Imagine Istanbul

The Markets of Istanbul Continued

On my long walks through the old cobbled streets of the city of Istanbul, I visited many markets. As well as visiting the Egyptian Market, I went to the famous Covered Market. This Market has many shops, somewhere I read it had 4,000 shops and many of these were jewelery shops. It was usually always crowded with thousands of people, tourists, locals and salespeople all going about their daily business.

It was October when I was here and brightly colored Turkish flags decorated the building. October is the month of preparation for celebrating the Turkish day of the Republic, October 28 - 29th.

You can buy all sorts of lovely things and souvenirs here at the Covered Market to take home with you to remind you of your visit to the mystic city of Istanbul.

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I had a few more photographs from the Markets of Istanbul which I wanted to share with my readers. This is a shop near the New Mosque that sold ornate urns and pots. I was thinking of buying something here after visiting the shops that sold exotic house plants to decorate my imaginary apartment in Istanbul.

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The Markets of Istanbul

The Egyptian Bazaar (known as the Misir Carsisi in Turkish) and also known as the Spice Market was built as a part of the complex of the New Mosque (known as the Yeni Camiı in Turkish) in the 1600s. I would walk often through the markets in search of the little boy of Istanbul. I thought I might find him somewhere around here.

In the Egyptian Bazaar, the visitor to Istanbul can find tourist shops for souvenirs, dried fruits, candies, jewelry, exotic spices, teas, natural homeopathic remedies, lamps, silver pots and pans, fabrics, belly dancing costumes and even aphrodisiacs. You can find here, well, just about anything you need. The residents of Eminönü, Istanbul come here to buy their food. It’s often very crowded with people. It used to be closed on Sundays, but I’m not sure if it’s stıll closed on that day.

Somewhere in the market, Mr. Blue Jeans has his little shop selling blue jeans, sweatshirts, t-shirts, belts. It was on the second floor of the Market. I went there often, looking for the little boy of Istanbul. I would sit down with Mr. Blue Jeans and he would offer me apple tea and we talked in broken English. He took me downstairs to another part of the market and introduced me to his friends who owned stalls in the Market, also selling jeans and t-shirts and that sort of thing. When I had found the little boy of

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Sometimes you hear the strangest things…. coming out of Istanbul

Turkey’s well-loved chanteuse, Bulent Ersoy of Istanbul is stirring up waves….

Sometimes you hear the strangest things in the news on Turkey. Sometimes I hear tragic stories and I want to cry or scream. Sometimes I hear really weird stories from Turkey and I want to comment about them, point out the absurdity and speak freely. And then most of the time, I censor myself. Why do I censor myself? You would have to know me personally to obtain an explanation on this subject. Think, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, think, Three Monkeys. Some people may even marvel at my self-censorship. Let them marvel.

But this week, I heard the strangest news story out of Istanbul and I wanted to share this with my readers. In internet chat speak (a new language somewhat based loosely on the English language, I “LMAO” which means to those living in a cave, I laughed my ass off. I couldn’t even censor myself because of the absurdity. I apologize to all those I might have offended.

What am I talking about? Well, if you hold a strong interest in the affairs of Turkey then you would have read about this story. I read about it on the BBC News site. Then I read it again on the New York Times site. Blame them for their freedom of access to information. It is not my fault. If they had censored themselves, I would have never known about it. It’s all their fault and their goddamn freedom of the press.

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When in Istanbul, everyone needs to visit the Market to pick up some souvenirs of Turkey to take home with them. A visit to the market by the New Mosque, is a must do. You can buy Turkish candies, sweets, spices, textiles, glass lamps, evil eye jewelery, silverware and just about anything else.

I bought some t-shirts, some candy, some glass lamps and some evil eye jewelery. When I visited the Market with the little boy of Istanbul, we bought a sweat shirt, a nice pair of black jeans and some shoes. They probably don’t fit him anymore, but I’m sure his little brother will be wearing them next.

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This view of Istanbul is taken from the Dolmabahçe Palace balcony looking onto the Bosphorus. On the other side of the Bosphorus, you can see the Asian side. Istanbul is the only city in the world which sits upon two continents, Europe and Asia.

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