19 March 2015 - Nearing the end of our time in Turkey - it has been amazing

We feel so at home in Turkey now having been here for nearly 6 weeks!  The language and signs don't seem so foreign now as we understand bit by bit, a little more Turkish.  We can negotiate the Metro system, identify our favourite biscuits and spot cheap kebabs! We reckon if we lived here for a year we could manage with basic conversations.  The Turkish people are mostly very friendly and willing to help.

Annika and I think we have sussed out the mystery of big hair under some of the scarves that mostly young women wear as we saw a slightly opaque scarf which showed a bonnet type of wrap underneath.  A fashion statement?

Big head scarf

Racing for our deadlines for schoolwork before we leave Turkey, school was top of the agenda today after a walk to Real, the supermarket.  We thought a vigorous walk up and down the steps and hills of our local area would set Luke up for a better day of school work and it seemed to work!  School was fruitful today although Annika is having some frustrations about how she should submit her magazine project as formatting is tricky.  She has done the work but the actual submission is taking so much longer than she had hoped.  At home, she would print out the assignment and hand it in but online submissions have challenges of their own.  A steep learning curve!  

Our mission for the afternoon was to return to the Grand Bazaar to find some new runners for Tim and have another look around now that the weather is nice.  Our last visit there was on a very snowy day  when all we could think about was cold feet.  Today still has a real nip in the air and the low sun in the late afternoon had lost its warmth but it was dry! 

Gate 1 to Grand Bazaar - Imagine it in 1461!!! Den of Thieves?!

One of the gates to the Grand Bazaar

Inside the labyrinth of the Bazaar

Roof of the Grand Bazaar - 1461!

Lights and lamps...

All those ceramics...I want them ALL!

 Once again we were coughing our way through the supposed smoke free halls of the market as vendor after vendor puffed their stinky cigarette smoke at us.  We didn't stop at their stalls as our personal protest!  The beautiful ceramics and lights and scarves and and carpets and jewellery create a real Aladdin's Den atmosphere and I could buy them all!!  I dream of a delightful rainbow set of little plates and bowls but we just can't carry them with us.  I settled for another irresistible scarf to add to my travel collection....much to Karl's protest....he is not a collector (apart from wood and metal scraps in our garden which ":might come in handy") but I so like a memoir from each place I have visited (and would buy more if I dared!).

My little "Turkish Delight" - he has been good today!!!

One of the lovely things about wandering through Turkish markets is their practice of giving free samples to passersby - always with the hope you will purchase, but cheeky us, feel no obligation!  However, it was the pomegranate and pistachio nougat that roped me in this time!! Oh, the flavour and visual impact of this delicious sweet....an opaque ruby red log with the green of pistachios mixed through it...JUST the perfect sweet/sour/nutty combination...I will dream of this!!!  The white nougat version is also tasty but the pomegranate delight wins my vote!

We didn't buy shoes for Tim as there were none in his size!!  We'll have to wait for northern Europe to find size 13 1/2 shoes!!

Istanbul University

We walked past Istanbul University  with its hordes of students milling about at the end of their day.  What a grand entrance it has, fitting in this city of grand buildings and history!

Metro

Home via the Metro to Osmanbey Station on the efficient train system.  We remarked that we were glad to be tucking in for the evening as it feels so wintry.  We are off to Switzerland tomorrow, to snow and mountains so our time in the crisp European air has not yet ended!  I LOVE breathing in the cold, cold air when warmly dressed!