Today was rather successful. Well, in terms of sightseeing. I went to the Spice Market and Grand Bazaar with Ryan (guy from Australia). (He told me all about his travels as he has been to a lot of interesting places. He came here from Cairo, Cape Town, and a few other places in Africa). By now I had walked this route a few times, but it is so pretty. Crossing the Galata bridge and looking across the panorama in front of you, you can see about 5 or 6 mosques perched on their hills. There is like a perimeter around both markets, which aren't exactly next to each other, that is lined with shops selling any possible thing you can imagine. There will be a line of suitcase shops bunched together and then a string of belt shops or book shops. The most interesting and surprising were the gun shops. There were quite a few. Inside the Grand Bazaar though it was gold jewelry, silver jewelry, other jewelry, rugs, pottery, and the Turkish hanging lamps. Everything was gorgeous. We walked back down Istiklal and I finally got some really cool pictures of the street in all it's crowded glory.
I can't remember if I have explained yet how hilly Istanbul is, but even if I have, I'd like to reiterate: Istanbul is HILLY, after a long day it seems mountainous. As for the food...when we were over by the Grand Bazaar, we were hungry, so we stopped at one of the typical doner/kebab (kebap in Turkish) places. This time I got a kebab, or 2 actually and I figured they just handed you a stick with the meat on it, but instead the man working there pulled us in to the hole in the wall kitchen where there were two seats. We were handed plates with rice, tomatoes, onions, and the kebabs and then a plate of pita. It was unbelievably delicious. And the best part? It was about 8 lira for each plate (~4$)! I'm so glad I'm off that cheese and bread diet!
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