Istanbul Day 5 (Old Town Back Streets Walk)

Today is our last day in Istanbul and we have a few things still on our list to see including the Grand Bazaar.  Rick Steves has a self-guided walk in the tour book called "Old Town Back Streets Walk" that includes the Grand Bazaar, so we are going to do that today.

We left the AirBnb around 10 AM and headed towards the start of walk which took as past Hagia Sophia.  Wow..there are a lot of people out here today being a Saturday.  This is the longest line we have seen in the past five days to get inside Hagia Sophia.  Luckily for us, most of the sites we are going to see on this walking tour are off the beaten path...except for the Grand Bazaar.  I guess we will see.

This column (115 feet tall) is called Çemberlitaş (Column with Hoops) since it is composed of six drums.  It was once topped by a statue of Constantine in the 300''s during the Roman rule.  Since then it was topped by a golden cross, but now it is just a column.  Facing the column across a square is Nuruosmaniye Mosque built in the 1700's.

We finally made it to the Grand Bazaar.  It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops.  It was a market during Byzantine times and grew larger with the Ottoman's took over in the 1400's.  Here we are outside on of its five entrances.  

We could have gotten very lost in here, but Rick Steves actually has a walking tour and map in his guidebook the helped us navigate this labyrinth of an indoor mall.

Here a few of the goods that are sold in the Grand Bazaar.  There was also many candy stalls, clothes, fabric, "welcome to istanbul" tchotchkes, cafés, etc.

When we were on the food tour a few days ago, the tour guide mentioned this guy...Salt Bae.  He said that everything food related in Turkey is good, except for this guy.  His name is Nusret Gökçe and was an internet meme in 2017 for the way he seasons food...as the photos below shows.  If you are interested, the video can be seen by going here: ​https://www.instagram.com/p/BO9dI9ujWNI/

We saw this guy in a small booth fixing a ring.  I assume the jewelers thoguout the bazaar use him to custom fit or fix jewelry for customers.  He is one of the few actual artisans we saw in the Grand Bazaar.  Today most, if not all, of the merchants cater towards tourists.  The locals use smaller bazaars scattered throughout Istanbul for their everyday needs.

Rick Steves walk took us out of an interior exit into a nice courtyard.  It was refreshing to pop out into the open air after being inside this giant maze of stalls.

We spent about 1 hour walking around and getting lost inside the Grand Bazaar.  I wanted to buy a red beaded bracelet just to have something from this place, but I couldn't find anything that I liked, so we headed out.  

Across from the Grand Bazaar was a small courtyard that was labeled Sahaflar Çarşısı, Istanbul's oldest secondhand book market.  It was a great place to take a break.

This cat had the same idea as well.

OK...enough of that...time to find some lunch.  As we were walking down the street we noticed a line.  One thing we learned from traveling is if there is line for food, get in it.  It was Tim's lucky day since the line was for a kabab sandwich.

It wound up being my lucky day as well since right across the street was a small restaurant that had an amazing eggplant dish.  This was one of my favorite things I have eaten so far in Turkey.

After lunch we continued the walking tour which took us to the Mosque of Süleyman the Magnificent, another amazing creation by the architect Mimar Sinan.  Süleyman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire during the 1500's.  He reigned from 1520 - 1566 when he died.

Speaking of his death...he is buried in the mausoleum behind that gravestone on the left.  On the right is his tomb (the tomb is actually empty, he is buried under it.)

Wow...this mosque is incredible.

And the inside is super nice as well.

On top of all that, the view from the rear garden down to the Bosporus Strait is amazing as well.  Look at all that boat traffic down there!

One last view of the Mosque of Süleyman the Magnificent before heading down to that waterfront.

As we walk down the hill the crowds seem to be growing.  We are getting closer to the touristy area again.

If you need a reprisal from the crowds, then head inside a mosque.  This one is called Rüstem Paşa Mosque built in the 1500's.  This mosque is actually built on elevated platforms about shops below that supported it in the past.  From the outside it doesn't look to special...

...but the inside is incredible.  Check out all the amazing blue and white tiles called Iznik tiles from the 1500's.  These Iznik tiles have a floral pattern and are beautiful.

Next we have to make our way though the Hasırcılar Caddeşi (Mat-weavers) alley, a market street that sprawled out of the Spice Market that we have visited in previous days.  Wow.. that is quite a crowd.  Walking though here was ridiculous and we had to just put our head down and push our way along with everyone else.

We eventually made our way out into Eminönü Square.  Where have been here multiple times this week with the first being on the food tour where we tried some delicious olives and cheeses.  Now we just found a bench to sit on and decide where we go next while a crowd of people roam around us.

Rick Steves suggests we walk over the Galata Bridge to take in the view of Istanbul.  We looked that direction and saw huge crowds on the bridge and decided that we saw many good views of Istanbul on the ferry ride we took yesterday.  Rick Steves also mentioned in the book that there are good fish sandwiches down by the water, so we headed there to see what it looked like.

Yep...there are crowds here too.  All these people must have read Rick Steves guidebook to know that this is the place to come for fish sandwiches.

We walked down the line of fish sandwich restaurants and picked the last one that was the furthest, thus the least crowded.  It is pretty cool that all the restaurants have a boat off the back that the sandwiches are actually made on.

We each got a fish sandwich and found a table by the water and enjoyed our dinner.  I guess with the crowd all around and it was pretty windy, I did not take a photo of the sandwich we were eating.  Here is a grab from a random site I found on the web:

Full of fish sandwiches and tired from the long walk today (my watch says we walked over 5 miles) we headed back to our AirBnB.  We grabbed one more photo of Hagia Sophia (with all the crowds and tour buses) and arrived home.

Tomorrow we take a car service to the airport where we pick up our rental car to start our 25 day drive around Turkey.  Hopefully it will all go well and we will hit the road tomorrow afternoon.  Until then...