wandering in istanbul

Wandering in Istanbul

As the weather was lovely we decided to walk back to the city - which

made for a lovely adventure - we walked through a sculpture

exhibition, I finally got to buy a bread ring from a street seller -

it was delicious, be paused for some tea and a game of tavla, and a

snooze at a tea house along the way.

We also stopped by the fish markets where the fish is so fresh it's

swimming, and it was here that Lorin and I got some lunch from one of

the many food stalls we passed - pialf - rice with chick peas it was

delicious.

From the fish markets we walked over the bridge - well sort of

underneath it actually - passed lots of bars and cafes and then across

the top past all the fishermen. Once we reached the other side we

wandered around the stalls that were on the outside of the Spice

Market - there were stalls selling, spices, nuts, clothes house hold

items - pretty much you name it you could buy it here and finally we

succeeded in our mission to buy spoons to go with our teasets!!!! The

stall holder had very little English and we had next to no Turkish so

it was one of our more unsuccessful bargining sessions but at a mere 4

lira we didn't feel much need to kibble.

Feeling rather foot weary we headed back to the hotel and farewelled

Frostie who is leaving late on Monday.

Lorin and I headed upstairs to our rooms and got our bags packed -

with a bit of squishing and rearranging we managed to fit everything.

Just!

Once we had finished packing it was still early so we decided to take

one last wander down by the harbour. It was very different to the

first night - which was due to a number of things - Ramadan was over,

it was Republic day and we were there much earlier than Phillipa and I

had gone out on our first night.

There were far more people around, and not just men - there were women

as well - and lots more stalls selling, shoes, bags, toys belts

clothes etc - there were also more of the delicious smelling portable

food stands - I looked at having a fish kebab - they smelt divine but

the fish were put in whole and my fear of bones wouldn't let me have

one. I did however get a sweet donut like thing from another stall -

it's not actually anything like a donut - it was a larger round

version of the light and crunchy syrup soaked dumplings we had

enjoyed.