turkey; istanbul III

{Sunday October 27th} 

Didn't wake up until 8am this morning and had a wonderful sleep! Hopefully it isn't the quiet that keeps me up tomorrow night! 

After getting ready for the day we went up to the terrace for breakfast. It was pretty much the same as yesterday,  except there was a really good smoked cheese! 

We boarded the bus at 10am and were wished gunaydin (gun-eye-den; good morning)!  

Topkapi Palace

We headed again into the old city to Topkapi Palace. Once there we parked and entered the imperial gates through the main courtyard. Within the main courtyard is what is now used as a concert hall, one of the oldest buildings in Istanbul from the 4th century.  From there, we got our tickets and entered through the middle gate and into the middle courtyard. After Dr. T showed us around, giving us some history and showing us the highlights, we were free to explore on our own for 2 hours. 

Topkapi Palace

We went into the last gate, the gate of happiness; the gate to the sultans residence. Within that courtyard we saw a library, the treasury, the armory and many other buildings. It was quite interesting. We saw the wardrobe of ancient sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the treasury which had items of the Ottoman Empire and also gifts to the sultans. Some of these include a pair of Golden candlesticks with 6666 diamonds to represent each verse of the Koran, and an 86 carat diamond with 40 smaller diamonds around it.  Before we left I got myself a new phone case with an awesome white and blue Turkish design on it.

After we all met we walked back to our bus and from there we headed to the spice market or Egyptian Bazaar (traditionally most of the spices etc came from Egypt). 

Spices at the Egyptian Bazaar

When we arrived, we had lunch just inside the bazaar at a restaurant named Pandeli.  I had lamb shish kabob and mom had goulash with lamb. It was very good.  When we finished lunch we agreed to meet at 5:45pm and we were free to roam the market on our own. It is much much smaller than the grand bazaar but it was very interesting. Lots of spices, dried fruits, nuts, teas and oils.  We walked around the market and then went into the streets behind as there are lots of shops back there as well.. And we discovered a fabric store!!! It was very exciting. I got a gorgeous piece of lace to make a top with. After that we saw a store for Muslim women, with all long skirts and modest shirts. The strange thing was the three songs we heard playing while in the store were all independent, feminist, empowering type songs.. I wonder how much they actually understand the words. From there we went back to the spice market and made our way back towards the front entrance.  Many of the shopkeepers were eager to offer samples of Turkish delight and nuts. When I would say no thank you, no nuts, they would try to tell me no, no nuts (while handing me a pistachio or Turkish delight)!  We picked up some dried fruit and some tea along the way. The shopkeepers taught us how to say thank you; Sagol (sow-l). 

We met back out front and then walked to where our bus was and then headed back to the hotel. We have a couple free hours until we meet for dinner at 8pm, so mom and I are going to go to the Turkish bath again!

Sea Brene at Neptune

We met in the lobby at 8pm and boarded the bus. We drove about 5 minutes away to one of the bridges crossing the Golden Horn. Underneath the bridge there are several seafood restaurants.  Our dinner was at Neptune restaurant. Our meal started out with bread and four different spreads.. A spicy tomato one, a spinach one, a potato salad type one, and a thin hummus type one. We also had salad, and then a cigarette style cheese pastry and calamari.  I did try the calamari and according to the others it was very well done but it still tasted very rubbery to me. For our main course we had sea brene, it is a small fish and was served to us whole. It is a white fish and it was very tasty. For dessert we just had mixed fruit. 

After dinner we came back to the hotel and got ready for bed. This is our last night in Istanbul, so I am quite excited to begin exploring the other parts of the country!

J.
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