Day out

When you live in Istanbul, everyone who doesn't live there thinks the Kapalı çarşı or Grand Bazaar is just round the corner - it's a real schlep away for me, although it's on 'this side' of the city, it's not easy. My partner in crime needed gifts for her trip to family in the US and so I decided (with No 3) to tag along. It was quiet when we got there, I wanted to see where she shopped, similar places to me, we had a good wander, saw some 'new' things (some things I'd never noticed before) and learnt a new route there. I guess it's nearly a year since my last trip there. No 3 took it in her stride, decided she didn't want to nap and did her very cute belly-dancer style wave to anyone she could.... more pictures to come...

I think this shop was by B5 gate, then again I could be totally wrong - apparently the best pestemel seller - the shop was crumbling to say the least, but that added to the charm somehow - the stringy knitted things are exfoliating 'mits' they really do work. This guy has pestemels (a thin but very soft towel that is usually used in the hamam - but can be used anywhere - they make fabulous table cloths!) in all forms, big, small, thick, thin..... etc.

The thing that always stuns me about the bazaar is that fact that not only do the guys sell stuff, but they are real linguists, not just the standard languages, but if you speak some near extinct language, you can bet that someone in this place will too - my partner in crime is a Turkish-American - she looks Turkish, we were speaking English. The sales guys would speak to us in English, we would reply in Turkish (her's perfect of course, mine less than perfect) the sales guys would reply back in English - kind of funny. It was the least hassled trip I've made there ever - I'll go at opening time again...