Little Rock Texas

July 21
We started the day off by walking down the port’s edge and going to Karakoy Gulluoglu, one of the well known baklava places in all of Istanbul (and there are a TON). I tried several different pieces- round ones that had walnuts on top, a traditional one, a pistachio one, and a chocolate one! Delicious. One of the workers asked me and Shea if we were from TV, Baywatch specifically… Haha. The ship has constantly been telling us to carry our passport copy around with us for hotel and banks. They said all hotels and hostels will need to see it and when you get money or exchange it, they will check your passport. This hasn’t happened once this entire summer. Rachel stopped in a cell phone store to get an international sim card and they asked for her passport! This was the first time this entire trip we’ve heard someone ask for it, ironic. We met Torros here and all headed to the Grand Bazaar! Torros is from Istanbul and we met him and his friends in Spain! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet or not. We have been so lucky to have him in this huge city! We walked through the port area to get to the tram. It is full of hardware stores like guns, knives, walking canes, antiques, camo clothing stores (so random), vacuums; basically mini ace hardwares everywhere! We passed by a café called Odessa Restaurant and Hotel Odessa! After walking through the sketch part of the port, we got on the tram and headed to the bazaar. It was YTL1.50 and about a 10 minute tram ride.

Once we got off, we went under a tunnel below the busy streets! It was full of cell phone stores and other electronics. It was also a sauna... Once we popped out from underground, the Spice Bazaar was right in front of us! It had a huge archway with one long path that split into many different ones once you got past the beginning. People were selling grilled corn, roasted chestnuts, ice cream, fruit, bread, etc. There was a big plaque in front that said some things in Turkish and Arabic and “Spice Bazaar’’. When we first walked in, it was so crowded... I mean PACKED. There were spice stores after spice stores! There would be piles of spices, men handing out pinches for you to smell and try, lots of teas, nuts, dried fruit, and of course Turkish delights! I tried some pepper that was sprinkled in my hand, it was spicy but delicious. They also hand out samples of things, and I try em all! One spice guy said something to us in Turkish and Torros translated it to, “I want to roll a red carpet out in front of you when you walk by.” Haha what an interesting thing to say! After walking around for a good while and just visually shopping without buying, we made our way out of the other end of the Spice Bazaar. I knew we’d come back so I just looked and checked prices and tried to figure out what I wanted, plus I didn’t want to carry stuff around all day. We came across another mosque and decided to check it out and get out of the hot sun for a little bit. We went up some steep rocky steps into the entrance of the mosque. It was covered in blue and white tiles, just like every mosque here! It was beautifully designed and smaller than most. We had to cover our heads for this one (unlike the Blue Mosque) and take off our shoes on a fancy carpet. Inside it was pretty with a very soft red carpet with candle chandeliers and more mosaics and painted tiles! It was so quiet and we couldn’t really talk. There was one man praying so we had to stay towards the back and whisper. I took a few pictures (it’s allowed) but it felt awkward because everyone is so quiet and it’s noticeable. After that, Torros lead us up another busy street (filled with random supply stores) that led to the Grand Bazaar. It was a steep walk up hill and through rough sidewalks. We were definitely the only white people. Men would be passing with carts full of vegetables and other fruits, and always oranges.

