Having done our initial scouting yesterday, we set off to make it to a few planned destinations today. While our plan was to head back to the Sultan Ahmet Parki to tour one of the mosques, we were a bit too curious about some clay pots on the sidewalk and ended up in another carpet shop :/. After having tea and seeing many, many, many carpets we had to politely decline them and instead left with a beautiful scarf and pillow cover.
It tore at our hearts to see just how badly the shop owners needed us to buy their products due to the impact the pandemic has had on tourism this year.
Another benefit of that stop was the shop owner’s tip about finding the Basilica Cistern which we decided to make our first stop instead.
Long ago a few of the columns in the cistern were made taller by using “reclaimed architecture” - these Roman blocks carved with Medusa’s face...looked very eerie.
Another unique feature - The Crying Column
Getting back to our original agenda for the day, we made our way to the Spice Bazaar
The colors were striking!
We were wary of getting drawn in to many of the shops but chose to stop in one and bought a couple different teas, some dates & figs, Turkish Delight and some menthol crystals (alarmingly fragrant).
We left the market and walked through some of its side streets then found a place to sit and look through our spoils of the market :).
A typical view from a street in the Sultanahmet area
We strolled the streets some more (averaging ~6-7 miles/day) crossing the Galata bridge then sat to soak in the views/sounds (cue the video clip):
We recorded this specifically to capture the Turkish Muslim call to prayer (ezan) which happens five times each day.
After a recharge back at the hotel (translation = “nap”), we went out for a late lunch/early dinner and tried the Turkish pide (pita). This is long narrow bread often filled with pizza-type toppings.
Oddly, we were pretty exhausted after the day of walking and needed a second “recharge”, but did rally our energy to go back out and catch a few evening views.
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