Istanbul - The Grand Bazaar

For our last trip of the year, Tony and I traveled to the city that rides the border between Asia and Europe - Istanbul, Turkey.  

For the first time, we added an Asian Visa to our passport stamp collection.  To enter Turkey, you have to purchase a 3 month Visa for 15 Euros.

From the airport, it was a 2 hour drive to the history center of Istanbul.  Everywhere we looked on the drive, one could see minarets pointing up towards the heaven.

The first stop after checking in at our hotel was the Grand Bazaar to do some shopping.















This mammoth shopping area is the precursor to our modern day shopping malls.
















 There is a wonderful exotic quality to it, and though many of the shops carry lots of goods aimed at tourists, it is still a great place to go shopping and hang out.

There are a lot of shops also carrying highend silver and gold products.




 




 The purfumed aroma of spices and exotic scents fill the air.

 


 










And of course there are plenty of places to buy a cup of Turkish Coffee, Baklava and Turkish Delight.

Ultimately, if you want the best deal in your shopping, you will need to walk about 100 yards east of the Grand Bazaar into the labyrinth of back streets and alleys where the locals do their shopping.  You will find the same merchandise for less than half what you would pay in the Grand Bazaar.







 

This is where I ended up buying my Turkish Coffee set.