We made it to a side entrance of the Grand Bazaar finally! It was basically like an indoor shopping mall, but with no doors and a nice breeze throughout the entire place! It was massive and was shop after shop! You could easily get lost in the crowd and we quickly learned not to wander to store fronts alone because when you turn around, everyone is gone! Some girls would walk into stores and when you look for them, they aren’t there! There were many colored glass lamps, bowls, mugs, dishes, hookah, t-shirts, jewelry, belly dancing outfits, clothes, tea sets, rugs, fabrics, scarves, music stores, I mean the list goes on! It is overwhelming thinking about how to describe the Grand Bazaar! We did a good amount of bargaining (which is SO FUN) and then Torros showed us a really modern Turkish coffee café. It was in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everything, but it was quiet and cool inside! We all got Turkish coffee. It comes in a tiny tea cup on a saucer and it is so strong! I put 2 sugar cubes in mine and a small piece of Turkish delight comes with it on the side, yum. The coffee was so hot and almost thick. Torros showed us how to drink it- lift up your lip and sip it from your teeth so it is hot enough to enjoy, preventing your lips from burning. It was fun and delicious! You leave the “mud” in the bottom of the cup and put that saucer on top. Then, you flip it all upside down with the cup upside down on the saucer. You feel the top and make sure it isn’t hot anymore (took about 10 minutes), and then you take the cup off and look at the design in the “mud”! It’s supposed to tell a fortune, so we just made funny things up from what we saw! After that, we went back out shopping! Once we were ready to head back, we went down the hill and through the spice market again. Torros took us on a walk through another busy part of town around the bazaars. We saw buckets of leeches everywhere for sale that people use for medicinal things, it was creepy! Then, we went to Ozturkler Bufe! It’s like a walk-up restaurant where they have grills and about 5 tables, no doors or windows, just a lot of restaurants jammed into the sides of buildings! We sat down and Torros ordered some food for us, we just said anything with chicken. First, we were brought a plate of oregano with lemons. Also, we had plates of these delicious grilled peppers! Then, we had crepe bread things filled with spicy grilled chicken and tomatoes and stuff (made me think of pico de gallo) all wrapped up inside! It was delicious!! Torros got a drink that I think is considered buttermilk, haha. I didn’t really want to try but I think that’s what they all drink here! It comes in a container that looks like yogurt and you peel the top off… I stuck to coke and water! If it weren’t for Torros, we would’ve picked some close, touristy, expensive gross food place. But, instead, we were taken to where locals go and where the owners and customers are all best friends! We decided to walk from the bazaar to the ship, which was a while, but the sunset was beautiful and we got to cross a big bridge full of fishers (Sea of Marmarar)! It was a great day and we were tired, so we headed back to the ship to get rested and ready for the night out.

We all met at the gangway again to head out to Taksim square, where you are always guaranteed to have fun! On the tramway, I let Richard take a picture of us and he dropped my camera.. the lens broke… Luckily, Shea has 2 cameras… so now I use hers with caution! We all took the tram to Taksim and met up with more SASers (everyone says “sasers”) at the corner by the big war memorial (meeting place for us every night). We started walking down the busy street (no cars, just people) and turned down one that looked inviting to find a place to hang out before the club. We found a place that had a nice deck with good music! We all sat down and just hung out. The inside of this place was 5 stories tall! Sad news, the bathroom was on the 5th floor. We had to hike up steep, windy, uneven stairs to get there! It was really cool though once you get to the top, there was a balcony that overlooked a busy street in Taksim! Shea and I just stood on the balcony for a bit soaking up the fact that we were in Istanbul hanging out and having the time of our lives. It was so fun! We stayed there for a while and met some fun French people and we all decided to walk to Quba again to dance the night away. It was a little more full than the night before so that was good. Shea and I hang out with these two SAS guys from Arkansas, Richard and Dylan, and they are from Little Rock. The DJ at Quba had on a t-shirt that said Little Rock and Texas! It was too ironic!! We went up to him and tried to ask him about it and all he said was, “I no know what you say! I bought for 9 Euro! Don’t blame me!” and he put his hands in the air like he was innocent, thinking we didn’t like his shirt haha. It was funny and then he figured out that we liked his shirt. We snapped a few pics. Then we met some really cool Germans in Quba but they were leaving the next day so we couldn’t all hang out again! After staying there for the majority of the night, we went to Bambi again (of course) and then caught a taxi home. Thanks to Torros and Everan’s Turkishness, they got all of our taxis down to YTL6! We said bye to our local friends and headed back to the ship in a crazy cab ride (should be expected every time); successful day yet again!