We'd been planning to head into Iznik on Saturday morning to search for tiles and Christmas gifts, but we had been there earlier in the week and knew that there were a few things on our list that would not be available there. Instead, on the spur of the moment, we chose to head into Istanbul and go to the Grand Bazaar. When we arrived, Colin and I decided to make new tracks and try to find the Grand Bzaar entirely by foot. The route we took turned out to be incredibly direct, scenic, and convenient. Also, as a fun tie-in to our recent trip to the Caucasus, on our way to the Bazaar, we passed by the Patriarchate of the Armenian Orthodox church in Istanbul, and its associated Armenian primary school and cathedral. We didn't go into the Cathedral because we were getting too many weird, confused looks from its guards, but it is really neat to have found the Patriarchate. We were just telling our guesthouse owner in Yerevan, Anahit, that we knew very little about the surviving Armenian population in Turkey, but we just found evidence that it still exists and is doing (maybe?) okay.
It only took about 15 minutes for us to walk from the ferry to the bazaar. Soon we were back in the throng of tourists and tiles, lanterns and gold wedding coins, postcards, hookahs, oriental rugs, tea sets and Turkish delight that makes the Grand Bazaar so unique and inescapably Istanbul. **Note here: Colin and I went to see Skyfall on Sunday night, and don't believe everything that you see in the movies. The Grand Bazaar is not really in the middle of a Anatolian dried fruit and nut market--more like it's in the center of a bustling, crowded downtown where you'd be as likely to find knock-off Nikes and genuine fake watches as apricots and almonds.**
Our shopping trip to the Bazaar was perfect. We found just about everything that we wanted and paid fair prices for all of it. We also found the carpet salesman who we bought our Turkish rugs from on Term in the Middle East, and he happily sat us down and gave us free tea and talked us into buying a runner for our table that is looking great now.
We took the evening ferry home and then called over our friends from Dilko for a rousing viewing of Fetih 1453 and a couple of Efes'.Sunday morning started with French toast (with our personally imported Mrs. Butterworths') and breakfast sausage. Yum! After that, it being rent day, we walked into town to visit the ATM and also just to stroll and people-watch. Kids and families were out. For some reason, Colin and I were feeling especially energetic or something, so we walked all the way down to the far end of the promenade, and got to see check out the Ottoman fountain in the Osman Bey park. (left)
As we were walking by heykel, we decided to check out the new ferry station with service to the Asian-side of Istanbul (looking close to opening!) and the fishermen along the pier there. (right) We walked across the little raised platform and then down along the old docks and saw a cool sunken row boat that had beautiful moon jellies floating and swimming around inside of it.
All this good weather put the whole town in a good a good mood. As we walked home, we saw whole families biking together, kids getting piggy-back and shoulder-rides, and plenty of couples who, like us, were walking el-elerinie. (hand-in-hand). :-)
A couple of hours later, we packed up and headed out to the Ozdilek cinema where we (finally!) saw the new James Bond movie. It was entertaining, and (for better or for worse) filled with lots of things that reminded us of Harry Potter. (The tormented, but dashingly beat-up hero, the rich orphan-status of Bond, the accents, the loveable mother/Dumbledore figure who was M, the integrity and moral goodness in the face of a wholly bad bad guy, etc.) We liked the Istanbul tie-in, and are now checking flight prices to Beijing. Just kidding. :-) But really, great shots of China. What a cool place to go if you're ridiculously wealthy! If you haven't seen the film yet, it's one of those that is probably best in big-screen-format, but also not really going to change your world. Batman was better. Sorry, Harry. ---I mean, Mr. Bond.
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