Sunday Market in Ortakoy

---

Today was an easy day. We had breakfast at the Tribeca Restaurant and Lounge. Bagels, cream cheese, jam, omelette, pancakes and coffee. Sounds like home! The restaurant had photos of New York sites on the walls but the menu was in Turkish .... Try acting out the word onion.... We ended up with spinach on the omelette ....yummy anyway.

After breakfast Peter dropped us off at the Sunday Market on the square along the Bosphorus. We went back to some of our favorite stalls.... Purchased a few more souvenirs, found a bead shop ( had been looking for one for weeks) and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.

All our usual friends were out.... The local cats, dogs and colorful people. We watched a beautiful bride and her groom being photographed along the waterfront. The Simit man had his do-nut cart parked in front of the sightseeing boat entrance .... Good thinking.

I wish each and everyone of you could spend a few days in this amazing hustle bustle city.... Among the cars, taxis, trucks, people. Dogs, cats, all mixed together on these winding cobbled streets going up hill and down at break neck speed.... Honking horns ....hollering .... Simit carts selling their Turkish do- nuts .... Little tables and chairs where locals Crouch to drink their tea, smoke , laugh, and talk. There are flower markets a blur with color, fruit and vegetable stalls, just as beautiful.... Kitties winding around your ankles or sitting in every doorway.... And the doors are all old and beautiful .... Different colors or old beautiful wood with great knockers of all descriptions. .... Flowers in window boxes....wash hanging out on lines just over head.... Ladies sitting in windows watching the world go by.... Beautiful colorful Rugs Displayed everywhere.... People clothed in every imaginable outfit....scarves Of great beauty .... Solid black from head to toe but maybe sneakers peeking out the bottom....sometimes sparkley shoes. Your eyes can't stop looking.... Everywhere you want to capture what you are seeing but there is not enough room in your head or heart to capture everyday Istanbul. And the Blue eye is everywhere ...... The Turkish Evil Eye......among this mix it is .....hanging in every doorway....on every wall.......on every car mirror..... embeded in the sidewalks, hanging from trees, hanging around necks, in ears, on clothing on dishes, stir sticks and even toothpicks.

The evil eye is an evil look that many cultures believe able to cause injury or misfortune for reasons of envy or dislike. These Talismans created to protect against the evil eye are also called " evil eyes". It is given for protection to others . The concept and it's significance varies among different cultures but appears several times in translations of the Old Testament .

We have been granted the gift of time to explore Istanbul..... The historic sites, the tulips in Emirgan Park, the Grand Bazaar, the spice market the little village markets of old neighborhoods ,the steep hills, cats and sleeping dogs, cars, trucks, taxis and buseszooming around the narrow cobble stone streets , the wonders of Cappadocia, the malls, local restaurants, from the Golden horn to the Black Sea.

We still have a few days left....hang in there!

---