MAKING MEMORIES: LET’S GO SHOPPING
Talking about things I didn’t have the time to see properly in Istanbul, the Grand Bazaar would be at the top of the list. It’s the sort of thing you need plenty of leisure time to explore. We barely stuck our toe in the water before it was time to go, but come and see what we did discover.
A Quick Change of Scenery
From the elegant Blue Mosque, we jumped on our bus and were delivered to Nuru Osmaniye Street, which leads to the Nurusmaniye Gate of the Grand Bazaar. I didn’t know that when I was there. I came home, studied my photos and used the map below, which I found on the internet, to figure out where I had been. (Map from https://www.istanbultrails.com/2008/10/the-grand-bazaar-maze-or-oriental-feast/)
I have used a red line to show you where we walked, which shows what a paltry amount of the Bazaar we actually saw. We turned off that street and within a few steps we knew we were getting in trouble. It all looked the same. At that moment, we could turn around and walk back to the street we knew would deliver us to the meeting point. If we kept exploring, we would have been lost.
As long as one had some time and access to a map, I actually think getting lost in the bazaar would be a blast, but we were still smarting from the episode at the mosque and the last thing we wanted to do was get lost! We also did not have a map. So we played it smart,
Gold, Gold and More Gold
Another thing we didn’t know when we entered the Bazaar was that our guide had dropped us off right in the middle of the part of the bazaar focused on gold. He did tell us that while most Istanbulers did not shop regularly in the bazaar, it was where they would shop for gold. I can guess why! Fort Knox couldn’t possibly have more gold than these guys and we only visited one street of their section!
Our guide had walked down Nuru Osmaniye Street with us and introduced us to a shop where he recommended we buy souvenirs like baklava, Turkish Delight, teas, spices and such. He pointed us towards the Bazaar and told us when to be back.
It was exciting joining the horde of people entering the same gate we were. We were stunned at all the gold we saw. There were other shops from t-shirts to candles squeezed in between the gold shops, but it was mostly gold and lots of it.
We walked the length of the Bazaar, but I didn’t know that. When I saw the gate at the other end, I was afraid we’d end up in a new maze and we wouldn’t know one from the other, but now I know we’d have landed outside the Bazaar on a regular Istanbul street. I didn’t know that, so we just turned around and went back the way we came.
As we ogled all the gold shops, I kept my eye open for a shop I’d seen shortly after we entered. It had a wide variety of souvenirs and a sign which said, “No haggling!” I knew that was the shop I was looking for to buy the last few things I wanted to take home with me. When we found it, I went inside, picked out a couple of handfuls of bracelets and paid the man with a credit card. I was happy as a clam. I might have gotten them for half that price around a corner with a little haggling, but I liked it just the way I’d done it.
It was after that Bill suggested we head down a side lane, which as I explained above, didn’t last very long. By then, it wasn’t long before we needed to be back at the meeting point. We entered the shop our guide had recommended and they were busy as a one armed berry picker during cranberry season. I have no idea what that actually means. It’s just something my mother used to say, but their business was hopping. Live demonstrations, Turkish Delight tasting, all kinds of stuff. I had my bracelets in my bag and I was happy.
It had been almost five hours since we left the ship, so we were happy to pile back on the bus and go back across town to the harbor. Come back next week and you can tag along on our return to DFW.
