Thursday, 2 May 2013

A Grand Day Out


Monday 29 April (Day 6)

Today seemed like a great day to visit the Grand Bazaar so that’s what we did.  Jane soon got into her stride and was bartering like a true professional .  As its name suggests, the Grand Bazaar is huge but after a while the shops start repeating themselves so we didn’t stay too long.  We then walked through the side streets of Istanbul (yet more shops) and ended up at the Spice Bazaar for a second visit (Jane’s first).

I was very keen to visit the city sewers (Yerebatan Sarnici – The Sunken Cistern) so we queued for tickets while Jane did some more shopping.  The Cistern was probably built by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century and enlarged by Justinian in the sixth.  Despite the piped muzak it was very
.  I was dressed OK to get in as my shorts were below the knee but Cris had to put on a skirt and Tracey had to put on a head scarf.  The inside of the mosque was stunning but we didn’t have much
time to look as it was time for prayer.

After a quick snooze we went for a second visit to the Cozy Terrace for our last meal together.  We said our goodbyes to Cris and Jatmospheric  with water dripping from the ceiling and carp swimming about underneath the walkways.

The Blue Mosque was next on the list, built in the 17th century it is an imposing structure with its large dome and six minaretsane at the end of the evening as we would be up before 6am in the morning for our ferry/train ride to Izmir.











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