Grand Bazaar was Really Grand
Thursday, November 21, 1991
I accompanied Sema, the wife of another one of David’s distributors on a tour of the city. She is driving. Traffic is heavy and there are people everywhere. They run in front of you crossing the street expecting you to stop. There are lanes on the streets but everyone ignores them.
A 3 lane road quickly becomes a 5 lane, and they blow their horns at everything. The tuck drivers are especially hazardous as they get paid on how quickly they move goods across the continent and not for what they are carrying; therefore, a lot of them drive without much sleep.
Our first stop was the Grand Bazaar - a shopping area with over 2,000 small shops. The parking lot was full, so a man approaches and says we can park across the street. He had 2 sports on the street that “sort of” belong to him and he charged for them. Sema gave him money and her keys and asked others around if they knew him and they said “yes”.
The Grand Bazzar was really grand. We entered one of the many Mosques in the city, taking off our shoes at the door. The Mosques are very beautiful, large, old buildings, stained glass windows, with only a carpet and maybe a few kneelers inside. The praying is done on the floor. We returned to find her car still there and glad the man was one of the honest ones.
After a delightful lunch at the Sultan Pub we drove to the Bosphorous Sea, stopping at the Grand Hotel Tarabya for afternoon tea. Again, we parked, paying the man responsible for those “few parking spots” on the road. We watched fisherman throwing their hooks in (without bait) and catching minnows.
Minnows are eaten here as common as any other fish. A fantastic evening with Sema and her husband Coskun. They took us on a private yacht across the sea to the Asian side to a seafood restaurant. For starters we had selery salad, lettuce salad, celery pate, fried calamari, muscle relish, calamari and tomato salad, egg plant salad, bread, stuffed grape leaves, pastry puff and wine. The main coarse was fish, and desserts consisting of figs and numerous Turkish delights. Really a wonderful place.
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