Day 9 of 10-day Turkey tour

Today was originally a free day, with a hotel transfer to the airport at 8 pm. So I joined a day tour. Unfortunately, it was still cloudy and rainy. We set off at 8:30 am for Pierre Loti Hill to enjoy the beautiful view of the Golden Horn. We tasted Turkish coffee at the cafe on the hilltop, which was quite special. Then we took a walk in the nearby Balat Town, where the Greek Orthodox Church headquarters and Greek School (now closed) are located. On January 6, the Orthodox Christmas, hundreds of buses will stop here. There is also a Romanian church here, which is made entirely of metal. Next, we visited the Galata Tower, which has a red line on its body. The part below the red line was built in the 5th century, and the part above it collapsed in a major earthquake. The Ottoman Empire rebuilt it in the 16th century. We saw the largest Turkish flag flying on the roadside. After lunch, we visited Dolmabahce Park and the new palace. Dolma means land reclamation, and bahce means park. You can see the old palace from here. Finally, we had free time at Taksim Square. We saw Turkish kebabs and ice cream tricks on Independence Street, and the pastry and candy shop at the street corner was crowded with tourists. We returned to the hotel at 6:30 pm to pick up people and transfer to the airport.