Today, after a couple of hours of work, I decided to have an old-fashioned tourist Sunday going to the Egyptıan Spıce Bazaar. I initially was thinking of visiting the Grand Bazaar but they close on Sundays and I already visited it four years ago when I was in the city for a few days, so I ended up choosing the Egyptian Spice one.
What I mean by old-fashioned is that I do not have an internet connection on my mobile while I am away from the hotel or eating at any local restaurant that can provide wife, so had to do my homework checking how to get there on public transport and download Istanbul map on Google maps to be able to use it on the phone as a regular offline map.
I checked the bus different busses I had to take to get there and came back and left the hotel on a nice sunny Sunday after a big rain shower we had last night.
It took me a while to get on the bus, first because the bus station does not indicate which busses stop there, there were a bunch passing by and I ended up asking someone if I was in the correct spot. Busses do not stop if they do not see you stepping forward to indicate you want to get in so you have to pay attention and check the bus number in the front to make sure you do not miss yours. I finally got onto the bus and decided to get down before my drop station as I wanted to walk for a while while approaching my destination and taking some photos of the Bosphorus Strait.
The Spice Bazaar is in the south peninsula of the European side of the city and I got off the bus before crossing the bridge. I loved all the local fishermen and fisherwomen trying to catch some fish.
While approaching the Bazaar I could start finding more and more Turkish delight shops with local candy. They are all over the city but especially around tourist sights.
The streets around the Spice Bazaar are full of local shops which is a pleasure to walk around. I was surprised to see several shops with cooking stoves such as this one.
But if there is one type of store that blows my mind is the Turkish-style lamps like this one in the photo. The variety of round shapes and colors makes this store very nice.
Finally, after some narrow shopping street walking I found one of the Bazaar entrances, as you step in you can appreciate the stores are quite fancy. The place is basically a long corridor with shops on each side.
Although there is some variety, most of the shops are spices and tea.
I stopped into some of them to take photos and get a closer look at the products they offered. Here you can see dried fruit with no sugar.
And several varieties of tea which I spent some time to taste and smell before finally purchasing two of the varieties.
After leaving the Bazaar I decided to walk back crossing a different bridge and approaching the Galata Tower during daylight.
I finally took the subway to get back to my hotel. All in all, it was a beautiful morning walk which I especially enjoyed after several days working in this vibrant city.