I visited the building before in December 2012. Here are some links for you to check it out how was the place in 2012. It was a snowy day though..

https://plus.google.com/108574006055130759899/posts/8GbiVhkQQ7k
https://plus.google.com/108762618298357820434/posts/casP6W8634J

Since the new year eve close the building was decorated accordingly ;  https://plus.google.com/108574006055130759899/posts/3ixUnwpWePn

And some videos from 2012; https://plus.google.com/108574006055130759899/posts/58wPwQs5E4H
https://plus.google.com/108574006055130759899/posts/Lf6sc1yZ9LB
https://plus.google.com/108574006055130759899/posts/NPJdLuBmXqB

Today (Feb 12,2014) with some of friends I visited again. I picked them up in the morning around 11:00am. 4.Levent has almost the most traffic jam most of the time. So we decided to leave the car to a park close to Metro. Wen we were at the park we saw that was full. So we parked the car at Carrefour Maltepe Park and we walked to the Metro station. We took one elevator to go down.

We passed from the tolls. Then took our train which was coming already. May be I should also

show you how we traveled from where to where on a map. Let me find it and share it here.

At bottom right there is a pink line (hehehe: I guess they knew my color is pink:)) over the green one, that is our lane.We took the train at Esenkent, we left the train at Unalan where pink lane meets the tan one.

At next photos we were getting out the Metro at Unalan.

 

 

 

That tan line is Metrobus’, So, yes we passed to the bus to get over the Bosphorus bridge after using this steps..

We were luck though as soon as we moved upstairs there was the bus!

And we were again lucky enough to find some seats to sit. Well of course being out of the rush hours helped too:)

After get in the bus I took some photos since I sat next to window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May be I must give some information about the time too.. By the time I took the photo of the elevator it was 11:24am. We reached Zincirlikuyu where we changed our transportation again. On the map you can find Zincirlikuyu close to the cross between tan and green line.

Yes, we were going to take the green line. Hehe:) blue screen!! It was just in front of me so, I took its photo too:)) 

And again we were going to Metro again to take a train on the green line on map towards up to 4.Levent where Sapphire is.

 

 

We usually have nice small shops for some food and drink at the entrance of Metro stations. This one smelled good too:) But we did not buy anything from it.. I’m on diet 🙂 may be next time..

By the time we took this train it was about 12:28pm. It took about an hour for us to come from Kartal to Gayrettepe train station. Well via car that is not so possible anymore.

And about 10 minutes later we were getting out of the train and were so close to Sapphire.

 

We followed the signs which shows where Sapphire is. I thought we were close to its entrance.. Tadaaaa!! Here it was!

It took less then an hour and half to come here with changing transportation three times.

 

 

 

As soon as we entered the ground floor we saw a coffee house which surrounded by small polls. Since we all did not have our morning coffee we decided to have it there. Well, in the mornings when we wake up at breakfast we mostly have tea in Turkey. Turkey is a tea country..And we have our Turkish coffees after breakfast. Coffee is Kahve in Turkish.

We sat on the couch and than ordered our coffee.While waiting our coffee I found lamps in coffee house interesting 🙂 (photo on the left) Hehe:) Our coffees!!  

 

 

 

 

 

Now let me explain what are all of those!! A glass of water is a must next to a glass of Turkish coffee. Other glass with orange color is a rose sherbet and there was a Turkish Delight aka Lokum! under small lid. Well, I decided to close down my glass for coffee fortune. And I did 🙂 

To look at the fortune the glass must get cooler, so there is always some time to wait.

There were two massage seats next to the pool in front of us. One of my friend said while waiting she was going to try it. So I did with her, we sat on the seats looking each other and after inserting 1 Turkish Lira seat began to move. It was sooo funny, I laughed a lot 🙂 I had great time had a good massage to my back too. It was like somebody was battering and plasticizing me. I think it took about 10 minutes or so. We returned back to our seats in coffee house.

 

Hehe:) it was time for fortune telling!!  She said that I will be top of a mountain:) But I did not get it which mountain it was 🙂 And she said I will do some business with some good people and everything will be fine. 

Then of course she looked at the plate too. So at the end I had the message that everything will be fine for me:)

After that ceremony we left the coffee house to go to Terrace. We needed to buy tickets. Yes to go to Terrace everyone must buy a ticket. There are three options, the first one is just for Terrace, the second one is for Terrace and Sky Dive (must be taken at least one time, they show the whole İstanbul from air and there are some surprises too, I can not tell:)) and the third one is Terrace and Mummy museum. I saw Sky Dive at my first visit, so I took a ticket just for the Terrace.Only one of my friend took the Sky Dive.The ticket Office was at second floor as I remember..Here we went there..

