[ISTANBUL] Budget and Itinerary

SUNDAY: 20 March 2016

Turkish eVisa (Online) - 20.70

USD20.70

Air Arabia Maroc (Casablanca - Istanbul Sabiha) - 143.48

EUR143.48

[ISTANBUL] Archaeological Nerdgasm, Domes, and Minarets

There are many districts to explore in Istanbul. As for me, I just decided to stick to Sultanahmet because I am just here for two days anyway and I want everything to be chill. You know you want to take things slow when you opt to split two destinations facing each other into two different sightseeing days. And so day two was reserved for the Blue Mosque as well as Topkapi Palace. But the museum and palace of Topkapi were closed because it was a holiday, which made me settle for the Archaeology Museum.

[ISTANBUL] Virgin Mary Dome Ceiling Selfie

It was Eurowings Check-In Counter Phuket 2.0. The guy told me that they would have to call Turkish immigration first to confirm if my visa was valid or not. In my head, I thought this guy must be shitting me. You mean to tell me that if my flight was close to midnight and offices have already closed in Turkey, you wouldn’t let me board just because of your baseless suspicion that I, to quote him, “might have FORGED” my visa. Screw this, right? And so I had to wear my most sinister bitch face for an hour or so.

[VISA] Turkey (Single Entry)

This has got to be the fastest and easiest visa I ever processed in this lifetime. Philippine passport holders who hold an unexpired visa from any OECD country are eligible to apply for a Turkish visa online. The website states that even if you’ve already used your visa (in the case of a single-entry Japanese visa, for example) but your travel date falls before the expiry date indicated on it, you can still use it. The only requirement is that it should be on your passport, which means an Australian visa won’t do.