Day 58- 22nd June. Istanbul-> Grand Bazaar

Day 58- 22nd June. Istanbul-> Grand Bazaar

Woke at 8am! We felt like we had been run over by a bus today after the long trip yesterday! Am still all yucky and blocked up, so have finally started some antibiotics to try and get rid of the green lurgy!

Had breakfast and then braced ourselves for the Grand Bazaar – 5000 stores and stalls, complete with all the men trying to get you in. It is pretty full on with them all calling out. Some are pretty assertive in their attempts, others funny…
” You want to give me some of your money?” “Where you from? Norway, Sweden?” etc.

It is an absolute maze in there and fascinating that this has been in use for 2000 years! We shopped for a couple of hours, finishing up our gift buying, then out into the fresh air for some lunch. Did well with the bartering today, never paid full price for anything and am getting good at the one liners that see them unable to come back with a higher price!!! Heard some other westerners getting So ripped off with what they paid for the same goods.

Walked home slowly, went past a barbers where the guy offered to give Graeme a cut-throat shave!!!!

Out for dinner tonight and then late check out tomorrow – we are getting our transfer at 1 pm to get to the airport. Apparently 1 million Turks will be leaving the city in a massive exodus for their summer holidays as well tomorrow, so it will be interesting!!

We will fly to Kuala Lumpur on a night flight then a 13 hour layover, where Malaysia airlines are putting us up in a hotel as they changed the connecting flight some months ago that’s sees us waiting there much longer.

Then we have another night flight Sunday to Auckland, landing on Monday morning in freezing cold, foggy weather!!!!! Will be strange to go to such extremes in weather. Constantinople has been very interesting although very conservative in its manner eg/ you don’t feel you can wear short or cool clothing in the city with the Muslim faith dominant here and the women are very submissive to the men. You really see very little of the women actually, especially notable in business matters. But have to say that the men on a whole are incredibly polite, well dressed and the Turks are very humble people – they have a lot of the Maori Mana about them.