Turkish Delights

We did more than visit Mosques and Palaces in Istanbul. With food vendors just about everywhere, we had no problem finding local food to taste. Turkish breakfast is normally composed of fruits, soft cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and bread. Lunch and dinner revolves around kababs (meat cooked on a stick) served with yogurt sauce, rice and bread. Of course the doner kabab (think gyro style where the meat is shaved off a massive slab) is very common.

The desserts are very sweet with most of them bathed in honey. We had our fill of baklava-like treats that included pistachios, filo dough or shredded wheat and of course honey.

When the food vendors didn't have us entranced, the retailers did. Istanbul is home to the oldest "shopping mall", The Grand Bazaar. It's basically a massive maze filled with small shops selling one of a few things: scarves, knock off designer clothes, jewelry, or souvenirs. Here is the best part: everything is negotiable. We were in the market for a pashmina scarf and peaked into at least 15 shops. At last we found the right scarf (see last posts for results). The shopkeeper was an excellent salesman lavishing Dana with praise on her choices and asking me if I had Italian bloodlines because I dressed stylishly (those of you that know me, this clearly isn't a trait I possess and only look presentable due to Dana's influence) and tan skin (another stretch). Once we settled on 2 scarves, he suggested the price was 80 lira for one. We countered with 20 lira for one and we ended up at two scarves for 50 lira (about $30 usd). Success! But he keeled over on his price too quickly. After reducing his price nearly 75%, I still left the store thinking we could have beat him up further!

We also visited the underground cistern, built by the Romans to store water. Only the Romans could make water storage this cool. The cistern was supported by orderly lines of columns taken from various parts of the Roman empire. Two columns were supported by medusa heads, which is of Greek origin rather than Roman. If I had a tripod I could have spent hours taking photos (and annoyed Dana in the process). Pictures below.