how bazaar...

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we awoke to yet another incredible breakfast overlooking the waterfront, this time with the added bonus of some kind of egg dish as well as dried apricots in a sugary syrup that i had with my yogurt. we chatted with this older woman from the u.s. about travel and whatnot, which was nice. she's here with her daughter and son, the daughter being an english teacher in prague and the son who studies music ethnography, about to depart for georgia (the country, not state). i hope my family can be that jet-setting some day, meeting in various places around the world once everyone's out of the house. my nice thoughts were quickly quelled as i proceeded to flood the bathroom during my morning "shower" but then i was happy again remembering i was in istanbul and still in awe of my surroundings.

the first thing on the day's agenda was the blue mosque, just down the road, of course. first, however, we thought we'd stop into this shop in front of the haya sofia since we saw patches in the front as well as turkish tea glasses. by the time we left we had purchased not only patches but also an entire 6 person turkish tea set each. turkish people seriously know how to sell things. the man even stood on the crystal glasses to show they were legit and wouldn't break. we both ending up liking the same set. i can't wait to be a weirdo and have turkish tea parties, although kasia will probably be the only person that comes, lol.

when we got there prayer was going on, so we had to wait to go inside. taking off our shoes, we headed in for what was both of our first experiences in a mosque. the interior was massive, with these massive chandelier type things hanging from the ceiling. arabic motifs and other beautiful designs were everywhere and the interior itself was basically just one giant space, with the main area sectioned off for serious prayer. entering was free, but we both made small donations and got a little piece of paper momento with the mosque on it for doing so.

after the mosque we set off in search of the grand bazaar. first we stopped and gawked inside of the shops selling all kinds of turkish delight and halvah goodies. the samples were of course delicious and i bought a little thing of turkish delight with pistachios to nibble on. then we got chocolate dipped ice cream at mcdonalds, lol. whatever, it was delicious. we continued through all kinds of streets and passageways, very much seeing the real istanbul i feel, because there weren't really any tourists in sight. on the way we stumbled across the Suleymanile mosque, which i was half looking for as well. it was even more beautiful on the inside than the blue mosque, having some stained glass and more colorful motifs. then we paroused various housewear shops in search of spoons for our tea sets. we were pretty good about the bargaining and whatnot, though one woman managed to understand our conversation in polish regarding the price, though just the number itself, which isn't too hard to decifer if you know any numbers in the slavic languages.

finally we came upon the bazaar, and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. the bazaar complex is basically a giant labyrinth, and we really had no idea where we were at any point. the place is packed with people and literally thousands of little shops, with people trying to entice you with their products every step of the way. it was awesome and so utterly eastern. probably my favorite part of the day was at this one scarf shop, where we dealt with this cute little old man who didn't really speak any english. after getting his 'special price' on an item (everyone everywhere has a special price "just for you") he pulled these little good luck charms out of his pocket and pinned them on our shirts. later we found out they were to protect you from the evil eye. it was the coolest and cutest gesture ever. i bought some souvenirs for the fam but for myself some counterfeit puma shoes, lol. i'm not sure how they sucked me into that one, since i really didn't pay that great of a price for them, though they are really cool and both pairs of shoes i brought are on their way to being nasty, as are the jeans i have. hopefully they won't fall apart after like a day...

after an hour of so of that, we took a break and had some kawa mrozona at a cafe right outside. we heard this shopkeeper saying "chocz tutaj! jest bardzo fajny!" funny how they know what to say in quite a few languages. then it was back inside to keep looking for more things to spend our money on. we for the most part pretended we were polish so people wouldn't haggle with us as much, but it didn't really work. oh well, it was fun. outside of the bazaar we continued to shop and eventually stopped at this place serving fresh-squeezed juices of all sorts. we settled with blackberry and sat down for a bit to enjoy it.

once we figured out where we were, we started back towards the hostel area. in front of the haya sofia we found a family of cats- a mother and probably 6 little kittens. we gawked and took pictures for like 10 minutes. we're definitely finding cat food somewhere and coming back there to feed them since they looked hungry, especially the money. we haven't seen all too many stray dogs here, its much more the cats which is cute. back at the hostel we layed out all the things we bought, stared at them, and then headed out to grab some dinner, settling with yet another wonderful rooftop terrace at a nearby restaurant. i had some awesome chicken stuffed with mushrooms and other vegetables, with grilled peppers and tomatoes on the side, and everything sitting in this amazing cheesy eggplant sauce. mmm...

after dinner came probably the most awkward but cool 2 hours of my life. walking by this shop, we saw some earrings and decided to have a look. the guy invited us inside to just "have a look, no need to buy" well we saw some beautiful handpainted art on this old paper, and he had us sit down to browse through them while he made us some apple tea. we figured they couldn't be that expensive, but upon hearing the price realized we really couldn't afford them. by couldn't i mean shouldn't, because i have the money, i just would rather not spend it. nonetheless, i really loved the piece i had picked out...not to mention we felt bad for being there like half an hour already looking through his stuff acting like we were going to buy something. meanwhile, he called his boss to see about making some sort of deal while we looked at more stuff outside. we both picked out some stuff since we felt like we had to at least buy something.

back inside the shop, the guy had kasia put on a belly dancer thing and with 4 other turkish guys coming down, we all wanted her to dance. quite amusing. eventually the owner came, and so started the over-an-hour-long ordeal. we sat down the three of us on this couch thing and they brought us turkish tea, not just the apple kind. i eventually gave in to his haggling, buying my art, but we sat there for an hour still talking about god knows what. they invited us back tomorrow night for a traditional meal and more. it was a bit awkward at times, and i kind of felt like i was talking with natalie's dad, going on and on about some concept, in this case friendship, in heavily accented english. he gave us his cards, we exchanged emails, etc. etc. we eventually managed to head out of there, not really sure what to think about what had happened and not sure whether or not to feel weirded out.

back at the hostel we made ourselves coffee, wrote postcards, chatted with the girl that runs the place, and used the internet. its not 2am and kasia went to bed like and hour ago...i should probably head to bed...more to come, most definitely!

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Photos

Egypt vs Turkey
cool egyptian obelisk juxtaposed with the turkish minaret

courtyard
courtyard of the blue mosque as we waited for prayer to end

weirdo
this weird muslim girl i met at the mosque

me and 'ole blue
me in front of the blue mosque

friends...
our turkish shopkeeper "friend"

bazaar
so many things to buy...

Comments

[Cathy Tiske]

hostels
Hi Jeff! Theresa hooked me up with your blog. You are having just the best experiences of your life....treasure every minute. You have terrific pics of the food and the places you visited....How about a picture or two of those hostels you described? Some are probably not worthy of a picture, but those who have never seen one are a little curious. Stay safe and save some traveling for when Theresa is there with you.

[Mom]

Belly dancing
What happened to the photo of Kasia belly dancing?????!!!!!

[Kyle H.]

Memories
I went to Turkey in 2004, and I totally remember all of this. I think we even have taken some pictures in the same spots together. haha! I hope all is well, and can't wait for ya to come back home :-)

[Kyle H.]

P.S. I also have one of those charms that the shopkeeper gave you. If you want later, I'll tell you the story / myth about them. :-)