And we bought our tickets..There was this map in a bowl. Hagia Sophia is in the middle..So you can see what you will see from the Terrace.. hehe:) that was not quite it.. Leaving the ticket office at back we were in photo area.. there was a girl photographer and a dark green wall!! Green wall!

Recalls many memories. I must paint one of my wall to green:)) Hehe:) I took her picture while she was ours..She took quite a lot photos. Then passing here we were at the gate of the elevator!

After showing our ticket to the security opened the steel door to us and we passed through.

We only wait a few moments at the door and elevator’s door opened by security and we were in!

That was again my time! I love to take photos at elevator:)) lol!

Yes, we went up to 54th floor.  

 

 

 

 

 

And I began to take photos from windows..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay lets continue again 🙂

We took many photos from windows.

I’m not sure how to present all. So I am not sharing all photos here. I want to think about it.

On the left photo you may see Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in the middle. Neighborhoods seen on that photo are from right to left at European side (in front of the Sapphire building) Bebek, Hisarüstü, 4.Levent, Balta Limanı, and at Asia – Anatolian side Kanlıca, Anadolu hisarı, Kandilli, Çengelköy, Beylerbeyi.. I have some videos about Kandilli and Beylerbeyi a Youtube  click and watch..

 

We decided to have lunch here at top of the building. Let me give some more information about the place.. That was the place we had our lunch, towards Bosphorus!!

While walking all around the building I saw one glass were broken..

 

 

 

 

 

As you may see that floor was covered with windows all four edge. So there is a nice view of 360° of İstanbul. At the beginning we had fogy weather, but later on sun showed up 🙂  Under the fog some part of İstanbul was looking like ghost town 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

I had fish and chips and Pepsi at lunch. Please read my review. Hhhmmm one closeup! 

A few more photos a bout the floor we were in..

 

 

 

 

 

 

So in the middle there were some places where you can buy some food and the photo shop (the last photo) Remember the girl downstairs who took our photo? She is downloading the photos to pc and here at upstairs they print with the background you choose. Well we did not want to buy the photos, sorry we found expensive for us:)

The middle was surrounded again with windows (look at the one above of the last photo) So we were able to see sky. Hehe:) I took some cloud photos too :))

 

 

 

 

 

We turned around a few times before and after lunch. And asked a few workers including some security if there is some really open areas so we could take photos without windows’ shine. We had “no” as an answer. It was about 4:00pm I believe we decided to leave and began to wait in front of the elevator. We were talking among us about that there also should be some open area.. hearing us the security girl told us there was!  Unbelievable! That we did not saw the sign showing upstairs..

We happily moved from steps to up! First towards Bosphorus, You can see Fatih Sultan Mehmet

Bridge (which is the closest one).

 

 

 

This one is towards Bosphorus Bridge. You may see 4.Levent and then Levent where we have high buildings and just in front of us. Many companies are stated those areas.

 

 

 

 

 

Sun was slowly setting.

And here was the 236mts stand! The peak point of İstanbul!

 

 

 

 

 

There were chimneys too. Steam were coming out them I believe. Maybe they are belonging to heating system.

Road is towards Maslak where the high buildings. Again there are many companies located there.

 

 

 

 

 

Sun was below the clouds, and that part of İstanbul was under fog.  

 

 

 

 

 

While some part of İstanbul was like a ghost town other part was sunny:) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is 360° photo from 236mts..

 

I must also mention about the students we met while taking photos after lunch. Three Germans youngster.. they were taking photos like us. when we were close to them they asked if we could take their photo. My friend did, and I asked from them to take our photo too and they did too with my friend’s machine 🙂 I began to chat, and learned that they were from Germany and studying at Okan University which campus is also around Kartal 🙂

We saw glass cleaning escalator at roof too..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here were the last photos from roof:

After spending quite time at the roof of the building while weather was allowing us, we decided to return back. While returning back from floors we were passing by:

 

 

 

 

But before we had our lattes and cakes at Café Nero. hehe:) no clue what we had :))

We also looked around..

They were selling eau de cologne and room sprays in that small scooter. we tested and smelled them!

There was a restaurant which was selling some home made authentic stuff like Hamsi Turşusu – Pickle of Hamsi( Hamsi is a small fish from Black Sea)

 

 

 

 

Then we took Metro from the bottom of the building to back. There were some İstanbul photos on the walls..

 

 

 

And then Metrobus and metro again. We found ourselves at Carrefour Park again where I parked the car. I needed to do some food shopping so I did, while my friends were waiting for me with having some more coffee. 

That was time to go back home!

So that’s all from this #Promenade in Istanbul..

Have a good day! And good take care of yourself

Oya Şanlı
@oyasan

#Promenade took plcae at Feb 12, 2014.

Last updated by oyasanli at February 19, 2014.