Istanbul, The Grand Bazaar

Thursday March 17^th

After the usual breakfast of grapefruit, orange, cereal, bread and honey, I asked about a local laundry and took two kilos of clothes to be disinfected or decontaminated! Then I decided to walk to the Grand Bazaar and explore it. It is a large maze with numerous 'streets' and about twelve entrances. It has changed a lot in thirty years. It is less dark and mysterious. Now, although the building is very old, it looks more like a modern mall. There are hundreds and hundreds of shops in there, mostly selling stuff for tourists. There are lots of knick knacky things, lots and lots of jewelry, clothing, leather coats, t-shirts, tiles and pottery, glass works, meersham pipes, hookah pipes, watches and things like that. Some of it is crap but there are lots of beautiful things there, but I can't imagine trying to find one piece of jewelry, you could be in there for years! Plus, the vendors are all trying to get you into their shops, so browsing is difficult. It would be a great place to shop if one had the time, money, and patience to do it, not to mention the desire!

After that I wandered out and went to a couple more mosques in the area, before stumbling on the square where we had our bean lunches earlier in the week. I decided to get a kebap there instead. It was delicious.

After that I walked back to the hotel to phone Denise. We booked a flight from Cairo to New Delhi, a GAP tour of India, a flight from Delhi to Kathmandu, a GAP Nepal trip and a flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok. So very productive.

Then I rushed off by tram and walking to the Indian consulate to pick up my passport and Indian visa. They only allow a half hour for pickup! If you get stuck in traffic or lost, like I almost did, you're out of luck. The weather has clouded over and it started to drizzle when I got there. Got the passport and visa and then went and had a Starbucks (which was right next door) chai latte to celebrate - long time since I had one of them!

Took the tram back and stopped off to pick up my laundry. Then I went for a walk to get a new razor and toothpaste. Stopped at the cafe by the Blue Mosque to have another yummy rice pudding and an orange/pomegranite drink.

Then I walked back to the hotel in the drizzle and returned to my room for the night.