Istanbul day 2

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After synagogue we walked more around Taksim the "time square" of Istanbul where we shopped and snacked and then saw a big protest outside what was apparently a famous school. I have photos of a couple of hundred police lined up in full riot gear for what appeared to be a very small and rather tame riot (perhaps we left before it got exciting?!?) we then cuaght a cab back to the hotel and walked to the Basilica Cistern which was mind boggeling and stunning and then walked to the The Grand Bazaar which was about a 30 min. walk from our hotel and was as we expected, grand. It was booth after booth of clothing, tchokes, spices,candies, and hookahs. We bargained a little and bought some small things and I was eyeing some beautiful bedspread type things and ended up getting a very good price and purchased a beautiful purple hand made spread that I hope to make into a duvet cover. We then had some lunch in a lovely cafe in the bazaar and ended up pretty far from our hotel when we were done walking so took a quick cab ride back to the hotel then napped before heading off to a dinner with belly dancers, folk dancers and a finale of this rediculously cheesy vegas style singer with REALLY tight pants! (trust me it wasn't pretty!) The dinner show was arranged for us by Mustafa the tour guide we had met. As promised, he had set it up perfect! It was a huge hall with hundredsof people from all different countries (Korea, Japan, Israel, Germany, Iran, Greece, Turkey and us :-) or U.S. we had a little intimate table right by the stage which was great and we wouldn't have had it if Mustafa hadn't set it up for us. Three men were sat with us, one Turkish and two from Texas one of which was Turkish by birth and they had all come together. We had great fun with them and the show was very good and a lot of fun, belly dancing competition at the end and all! I will post pictures when I can! We got home at 1am from the show and after showers went to bed for what was the most sound night of sleep I have had!

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Photos

Ladies at temple
you have to excuse the fuzziness I taking this covertly of theladies at synagogue...you can get an idea of the outfits and hats