Market Mayhem

It’s 0530 hours and I’m wide awake, this time in Istanbul, Turkey (the European side). Not wanting to disturb my other roommates at the Sultan Hostel, I climbed ungracefully down from my top bunk—I’ve managed to avoid it so far during my trip, and this one is particularly wobbly—grabbed some clothes and came to sit in their café. For company, I have a couple passed out in a drunken stupor lying on top of each other, thankfully, fully clothed. 

I found the place through Kelly, a 20 year old Canadian, who was on the “escape bus” yesterday and who’d returned to Istanbul after traveling through the Anatolia region for several weeks.

“I’m going to The Sultan Hostel,” he said. “It’s great. Why don’t you come with me?”

Tired and not wanting to figure things out myself, I followed along. And apart from the unstable bed, as far as hostels go, it’s fine.

So yesterday, with three strapping young 20-something men to protect me, I ventured out onto the streets of Istanbul. With bags held tightly—bag-slashers are apparently prevalent—we wandered through the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar. Think I might’ve hampered the boys chances with the little chickies we kept passing (and there seems to be an awfully high number of hotties here), but they didn’t let on.

 

“Hello, I am here!” the shop keepers called as we passed by.

Funnily enough, so are we.

“Where are you from? What is your name? Come have some tea.”

Since Kelly had met one of the sellers before, we pulled up stools and joined him for apple tea and Viagra Turkish Delight.

    

At one of the stores it proved difficult to escape. The boys were attempting to negotiate prices on water pipes and backgammon boards elsewhere and I immediately became a prime target.

“Miss, you have beautiful eyes,” the man said.

“Thank you,” I said, trying not to smile too much or make direct eye contact.

“Such beautiful eyes, I have present for you.” He ran off into the back of his store and returned with a lucky Evil Eye pin.

“On your left side you are looking for love, on your right for money,” he said, and attached the pin on the left side of my t-shirt. I thanked him and promptly switched it over to the other side.

“Say it how it is, why don’t you,” one of the guys I was with said when he saw what I’d done, obviously thinking I was heartless and materialistic.

“I just figure,” I said, “that if all Turkish guys know the left-side right-side thing, they’re going to pounce more often on the woman with the pin on the left side, right?”

Okay, so I may be a little heartless, too….

     

We then walked over to Topkapi Palace, which overlooks the Marmara Sea and the Bosphorus, and dates back to the 1450s. The advice from others is you need a good chunk of time put aside to see the entire palace and its grounds. After a couple of hours, and with still plenty to see, all of us were “palaced out,” so decided to head back to the hostel for a nap.

 Print This Post

If you found "Market Mayhem" useful or interesting, please share it with others by bookmarking it at the following sites: