During our visit to Istanbul we of course had to make a visit to the Grand Bazaar! This was one of the reasons why I wanted to visit Istanbul in the first place so I was pretty excited. The Grand Bazaar is, well grand! Its massive and sells everything from jewellery to carpets, lamps to clothes, spices and even a bit of gold. We arrived through the Nuru Osmaniye gate next to the Nuru Osmaniye mosque to the jewellery section.
First impressions were wow! It’s incredible, the building structure was so beautiful! It was built to be an indoor market where sellers could work and live, the ceilings were decorated beautifully again like they always are in Istanbul. Its also super easy to get lost, a great place to play hide and seek because there are so many walk ways with so many shops. I’m used to people coming up to me and hassling and I usually just ignore them, but in turkey the majority of sellers try and help you out before they ask you to buy something or they make a few jokes with you, they basically just want to be friendly and it’s seen as disrespectful if you don’t communicate with them. With this in mind I would politely laugh along with their jokes or join in before declining their offers. An example of this was when me and my sister were walking through the bazaar and passed a shop selling ‘genuine’ fake Calvin Klein underwear. The seller noticed us and started saying how Angelina Jolie and Kate Moss wore this underwear, then he looked at me (more specifically my gluteus maximus) and said ‘but you, you would be like Shakira’! At this point I didn’t know whether this was a compliment or not, but it was funny and we laughed and carried on.
You could spend a whole day in the bazaar, there are restaurants and cafes inside for you to sit down and have a rest! I think my top tip when going to the bazaar is to know what you wanna get before you go inside. For me, a really wanted one of those lamps. I went to a couple stalls to start off with just to get a sense of what people were charging and the different qualities of the lamps. In the end I chose my store because the lamps were a decent quality and I felt like I could get a good price. I’ve read that usually you should aim to pay 50%-70% of the original price given. I love a good barter because I find it fun as you can have light banter with the seller. I managed to get my lamp for 50TL, reduced from 100TL. This is about £8.50 which I was fine with. Bartering is fun but also bare in mind that if it’s a decent price, pay it as it probably means a lot more to them to have to money than it does to you. Basically, if you’re debating over a few quid, just pay it.
We also went on a Friday which meant that we were there for Muslims main prayer. The call to prayer went off in the market and the next thing we knew, shops were closed and people were washing and gathering together to kneel on their prayer mats facing Mecca. Apparently this is a recent thing that the government has encouraged, they want the country to become more religious so the more religious activities that you do, the better you are seen. A couple of years ago the call to prayer was much quieter as it wouldn’t have been projected as loudly as it is today and people wouldn’t have stop to pray in the grand bazaar. It was amazing to watch as I've never experienced anything like it before.
Another observation that we made since being in Istanbul is that there are hardly any European tourists. In fact I think we were the only white faces that we saw throughout our stay. Personally, I really enjoyed this as we were fully immersed into a different culture. An obvious explanation for this is because Europeans are reluctant to visit due to safety concerns, in my view there is nothing to be afraid of. I felt completely safe during my time. On our walking tour we walked through local streets in the dark, children were playing freely at late hours in the night which is a clear sign that the streets in Istanbul are safe. In my home town there are definitely streets that I wouldn’t dare to walk down after dark let alone see kids playing. Because of the lack of European tourists coming to visit, Istanbul has changed its tourist market to attract Arab tourists. For example instead of shops selling traditional Turkish goods which European tourists are into, they are selling fake branded clothes which Arab tourists like. Shisha is also very popular with Arab people, it is not a traditionally Turkish thing to do. And shops have been smartened up to attract wealthy Arab customers. We saw a lot of fake branded clothing being sold in the Bazaar which apparently wouldn’t have been there 3/4 years ago.
Istanbul is a beautiful, safe place to visit and we really enjoyed our time there and in the Grand Bazaar. I will definitely be visiting again!
E x
Comments