Adeus Portugal 🇵🇹 (Day 7). Merhaba Türkiye 🇹🇷- (Day 1).

Last day in Portugal. Leaving Portugal 🇵🇹 for Turkey 🇹🇷 this morning.

Saying good bye to Praco Do Rossio before we took the metro at the nearest station to the airport.

Buying train ticket for the last time in Lisbon metro.... 

Checking in at Lisbon International Airport.

Adeus Portugal 🇵🇹. 

Merhaba Türkiye 🇹🇷

Safely landed in Istanbul Airport late in the evening.

Our 4th time in Turkey.

The kids' first time 😘

Our transport to the city... 

Perghh... jakun sat dapat naik MPV VIP yang ada lampu lip lap macam disco hahaha.

This 51 years old ajuma was enjoying her first VIP ride.

Kesian... masuk 51++  baru merasa naik transport macam ni 😂

The journey from Istanbul airport to the city.

Our hotel, Sirkeci Ersu Hotel is located in Sirkeci area in Istanbul. Actually Mr Hubby booked a room somewhere else via Agoda but later got an email saying the hotel was double booked and we were advised to go to Sirkeci Ersu Hotel. When we checked in, we were told hanya ada satu room saja that can fit the 4 of us which is their biggest room (katanya laa)... and the price was extremely expensive... way higher than the original hotel that we booked. Then bila we all nak keluar.... they offered us a lower price... and after a short discussion and negotiation, the on-duty manager agreed to lessen the price and we agreed to book the room for 2 nights as we do not wish to go through the hassle of moving to another hotel/room.

The room is nice but sad to find out later not so clean - floor dusty, the bedseets/towels had noticeable holes. With the price we paid for this hotel, I thought this was unacceptable! 😠 

Sabo je lah hai....

After settling down, we went out for dinner... 

And guess who were waiting for us in Istanbul....

My mother-in-law and yongest brother-in-law 😍

We were supposed to stay in the same hotel... tapi tu lah kan... ada drama pulak dengan Agoda ni.

So the #HussinClan were here to conquer Turkey!! 😘

Malam tu ronda2 bandar Istanbul....

My youngest, Izzat.

Dia ni siap mencuti kan diri sendiri sebulan from his intern program just to join us for this trip. He was pretty excited to visit Turkey as he has a (girl) friend studying here.

Kawan saja ya... bukan lah 'girl-friend' 😐

Later when we came back to the hotel, the hotel manager greeted us and informed that we need to move to another room tomorrow as there were another family of 5 that need to use the room that we were staying in, and we were like, what??!!

We specifically made it clear that we agreed to book the room for 2 nights because we did not want to go through the hassle of changing room/hotel! 😡 Hmmm... memang tak lah we all move out from the room tau!!! Sorry laa.... huhuuu.... 

Izzat kata 'Ishh... sampai2 je Turkey kita dah kena scam!' .

Tak tau la mama nak nangis ke nak gelak dengan statement Izzat ni...😖

*** To be continued ****

Day 6 - Exploring more attractions in Lisbon

On the morning of Day 6 in Portugal, we went out early in the morning in the mission of buying 'Lisboa Card' - a ticket that could be used to enjoy many activities in Lisbon while also using public transports for free.

So pagi2 lagi kami dah melepak at Praca do Comercio - waiting for the tourist information counter to open, to buy the Lisboa Card for each of us. 

 

It was a bright sunny day that morning and we got the another chance to take more pics here while waiting for the counter to open.

And then the public transport drama tragedy happened... haha! 

We queued at the nearest bus stop for a long time then only we were told that buses were not using this route that morning as there were an event or something and the road to that route was cloesed. Bila dah tau, berterabur lah everyone walked fastly to the nearest bus stop that would bring us to the route that we wanted to go. Jenuh gak lah pikir, tang mana nak pi... which side of the road to wait the bus, ect, ect. Jauh jugak lah kami kena jalan huhuu. But alhamdulillah, after much drama, we managed to get into the correct bus and arrived at our destination 😅

Scenary from the inside the bus... 

The 25 de Abril bridge - The bridge across the Tagus River which looks San Francisco's famous :golden Gate Bridge' The '25 de Abril' means 25th of April - the date of the revolution.

Our destination was Belem. Also known as the "capital of Portuguese Discoveries" as there are lots of places to discover and tourist also got to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Tagus river.

Our first destination - Mosteiro dos Jeronimos : a monastery that contains royal tombs including the tomb of the famous Vasco da Gama. We entered this historical place using the Lisboa Card - so no need to queue (and yes, the queue was quite long, I tell you!)

Listed as one of the UNESCO's World Heritage buildings, Mosteiro dos Jeronimos is really something! The stonework is just amazing!! Stunning gothic architecture! The arches, pillars, fountains - every nook  and cranny - all have sculpture details to be admired! 

When we were here, these two lovely ladies asked our help to take their pictures. I think there are from Spain... and we had problem communicating haha. And these old ladies were using an old Samsung phone, so the photos taken using their phone didn't come out nice. So we offered to take their photos using our phone and later wassap the photos to their phone.

Anakanda Izzaty la jadi mangsa tukang ambil gambar and sharing the pics 😂

Next, we went to Padrao dos Descobrimentos - a stunning monument located on the banks of the Tagus River that commemorates Portugal's many famous explorers and adventurers such as Vasco da Gama and others. 

The view here is very nice! You can see the 25 de Abril bridge from here.. I like!😍

Not far away from Padrao dos Descobrimentos, just a few meters away (walking distance), is Torre de Belem. 

Walking to Torre de Belem under the scoarching hot sun. 

Torre de Belem - used to be the point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portugese explorers and adventurers. It was the first and last thing they would saw before leaving the land of Lisbon. 

We cannot use the Lisboa Card to enter Torre de Belem, so hubby had to join the long queue to get the tickets for us. 

Rupanya, takde benda sangat pun inside it... haha.

Other than beautiful view of Tagus River that can be seen from the tower, there is nothing much to see inside the tower. The queue to go up the tower was so long... so we decided to skip the trip up. Pusing2 on the ground floor and 1st level of the tower saja.

Okay lah... jom proceed to our next destination. It was our last eve in Lisbon, so we need to explore as many places as possible 😉

Back to the city, our next destination is Elevador da Gloria. We had read and see picture of tis funicular so decided to try it on our last eve in Lisboa. This old funicular or tram is another way of short cut to go upper level of Lisbon from the lower ground. The funicular railway that leads to the Sao Pedro de Alcantara Mradouro (which we explored the day before to watch the beautiful view) only took 3 minutes to reach from bottom to top. And it was included in the Lisboa Card.

The funicular is also famous of the graffiti seen on the funicular and on the walls along the street up to the top. 3 minutes ride je pun... 😁

Next, tak tau dah nak ke mana... so we just naik trams and busses... jalan2 cari pasal... and ended up here in Lisboa's Timout Market. 

When you are in the land of Portuguese, harus la kena try the famous 'Portuguese Tart'.

Sedappppp.... 😋😋😋

So that's a wrap for Portugal. We would be leaving the land of Portugal tomorrow and flying to our next destination... 

*** to be continued ***