Istanbul Date Day - The Grand Bazaar

We were so excited to experience the Grand Bazaar, and we were even more excited to experience it  sans enfants.  The famous bazaar was so much more enjoyable while not keeping a death grip on our kids every second of the way.  And the kids much preferred hanging out with the sweet babysitter that the hotel found for us.  They played games, swam and watched movies. We shopped. A good day off/out for all of us.

Ready, steady, go!  Outside the gates!

 At 554 years old, perhaps the Grand Bazaar is the oldest mall in the world.   It's a covered labyrinth of shops and cafes selling typically Turkish goods like carpets, textiles, ceramics, lamps, tea, candy.  But there's also shops selling knock-offs of everything.  You absolutely must be ready for the crowds and ready to negotiate your price. During the Ottoman Empire the bazaar was the only place for merchants to buy and sell all the goods passing through Constantinople operating as a shopping venter, bank, and stock exchange.

Interestingly, the bazaar only gained its reputation for hawking, stealing, and other petty crimes during modern times; during the Empire it was very safe and well-regulated.  Maybe in part because if you got caught stealing you would be hanged . . . in front of the sultan, himself.

Our new carpet!

We had lunch at the legendary Fez Cafe inside the Bazaar.  Lentil soup, rosemary tea, Turkish coffee, oh my!

Rosemary tea.

Turkish coffee is a must-try specialty.  It's an unfiltered coffee, the beans boiled in a pot and then poured into cup with the grounds, which settle at the bottom.  It's usually served a few pieces of Turkish delight, a gel-like candy offered at meals and at tea time, as well as to customers in shops.  It was always on our hotel pillow each night.

The spice market, or Egyptian bazaar, sits in front of the Grand Bazaar toward the port at Galata Bridge, a port so deep ships can pull right up to shore--a defining feature of Istanbul/Constantinople for centuries and centuries.  Linking the two covered markets (Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar) is a crazy, crowded maze of shops and outdoor booths where locals do their daily shopping.

Walk with us through the spice market:

Turkish Street Eats

There's lots of reasons to visit Istanbul, not the least of which is the food. We ate our way around town, loving most of it, freaked out by some of it and, in a few instances, not sure what we were eating.  

Street food is the best way to get started, and "simit" is by far the most popular street food.  It is a circular bread, usually with sesame seeds on top, that sort of resembles a pretzel.  It can be found on EVERY street corner.  It's good, if not a little bland. Then, again, it costs the equivalent of 30 cents, which makes it all the more the delectable.

We had chance to see one of the bakers do their thing while we were on an off-the-beaten-path walk through the old Greek neighborhood.  This baker is the biggest supplier of simit to the street carts.

I'm not sure what this is.  It kind of looks like a version of simit, but not quite the same.  Maybe those friends of mine who've traveled Turkey more in depth than me can shine some light.  Looks good!

Part of traveling to foreign places means feeling a little silly sometimes.  We thought this looked like a beautiful, refreshing juice with chunks of fruit inside.  Kind of like virgin sangria.  Turns out this is a cup of pickled fruit, not meant as a beverage but to use as toppings on street fish sandwiches.  We all tried it, and all of us winced a little with that first (and only) sip.

Doner kabab is as good as it looks.  Vertical cone rotisserie meat. I'm not a big meat eater, but this got me every time.  Yum.

You can also find chestnuts and corn-on-the-cob up and down city streets.  The corn comes two ways, grilled or boiled for 66 cents.

Abby manning the combo chestnut and corn on the cob stand:

Here's where my western sensibilities (or fears) come creeping in--there's no way I felt okay eating "street mussels."  Even Doug didn't go there . . .

Finally, I surely can't forget Turkish ice cream.  It's called dondurma, and they add the ingredients of salep and mastic, which makes the ice cream super sticky, super thick, and slow to melt. 

See, you can even hold it upside down!!!  It won't fall out!!
 

Whirling and Twirling

I can't believe I'm putting this out there, but if my little girl was brave enough to get up and try belly dancing by herself, then I can bite the bullet for this short but awkward mama dance moment.

The belly dancing was followed by a performance by a trio of whirling dervishes, a religious brotherhood of dancers who twirl themselves into a trance-like state to connect with God. They are similar to monks in Christian traditions.

I’ll call it a performance because we didn’t go to the most cultured example of this ritual, which normally would be referred to as a ceremony.  Nonetheless, it gave us a wonderful understanding of the whirling dervishes and the concentration and meditation required to do this centuries-old practice.  It's incredible how they twirl so uniformly with their eyes closed, often up to fifteen minutes without getting dizzy.

Again, great learnings for the kids and surprise wow-factor.

Reese's drawing of mama, the belly dancer.  Wish I could sport a top like that nowadays!

Abby's Whirling Dervish, captured in her memory book:

Getting Bossy on the Bossy

After a couple days of sightseeing, we were ready for a low-key boat cruise up the Bosphorus.  It was a sunny, warm day, and we had lunch at a small fishing village just below the Black Sea before catching the boat back late in the afternoon and returning to the dock under the Galata Bridge in Istanbul.

Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents, and it's the Bosphorus River, a straight between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, that splits the city.  As is possible in Europe, we've had breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different countries (France, Italy and Switzerland), but on this day we ate breakfast in Europe and lunch in Asia.  Pretty cool.

Abby negotiated for a new wrap with a vendor on the boat.  I must say she got a pretty good price for that rainbow action!

Fresh fish, of course.  And local.  Dorado and Red Mullet.

We all SCREAM for ice cream!  Note the self-painted tee shirts . . .

Spring Break Sultans

I'm not sure what was more embarrassing, dressing up like Dutch farmers or as Sultan and family.  Both moments were hysterically fun.