Istanbul Day 3

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Day 3: Time to dive into the Grand Bizarre! The front part is pretty sterile, a Turkish version of a local mall, but the outer fringes are more “genuine”. Robin makes the mistake of saying something other than NO to a carpet sales guy, and we get caught in a tornado of carpet shops, salesman, private viewing rooms, and end up with “John”. Robin explains we are not going to buy a carpet, so he plays the psychological card. BTW, did I mention Robin is a psychologist? The duel is interesting, and I keep mumbling “you are heading down a slippery slope” every time Robin offers her opinion on what a more suitable rug would look like. After 30 minutes, we dodge the bullet, and escape, empty handed. Whew.
Robin goes to a Hammam, which she found a bit touristy. I hang out near the fountain, in the blistering heat. A Turkish guy approaches me to “practice his English”, and it slowly turns into an invite to his shop. He shows me a stack of biz cards he has collected from Americans, and the second one is from Princeton University….pretty darn close to home (Robin’s PT employer!).
In the evening we take the train over to the OtoGar and arrive at our bus to Goreme 15 minutes before departure….oops. We have had no dinner, and guzzle a liter of water each before boarding. A quick inventory of our food stock…cookies, cashews, cereal…just like dinner at home! We circle around Istanbul for hours, stopping at 2 other bus stations, and then hit the road. It is a full moon, and the bus follows the shoreline heading eastward from Istanbul for quite a while, with great views.

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