I woke up later today, had an early lunch on the ship, and then put my game face on to visit the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest covered markets in the world. It’s not the type of shopping that I particularly enjoy because you have to haggle with the vendors, but you can get some pretty cool stuff if you know where to go and what to get. Walking through the Bazaar is certainly an experience because all of the men who are selling things (there were NO women) will call out to you from their stands/stores. It’s completely overwhelming because you never know which way to look! Not to mention, I think I heard more cheesy pick-up lines there than I have in my entire life. It was a little ridiculous, to say the least. Although, the vendors were not as aggressive as I found them to be in Morocco. Also, it is not even funny how much my friends and I stood out in the crowd. We didn’t even have a chance to blend – there are so many Semester at Sea-ers that everyone knew who we were as soon as we arrived.
Erin and I went to Istanbul University for a few minutes in the afternoon, which was cool because it is the “Harvard” of Turkey. It was a HUGE campus and really pretty with tall trees and a big pave shady walk-way. It was funny because we happened to visit on a recruitment day for the university. The security guards thought we were visiting the university (I suppose as potential students) so they let us into the main administration building where each of the faculties (departments/majors) had a table with faculty members ready to talk with students. I got a promotional CD, a bookmark, and some candy! Haha I love it.
On the way back to the ship, we stopped at the Spice Market. Oh. My. Goodness. Let me just tell you how cool it was. As soon as you walk in, you smell a thousand different scents – spices and tea and sweets and dried fruit. It was amazing. I felt like I had finally arrived! For the first time in several weeks, I was in my element. My friends were totally bored after about five minutes, but I walked around for probably an hour just looking, smelling, tasting, buying, and chatting with the shop keepers. It was fantastic. I only wished that I had a kitchen!
That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant called “360” – it was a really nice restaurant on the roof top of a building. The view was amazing and we got to see the Istanbul as the sun went down. Can’t beat that. : )
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