Today our tour includes breakfast so we don't need to eat. We are going to a mosque so the dress of the day is very conservative, and we are going to the Grand Bazaar. I assume it is a huge boat with hundreds of our best friends.
The tour we signed up for: The Straits of Bosphorus is the start of your itinerary, as you board a motorboat
for a panoramic cruise that promises to leave you breathless. Whether from the comfort of the interior saloon or on deck, you'll witness grand Ottoman palaces and castles, as you dine on a traditional Turkish breakfast.
Your tour continues with a drive to the Grand Bazaar, the largest market in the world, offering carpet demonstrations and shops filled with jewelry, carpets, leatherware, and copper goods.
What we got: We think everyone on the ship is taking this tour today. We met in the theater and are in group 16. The terminal is underground and there are many, many busses. We found ours and met Mustafa, our guide.
There are 20 million people in this town. There is going to be 6 cruise ships here today, so they say.
I only saw 3 cruise ships.
This is a busy harbor. We had our breakfast cruise. There were eggs, sausage, bread, several sauces, olives, grilled cheese, oj, tea, and Turkish coffee. Our cruise around the bay had lots of sites of mosques, other buildings,and many boats.
We gathered our group and drove to the Grand Bazaar. We had to walk up about 10-15 minutes to get to the bazaar. The sidewalks are not in the greatest shape and we crossed a plaza with very, very uneven stones. One lady is in a wheelchair and she was bouncing all over the place. The Grand Bazaar was a mass of seething people.
Multiple shops that sold the same thing. There are about 4,000 stall size shops here.
We went in a store that had Turkish delights, saffron and other spices and dried fruits in bulk, tea and baklava and they kept trying to sell us more and more stuff. Kinda wild!
We got the kids some saffron and I thought it was going to be less expensive here than in the US, but we spent $250. I really hope they like it. We have no clue how much you use when you're cooking something. We are sure the Google can tell us. They gave us a bunch of nuts and chocolates and candy and sweet tea. They tried to sell us more things. But we were firm. We did try to barter a little. We can't really get anything for the grandkids due to space. We can't bring it home. We had about an hour to wander around in the stores and then we met our guide, Mustafa outside gate 7. It would be SO easy to get lost in here. After we had wandered a bit, making several turns and trying to keep track of where we might be, we had to ask multiple times for direction back to Gate 7, where we entered, as that's where our guide would meet us again. We found it very interesting but very people-y.
We walked about 20 minutes to get to the Blue Mosque and it's really classy and beautiful on the outside. The other name for the Blue Mosque is the Saltonahmet mosque.
Inside is not as blue as the pictures we saw, but it's really lovely and classic. Everyone is required to remove their shoes, as nothing that touches the ground is allowed to touch the floor of the mosque. We put our shoes in our backpacks and then had to dig them out when we got out to put them back on. That was a little awkward, but kinda makes sense, since the whole interior of the mosque is carpeted, so I'm sure this makes it easier to keep clean, although there were people in the mosque in bare feet. go figure. Paul says he thinks it's understated. The Blue Mosque was built in 1609, and is the largest mosque outside of Mecca. It can hold 3000 people for daily prayer. The Hagia Sophia mosque nearby was built in 532 AD.
Just like in Rome, we had to wait a half an hour for our bus to show up to pick us up to take us back to the ship. The drivers really are skilled negotiating the tiny streets. I would fail, Paul thinks he would too.
We had dinner in the pizzeria tonight Caprese salad. Just for something different from the regular dining rooms.
Then we finished our picture order and went for dessert at the International Cafe.
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