You can tell Phil now has a posh job, the day started with him writing emails. Breakfast of toast, feta and tomatoes is now getting a little repetitive. Off to the travel agents to book the Bosporous tour for tomorrow, then onto the Grand Bazaar. It wasn’t what I thought it would be. My last Souk was in Tunis, narrow curving streets and merchandise everywhere. People trying to bring you into their shop but there wasn’t any of that at all. It was all rather posh, there was a roof, windows and when you said ‘no thank you’, nobody followed you down the street saying ‘nice price’. How things have changed since the last time I came to Turkey.
We bargained for Phil’s t-shorts, then I offended a scarf seller saying that I can get two scarves in Birmingham for the price of one of his. He didn’t believe me, but I was actually telling the truth. As someone that has pretty much the whole spectrum of the rainbow in scarves, I know what I’m talking about. However, the t-shirt man took us to his ‘brother’ to buy scarves so while Phil sips Apple tea, I bartered.
Off to Suleyman the Magnificent mosque, but not before some more apple tea and naghile for Phil. It was very cute, a sunken courtyard. However, the hole in the floor toilets put me off. If I had known that I wouldn’t have gone to the toilet for another 3 hours, I might have thought twice. Into the mosque we went, with a lot of women still disrespecting the rules and having uncovered shoulders, short skirts and their heads uncovered. The mosque is meant to be better than the Blue Mosque but I guess it depends on your colour preference, I’d say I prefer the blue.
Phil took me on one of his concentric circles tours through some very rough districts with the houses falling down, but it was very nice to get away from the tourists again and actually see some Turkish people. We eventually got to the aqueduct of Valens, unfortunately a very major road goes through this great monument but impressive none the less.
However, we were now miles away and had to walk back. What the guidebook doesn’t tell you is the number of hills in Istanbul. Once you are up, then you are down. I wasn’t in a very talkative mood so it was silence all the way back, just trying to keep the legs going.
Interestingly, we passed a great number of shops though, my favourite has to be the comic eyes shop. I kid you not, they were piled high, plastic eyes. The other shop I liked was the screw shop that just sold screws. It did make me think that we maybe have it all wrong but combing everything under one roof, we should separate it out into the eye shop, the screw shop, the cabbage shop. It would make like so much easier. If you need comic eyes in the future, I know where the shop in.
Writing the blog on the roof terrace looking at the Bosporus…what a way to end a very exercise orientated day. Dinner overlooking the sea of Marmara eating chicken shish kebap, and an early night for a busy day ahead.
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