Walking around town is so much fun in Istanbul! An overload of stimulation from colors, shapes and smells is overwhelming! Hundreds of stores along every street, inside and outside of the markets: stores for spices, jewelry, sweets, jewelry, shoes, jewelry, clothing hangers, jewelry, leather & fur and, guess what? Jewelry! It is overwhelming, stimulating and fun!
SweetsTeaOlivesSpicesKnivesInside the Egyptian Bazaar
The Egyptian Bazaar is more food oriented than the Grand Bazaar, the later being very touristy. What we really enjoyed are those areas outside the bazaars, where the locals shop and no tour guides with their flock of tourists can be seen. Household items, store fixtures, jewelry making supplies, fabrics & notions, party supplies, everything and anything can be found. The streets take us in, we float, we eat, drink, have fun!
Raki (double Raki) for TedBreakfast buffet at our hotel
What you can also see everywhere are cats, mostly kittens, who sleep, relax, beg for food and/or mind their own business
Istanbul, Constantinople, the center of the Byzantine Empire, the bridge between Europe and Asia, the needle hole for every trade going from east to the west and vice versa! Istanbul, where Christians and Muslins live together for centuries, where the western and eastern influences mix, where spices and gold were traded, where many different languages were spoken, Istanbul is truely a one-of-a-kind in every way.
We left the cruise ship today, said good-bye to our comfortable room, and headed straight into the next adventure.
View from our cruise ship window
We found our hotel, checked in and couldn’t wait to visit the grand bazaar! 35 years ago I was in Turkey for 6 weeks and loved it! The people were so friendly and welcoming, by the mentioning of being German, they bend over backwards to tell me their connection to my home country: VW for 17 years, Mercedes for 10 years, Audi for 20 years, etc. Many of them had worked in the German Automobile industry, after the Italians in the 1950s and the Greeks in the 1960s and early 1970s.
There are still many Turkish people in Germany, marking the second biggest ethnic group there. You can find lots of Turkish restaurants and delicious street food (“Döner Kebab“) everywhere.
Hagia Sofia in the background
The grand Bazaar just swallowed us in! According to Wikipedia, „The Grand Bazaar (Turkish: Kapalıçarşı, meaning ‘Covered Market’; also Büyük Çarşı, meaning ‘Grand Market’) in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops on a total area of 30,700 m2, attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.“ It has 21 entrances! So it’s easy to float around and/or get lost…
Fortunately our hotel is just a 15min walk away from the Grand Bazaar, so I head back to our hotel after a late lunch in order to teach; somebody has to work….. The good thing is the time difference: we are 10hours ahead of time from California to Turkey, so my classes are from 6pm until midnight. Meaning I can explore during daylight and teach at night 🥳
Over 3000 mosques are in Istanbul and when they call for prayer, 5 times a day, I’m getting goose bumps all over my body. I’m not religious, but this prayer calling has a special sensation that goes under my skin – I love it!
