Adventure #7

The next day in Istanbul we went to the Grand Bazaar. Amazing. The bazaar is a maze of stores. I was never sure where we were and Matt would say, "We have been down this aisle before." I have no idea how he knew that. The bazaar has a little bit of everything including jewelry, ceramics, tiles, leather jackets, carpets, clothes, and nick nacks. It was exciting looking at all the insane items for sale. My only goal was to buy a ceramic bowl. I hunted them down and Matt bargained for me. In the end I bought three hand painted bowls.





After the Grand Bazaar we ate lunch. This meal sticks out in my mind as being extremely good. All we had was a type of wrap with chicken. I think it was mainly the cold water we bought with our meal. Then we went to the Basilica Cistern. The cistern was once used as an underground water supply and was built around 532. For many years the cistern was forgotten about until people started collecting water and even fish from lowering buckets through holes in their basements. At the end of the cistern there are two Medusa heads at the bottom of two columns. One is upside down and the other is turned on it's side. No one knows why they are this way and there has been much speculation. We simply thought it was because they are heavy and once they finally got them there why turn the heads the correct way.



After the Basilica Cistern we walked down to the ocean. We got a little lost and went through some strange neighborhoods but we made it. Then we ate dinner at a touristy place, but Laura really liked the atmosphere so no worries. We ate sitting on the floor while a small group of men played music and the food was good.