbul and Cappadocia with the whole family including my parents. They always wanted to go to Turkey, and so did I: Turkey has been on my bucketlist for years!

We stayed around Sultan Ahmet, which made us visited Sultan Ahmet Square almost everyday to enjoy the Ramazan iftar which is celebrated at the park around Sultan Ahmet, as well as in front of the Blue Mosque.

Getting ready for the Ramazan iftar near the Hippodrome

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