Today has been a very full day, commencing with a boat ride on the Bosphorus, which spans the European and Asian continents, so today I stood on both. Istanbul is a beautiful city and is very much like any European city of around 16 million, but I have to say this one is particularly clean and not too dissimilar to a NZ city.
We went to the Spice Markets which are a cooks delight, with fresh herbs and spices and other produce that you could cook fresh spicy stuff without a problem. The air is thick with a heavy scent of spices such as paprika and turmeric. The spice seems to sit on the air and mingles with the circulation of air by people the form a heavy perfume. Mingled with this is insence, perfume and soaps and the thousands of people move about between the hawkers, to make their purchases.
We went on to the Grand Bizzare which was also very cool, with hallways of stalls ( apparently over 4000) selling carpets, gold, watches, leather goods and souvenirs. These markets originally came about as sellers, plying their wares to support the local Mosques, two of which surround the Grand Bizzare. This is no longer the case as the Govt pays for the upkeep of the Mosques and temples but the Grand Bizzare is clearly a tourist trap. We got completely lost within the web of sales alleys, but Ian eventually found the way out to where we were supposed to be, little human compass that he is!
The sellers have no problem in hitting you up and we got to practice our best 'no thanks' to such sales pitches as....
'Come in and let me sell you something you don't need'
' hello lady, tell me how I can get money out of this man?'
When I lied and said to one hawker that we would be back this way, he replied 'I have been hearing the same music for 20 years, you won't be back'. AND HES RIGHT!!
'Are you from California?' Random....the answers still no.
'Come try my shop best leather'
At one stage we were followed about 50m while one guy tried to sell us leather goods and when he finally got the NO hint, he backed off, to which another guy stepped forward and said ' now is my turn'. He got the same NO. He could have saved some valuable oxygen by not bothering!
Some of the group bought stuff from the markets and it sounds like few (read none) got any real bargains, in fact I suspect some got mightily ripped off, but as said before....it's all in the pitch!
We went to the Spice Markets which are a cooks delight, with fresh herbs and spices and other produce that you could cook fresh spicy stuff without a problem. The air is thick with a heavy scent of spices such as paprika and turmeric. The spice seems to sit on the air and mingles with the circulation of air by people the form a heavy perfume. Mingled with this is insence, perfume and soaps and the thousands of people move about between the hawkers, to make their purchases.
We went on to the Grand Bizzare which was also very cool, with hallways of stalls ( apparently over 4000) selling carpets, gold, watches, leather goods and souvenirs. These markets originally came about as sellers, plying their wares to support the local Mosques, two of which surround the Grand Bizzare. This is no longer the case as the Govt pays for the upkeep of the Mosques and temples but the Grand Bizzare is clearly a tourist trap. We got completely lost within the web of sales alleys, but Ian eventually found the way out to where we were supposed to be, little human compass that he is!
The sellers have no problem in hitting you up and we got to practice our best 'no thanks' to such sales pitches as....
'Come in and let me sell you something you don't need'
' hello lady, tell me how I can get money out of this man?'
When I lied and said to one hawker that we would be back this way, he replied 'I have been hearing the same music for 20 years, you won't be back'. AND HES RIGHT!!
'Are you from California?' Random....the answers still no.
'Come try my shop best leather'
At one stage we were followed about 50m while one guy tried to sell us leather goods and when he finally got the NO hint, he backed off, to which another guy stepped forward and said ' now is my turn'. He got the same NO. He could have saved some valuable oxygen by not bothering!
Some of the group bought stuff from the markets and it sounds like few (read none) got any real bargains, in fact I suspect some got mightily ripped off, but as said before....it's all in the pitch!
Wow Susannah, your 'Spice Markets' paragraph is picturesquely poetic!
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