Istanbul, Turkey (Day 3)

My third day in Turkey proved to be packed with tons of tourist sites.  The first thing on the agenda was to visit the Grand Bazaar.  I didn't really have anything in particular I wanted to buy but Matt wanted to buy a couple of things, one of which was a scaled down version of the hookah pipes we had smoked out of last night.  He wanted a small one and had hopes of shipping it back to Australia so he didn't have to lug it around for the remainder of his trip around the world.

The Grand Bazaar wasn't too far from the hostel and we found it pretty easily.  We got their pretty early because we figured we could be the crowds and sure enough all of the vendors were just setting up for the day ahead.

Inside the Grand Bazaar they had absolutely everything you could imagine!  Jewelery, clothing, rugs, lamps, pottery, pipes, etc!  Matt tried on a few t-shirts he was hoping to get super discounted but after he haggled the price with the men for a few minutes he ended up walking away.  We also looked at a few pipes for him, but again he ended up not purchasing anything.

Next on the agenda was to visit the wonderfully delicious and aromatic Spice Bazaar!  Upon entering the archway of the Spice Bazaar you are suddenly overwhelmed with the aroma's of some of the richest spices in the world.  There are also pyramids of different types of loose tea and most famously....Turkish Delight!  Every vendor tries to sway you over to his booth by offering free samples of this gooey treat.  There heps of different flavors.  Some with coconut, some with almonds, or perhaps pomegranate.  It wasn't long after we entered that Matt bought a box of assorted different flavors.

How beautiful are all these arranged!  The colors just pop out at you and they are neatly piled high to look like little pyramids.  I was impressed to say the least.  I would love to be a local and go to the spice bazaar to grab fresh ingredients for that evening's dinner.  Absolutely delicious I would imagine.

Next up after all the markets, we decide to trek over to the other side of the river.  I had already done this on my first day in Istanbul, but Matt hadn't seen the other side yet.  On our long journey to the Taksim area we stopped off at a little jewelry place where a man made handmade necklaces with all sorts of pretty jewels and stone on them.  They were different than your typical tourist jewelery.  They were stranded on a waxy cotton thread and all the necklaces were adjustable.  I picked up 4....one for myself, my mom, Lauren, and Andrea.  Matt picked up a couple as well for his mom.  After we perused around awhile, we happened upon the Galeta Tower again.  I posted pictures of this in one of my earlier blog entries on Istanbul.  We were both excited about going up the tower, so we went inside and inquired how much it was.  I can't remember the exact amount but I remember Matt and I both looking at the lady like she was crazy when she spouted off some unreasonable amount of Lira.  We immediately walked out and started talking it over.  We had both blown off the idea because we didn't want to spend that kind of money, but then something came over us and we talked ourselves back into it.  I'm glad we did, it was very pretty up there!

After we climbed the tower, Matt and I headed back to the hostel and met up with some folks on the terrace bar.  A few of us thought it would be a good idea to climb out the window and sit on the rooftop as the sun went down.  I think we were out there for about 10 minutes snapping photos when someone came and told us to get back inside.  We finished off the night having drinks and dancing the night away to tunes we requested from the bartender.

Below is a couple of our dorm mates.  Margot from South Africa and Selim who is from another part of Turkey.  Selim didn't speak much English, but he did know how to dance!

Above is Matt and another guy that was staying at our hostel.  I can't remember his name but he's from Australia and he's also the guy that was starving a couple of nights earlier who paid for everyone's late night food.  They're drinking some Efes which is a Turkish beer.

After a few beers I decided to head down to our dorm room and go ahead and get a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow was my last full day in Istanbul and I still had several things I wanted to go do and see.  The music was blaring pretty loud and our dorm room was only one flight of stairs away so it was a bit hard to drift off, but in the end I had no problem.  I'm not even sure if I heard the others come in later that night.  Overall it was a great 3rd day in Istanbul and you absolutely cant beat the view from our little rooftop terrace!