Walking Tour of Istanbul: Day 2

January 02, 2016

Day 2! We took ourselves on a walking tour of Istanbul. It began with a complimentary breakfast provided by our hosts on their rooftop patio:

There was fluffy bread, herb bread, orange juice, cucumbers and tomatoes, fresh oranges, cheese, sliced meat, butter, and honey. They brought out an omelette shortly after as well. So delicious! This was following our cold, cold showers, since we didn't realize we had to ask for the hot water to be turned on... Brrr.

View from the rooftop: This is a smaller Blue Mosque.

We found our way to the Grand Bazaar (about a 15 minute walk). It is one of the largest covered (and indoor) bazaars in the world. We later visited the Spice Bazaar, equally as exciting, but slightly smaller.

From Gate 2 in the Grand Bazaar:

We wandered around for a while before buying anything, and then once we saw something we liked, the group waited and we bought gifts for ourselves and family/friends.

There was a little haggling involved, and there was too much to look at! We spent about 2 hours total in the bazaar, and we couldn't even see all of it.

This is a shop where I bought some things for myself and Leigh bought a serving tray for herself and Rob.

A Turkish coffee cafe

Christine and Andrew

After the bazaar, we went looking for lunch, or something else to do...

So we headed through the grounds of Istanbul University to the Spice Bazaar.

I bought a fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice from a street vendor for 5 lira. He also offered fresh-squeezed orange juice, which looked just as good.

Delicious!

I also bought a walking snack from a vendor selling only these simit, Turkish sesame-encrusted rolls, for 1 lira each. It was so good, I spilled pomegranate juice on my white jacket. Luckily, it washed right out :-)

By this time in the afternoon, the streets were packed with people hustling with bags and cigarettes doing their errands or just going from place to place. It was so crowded, I had to watch where I walked so as not to step in the drainage channels that lined the streets. Who knows what gets dumped into those...

Made it to the spice bazaar! If you remember, this was one of the obstacles in the Amazing Race Season 21, where contestants had to find something at a certain stall in the bazaar. Let me tell you, just walking through was tough - I can't even imagine running through here with a time limit and a specific goal!

Inside the spice bazaar, around mid-afternoon

These are variations of the locum, or Turkish Delight, traditional dessert cubes. Most traditional TD's have powdered sugar coating each cube or log that is then cut into cubes. Below, the variations are made with pistachios, rose water, pomegranate juice, black peppercorns, cranberries, etc.

These are more traditional Turkish Delights. Below those, you can get a glimpse of another traditional Turkish dessert, baklava, which are typically made with layers of phyllo dough, honey, and nuts, but you can see these are shaped like bird's nests, which is another common shape.

This is tea that is Good For Love(making), or so the vendor told me...

We bought a few spices and teas at this shop, which sold spices, teas, nuts, and desserts. In all of these shops, there is actually an upstairs. Can you find the staircase?