Wandering around Istanbul
It’s amazing how much more fun and vibrant this city is than it was 2 weeks ago. Most of that might have to do with the beautiful warm weather now, and it is closer to the tourist season.
Nuts and figs
Ann Marie took some of us on a relaxing walking tour of the bazaar she knows so well and that she wrote a book about. We saw unique things—like an overview of the bazaar from above, special hans and unique shops. The bazaar goes on for acres and specific merchandise is sold within a certain area. For instance, on one street we found only phone cases, like 50 shops with phone cases. Then one street had paper products, another fabrics, then scarves, etc. Amazing. The streets were narrow—no cars, so guys had to haul the merchandise with 2-wheelers, and I felt so sorry for them going up very steep streets!
These poor guys hauled merchandise up to shops
I was looking for some unique spices. Some of the best salad dressing is pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, olive oil and sumac. I’d found some pomegranate molasses in Sirince, so...had to find sumac. And along with that I got cumin, curry and shaved pepper—pul biber (not too spicey). One hundred grams of each cost me less than $3 total. Fabulous.
The spice wholesaler’s shop
Olives! The red ones in the middle were fabulous!
This is our second to the last day. So...last minute sightseeing and shopping for some. Since the weather is so perfect, it’s an absolutely marvelous way to end our stay. We lounged in the hotel’s rooftop garden with bottles of wine and munchies (becoming quite a regular thing for us)!
Love the staggered windows on the right
Roasting chestnuts
Love the tiles around this public fountain
Grilling lamb intestines—about 1/4 inch of “gut” wound around a skewer and roasted over charcoal. These are just beginning their roasting. Maybe would have tasted some, had it been ready (or maybe not...)
They really know how to put a salad together—first course at lunch
This gal showed us how to maneuver the double-knot technique