Next I wanted to visit miniaturk a miniature village of historic sites from Istanbul and around Turkey. I had wanted to come in 2007 but ended up losing a day with stomach problems and a broken camera.

Since most places appeared to be closed for the three day holiday I asked the hotel to call first to check if it was open before I went all the way on the bus. They said yes until 6pm as normal

I remember last time buses did not take cash fare and the same problem today. Although the fare was only 1 Lira (.50 cents) somebody had to tap their card and I gave them the 1TL

Park entrance was 10TL ($5) and was quite crowded due to the holiday. Although it looks small you can spend a couple of hours studying all the buildings

Half is made of up Istanbul's famous sites, the other is sites from around Turkey. The ones from the interior were very interesting and somewhere I must explore more in detail

Some of the ancient greek and roman ones were confusing such as the Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Halicarnus as these sites no longer exist and were just ruins when I saw them in 2005 near Kusadasi and Bodrum

There was a crystal gallery where you cant really see anything because its dark and they are basically just souvenir type 3D glass carvings. There was also a gallery on independence and Ataturk.

I thought there would be more sights from around the world but not too many. They had a giant Bosphorus Bridge spanning the park from where you could see the sights from above.

My favourite was Mardin which is a town carved into the side of a mountain cascading up. They also had the rock carvings from Nemrut and the formations of Cappadocia, all places I should try to visit

Taking the bus back the driver just took my 1TL as the crowd was too big and we couldn't communicate.