One of the greatest things to do in Istanbul is to go shopping. The city that bridges Asia and Europe has a reputation for bazaars all around the city where you can purchase anything you can imagine for incredibly little money – provided that you can bargain successfully with professionals.
The first place we went shopping in Istanbul was the famous Spice Bazaar. Here since at least 1597 people have bought and sold their spices from around the world. There are your normal spices: saffron, curry, chili…
also teas of all shapes and sizes, made from leaves or flowers…
and of course, there is Turkish Delight.
Turkish delight can be found on every main tourist thoroughfare in Istanbul. It ranges from the typical soft and sweet kind you can find in America to a slightly harder, nut-filled variation that is even more delicious in my opinion. In the end, we bought some dried nuts, fruit, and olives from the spice bazaar – since we’re not doing our own cooking so much in Turkey the spices were not really what we needed at the moment.
Later on, we went to the other famous bazaar in Instanbul, the Grand Bazaar. This amazing covered shopping area (surrounded by a maze of open street shopping as well) fills at least a city block and has hundreds of shops that look just like this:
Magic lamps can be difficult to find amongst so many normal ones!
There were stores selling all sorts of things, not just old trinkets, and we ended up buying a cashmere scarf for Maggie for her birthday, and we bought ourselves the first part of our 1st wedding anniversary present to ourselves. We decided to get a really nice chess set from somewhere along on our travels, and we found a really beautiful board made of chestnut with mother-of-pearl inlays. We are still looking for the perfect pieces to go with it. I just hope that the Turkish post office doesn’t lose it for us!
We had a great time shopping for things in Istanbul and though we were often pressured by the salesmen, we held our own, negotiating everything down by a substantial fraction before agreeing to the purchases. We even bought new hiking boots in Istanbul!
I love the cashmere scarf – what a gorgeous gift – you know what I like. Chess set arrived safely and was waiting at the Post Office when I got home from Africa – Yeah!