Delightfully Turkish

 Thursday June 9

After another miraculous sleep in, granted by her highness, the crew woke up refreshed and ready to conquer the days events. There were no museums or mosques on the tour plan, rather it was a market day primarily across the Bosphorus Strait in the streets of the Asian side of Istanbul. 

We took the tram from the Sultanahmet stop near our hotel to the dock.  The tram system is an easy to use surface light rail that costs TL7.5 ($0.50) for each trip and is not zoned, as far as well can tell.  There is a card that you recharge as needed with the end goal being as close to TL0 ($0.00 - just in case you don't know the current exchange rate) after the final trip. We did great until our last usage when I was not allowed to enter the platform due to insufficient funds.

My meticulous fare planning had failed, but we knew who the foil was. The kids, and Patti, could remember paying as much as 1 euro to use the public facilities in Europe, here it is only TL1 ($0.0625). It was so easy, just scan the tram card and go rest in the room. Patti went on a spree, not shopping, but relieving. So much so that she drained the tram card and left me out in the cold, err hot.

The Eminonu tram stop is right next to the ferry dock and the tram card also works for the boat trip across the strait. We had considered paying 20Euro/person for a cruise but afterward decided that this was good enough and 4$ vs. 80Euro seemed like a good trade off.

There was an amazing number of jellyfish in the water around the boat which reminded me that, as a kid vacationing at my Grandparents in FL it seemed I could not get into the water without being stung.

Whereas the Grand Bazaar had streets that had been covered over, shops that were orderly and was a more controlled experience, the Kadikoy Market was open air in the streets and allys of the Asian side of Istanbul which lent it a more opportune environment for the 'gimme a deal' girls. 

There is a little more market ingenuity here as well. Between the 'offficial' shops there are individual vendors that open up from carts and their merchandise literally explodes across their little patch of sales territory. 

In the Grand she had spotted a sweatshirt the she liked and when we found it again she announced "that is the one I want". From then on she was in the vendors clutches, but she actually came out quite well. Two days later and many footsteps wiser, this time she intimated, inaudibly, "oh I like this" as I read her lips. The she went into bargain mode. Here they are with their game faces on - show me the deal!

Tara was on a mission for Converse of color.  The price was right but the fit was just a bit off. Cinderella got close a couple of times, but no dice.

Riley had been given authorization from Mom to buy nice clothes that she would actually wear. The girls both ended up with a few purchases including matching dresses which has not happened in quite some time. The matching headscarves must have triggered something inside.

I don't think I have mentioned the dogs yet. They seem to have free reign and go about their business and leisure without hassle. This guy was chilling at the store where the girls bought their team dresses.  The little boy across the street who was sorting garbage hooked fido up with what looked like the remains of a pork chop.

Once back on the European side of the Bosphorus we had to take part in the 'Fish Experience'. These were small self serve fish sandwich vendors that cook and prep on boats moored at the dock. Definitely geared towards tourists as it had a sandwich multiplication table that went for 1 for TL40 to 15 for TL600. That's some math that we can all appreciate, but no volume discount.

The day before we were given a lemon liquid to apply to our hands to be used after a meal and to freshen up. This was kindly supplied on our table in this minimalist establishment. About midway through the meal as I was pining for some mayo on my relatively dry sandwich Tara suggested the lemon spritzer as it really livened up her meal.  Gross. After some amount of rubber-necking we determined that either the other tourists knew the deal, or that we would be taking Tara to poison control. What the heck, maybe we could get a 2 for 1 deal as I doused my lunch.

After the fish fest we dropped by the Spice Bazaar to pick up some very reasonably priced Turkish Delight.  We had seen prices as high at TL780/kg but nothing as rock bottom as this TL160/kg. Of course it was a bait and switch. But unfortunately for this guy the two flavors that we were looking for were bottom shelf priced.

The Spice Bazaar was similar to the Grand Bazaar but much smaller in scale and diversity, but that did not mean that they were not out to get a some money.  We heard some great lines in there, these guys were saucy - I even arm wrestled one old man.  I let him rub my head after I crushed him.  

Tara seemed to be on the receiving end of many of the sales pitches, getting propositioned and sold to at the same time: "We need angels here", "Excuse me queen, queen of the bazaar" 

After another rooftop dinner in a different location we returned to our room where Patti did her now standard check to see if our bag was found. This evening after dinner Patti repeated her process once again with no progress.  She got so proficient at this she memorized her lost luggage 8 character case number, kind of a bad sign. We did finally get that knock on our door informing us that the prodigal bag had finally come home.

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