I visited Istanbul on March 16-19, 2018 as part of my journey to West Europe on March 16 - April 15, 2018.
I started the journey at Istanbul since Istanbul has a long history and one of the oldest cities in the world. Although, I know that Istanbul is not part of the EU countries yet, but it is part of Europe continental. This is the reason why I included Istanbul into my traveling list. Since Indonesia already had a VOA agreement with Turkey, so I only need about 5 minutes to get E-Visa costed US$ 25.

here is my daily journal in visiting West Europe, including Istanbul, Turkey.

Day 1: March 16, 2018

I arrived in Istanbul airport at 1 pm. From the airport i had to go to a hotel at Sultanahmet area (old city) that i had booked . Since I had prepared well for this journey, including city transportation info, I bought an "Istanbulkart" as a travel card within the city for bus, tram and metro. Using the card, I passed through the metro sensor gate to metro platform downstairs. Metro had been standing by at its platform when i arrived. since it is its first station, then it wasn't crowded at all. Using that metro, i went to Seytinburnu station for changing to tram station outside the metro station. It is 7 stations from the airport station (Havalimani) to Seytinburnu. Since metro station and tram station are located differently, I have to get out from the metro station, walk a bit (probably 30 meters) to tram station and take a tram to Kabatas direction (Kabatas is the last station), then get off at Sultanahmet station.

Using google map, i tried to find the booked hotel location which was only 80 meters away. A lady welcomed me when i arrived at lobby. She provided me some information and also Istanbul map. those information and map completed list of the places i wanted to visit such us the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofya, Chora church, etc. She also convinced me to visit Suleymaniye mosque as one of the locals preferences. She gave me room
302 at 3rd floor for my stay from where i could enjoy Sultanahmet square which is only a stone away.

After taking rest for about 1 hour and showering, I went out the hotel to explore the Sultanahmet square and its surroundings. The sun was covered by heavy grey clouds. Weather was so chill for me who is from a tropical country. However, I did enjoy it since it was different at all. I started up exploring hippodrome with two obelisks at the center and a fountain at right side. The oldest one is called Theodosius obelisk which is an Egyptian obelisks. the other one is called Walled obelisk or Constantine obelisk Masonry obelisk (Wikipedia). Only few people walked around, including myself. I sat down at a bench which only 5 meters distance from the Walled obelisk to enjoy the afternoon breeze while looking at pigeons come and go. some of trees in the square are still waiting for the springtime. They still have no leaves at all.