Second to last day in Istanbul

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I did not awaken until around 9:30 am, which was a shocker because you could call me anything except late for breakfast since we had been in Turkey. I groggily got up and dressed and we headed up to breakfast around 10:30 (breakfast is over at 11, walk quickly!) we get to the hotel and Lynn asks us if we were up late partying since we were so late; we then told her about the previous night. She said that they all had started to worry since we usually were there close to 8 and she almost had someone come to check on us. It was so sweet of her to think of us like that, so to make up for lost time we had a very long and relaxing breakfast (I think we were there for about 3 hours, just eating, drinking tea, socializing, and just enjoying ourselves, Dad said this trip has been bad for him since he doesn’t want to go back to work!).
Dad wanted to tip Ayse since she had been so nice and lovely during our stay, but he didn’t know how much, so he asked Lynn how much she thought was fair. She told him that Ayse is very happy to know that we are happy with her and that is enough, but if you wanted to tip her that is fine and whatever Dad thought was fair then he could give her. This was not cut and dry enough for Dad, so he asked Lynn the same question a little bit later, and she says “Ok you asked for it, go sit down”. I thought this was going to be good! So Lynn brings out her energy therapy book and gets to work, asking Dad questions and reading his energy, I thought it was pretty good since she was (and Dad admitted) spot on with a few of her readings. I especially loved the part when she started to read that Dad was tender, then got halfway through writing the word then crossed it out (not so much!) and said instead that he was stagnant. In the end she gave Dad The MOST literal answer of how much to tip, outlining exactly how much and what for. Well, Dad got exactly what he asked for, just not in the way he thought he was going to get it, and I teased him mercilessly for it (good ammunition since he was going around telling the Turks in Turkish that I had a fake leg). “You are so tender Dad . . well not so much” overall it was great, and I pointed out to him that you couldn’t have gotten anymore cut and dry than that!
We then went back to the Grand Bazaar to pick up some items from the previous trip, to buy some more things, and to visit with Murat again. We went to pick up some jewelry we had made and wanted to buy something in silver for a next door neighbor. We were shown to a friend of the goldsmiths who specialized in silver. Just looking at this guy I didn’t like him, we told him what we were looking for and he had it, but wanted to charge us 750 TL ($453 USD) for a piece of silver! Dad told him no way Jose and told him he wasn’t looking to pay more than $150. The guy kept saying he had the best silver around, highest quality, Dad was much more polite with him than I would have been, and just kept saying that he didn’t mind walking out of the shop, he wasn’t paying any more than $150. Finally the guy caved and sold it to us for $150! He was trying to rip us off so bad, it was one of the worst experiences in Istanbul (which if that’s was it I was pretty happy!)
We then went and visited Murat Bilir for the last time, he had found a picture of my Mom, Brother, and I from 1988, I was 2 years old in the picture. He taught us some Turkish sayings and words like Caylak (rookie) Eski Tufek (old rifles = old guys) and when we brought up the fact that Istanbul had street dogs and we had noticed they had tags in their ears and why was that, he said that the government pays someone to catch them, spay/neuter them, and give them shots, then they release them back on the street. Then he asked with such confusion “you don’t have street dogs in United States?!” Of course not! I said once we catch them we keep them, we don’t release them back on the street!
We then said our goodbyes to Murat for who know how long (although I hope not too long) and continued on and bought the rest of the things we wanted. We then headed to the Spice Bazaar which is one of the coolest places on Earth in my book. The smells are out of this world and everything is so fresh, it is just a feast for the senses. We bought tea, spices, Turkish specialties, and even went to a shop where the man mixed your cologne right in front of you. Dad got a few items and the Armenian merchant let me smell a few things but it was already sensory overload so I didn’t think anything smelled very good so I left empty handed. Once on the way back to the hotel, I smelled my hand where I had gotten some of the perfume oil on it and it smelled amazing, and I told Dad we had to go back the next day to buy some. On the walk back to the hotel we passed a little food shoppe; I had been searching for this chocolate egg that had a toy inside it that you had to construct and I remembered them as a kid having them. I am looking and looking, thinking they have stopped making them when all of a sudden Dad says here it is! It really goes to show that things are so much bigger when you are a little kid, because it sure was the same egg, but it was so much smaller compared to what I remember! It sure was tasty, and I made 3D glasses from my little toy that was in pieces inside.
We then walked back into town for a quiet dinner and for Dad to pack what he had already bought into his suitcase to see if it all would fit and what else we could fit in it since we were going back to the Spice Bazaar the next day (our last day in Istanbul 😞 since it was just too much to take in all at once.
B

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Photos

Murat and I
with a very old pot

Comments

[Nina Mccoy]

Loving your blogs
We're sailing on the Chesapeake Bay but I'm reading your blog every day and loving it. Nina