03 July 2013

Turkey: June 6, Istanbul, Rustem Pasha Mosque and the Spice Bazaar

This morning we visited an old church, and just before noon we have an old mosque to tour. But first, a visit to the "WC".

water closet

WC, you ask? That's for water closet. For us Americans, that's the bathroom. Ali (our tour guide) says "you need a lira, if you don't have one, here's one". About half the time we needed to pay to use the toilets. (And Ali always knew when a lira was required!) All of us gals appreciated the toilets that were toilets - not the trough ones. Eeeyew. Anyway, I got in the habit of always having a lira or two in my pocket. (The exchange rate was 1 USD for 1.85 lira.)

liras

The Rustem Pasha Mosque was built in the 1500s. This is my first time ever in a mosque. Ali timed our visit to avoid any "call to prayer" times. In a mosque, all women must cover their heads - I donned a headscarf! Everyone has to take off their shoes. You can see where we left our shoes and put on proffered scarves in the left of the photo below:

mosque

And here are my toes on the prayer rug:

toes on prayer rug

The interior of this mosque is absolutely gorgeous. Sparkling, blue and white, full of air, almost whimsical.

mosque

mosque

mosque

mosque

Before this trip to Turkey, I didn't realize that the Islam religion prohibits art work representing humans or animals. So instead, all their great artists put their talents into creating intricate patterns, as in the tiles below:

tiles in mosque

The Rustem Pasha is just a little way from the Spice Bazaar. Here we are walking towards the bazaar:

towards the Spice Bazaar

This photo was taken at the same spot, but looking in the other direction, towards the Golden Horn and the Galata Bridge. Note tallest tower that you see in the photo. That's the Galata Tower, built by the Genoese in the 1300s. They called it the "Tower of Christ". I mention this because in a later photo taken off the boat, I zoomed in to get a great close-up.

from Spice Bazaar

The next two photos were taken as we closed in on the Spice Bazaar. The colorful awnings are just the brink of the bazaar: the outside shops. Most of the shops are off to the right, in a covered area.

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

We pass the shops with awnings that you see in the above photos and enter the heart of the bazaar. Suddenly we are immersed in a wonderment of aromas, a profusion of colors. People of all sorts crowd the aisles, venders tempt us in with samples.

Spice Bazaar

Ali guides our group to a specific shop to get us started. There, the purveyors feed us samples of Turkish Delight and serve us tea. I buy some saffron from a huge container. It cost $25 USD for 2 grams, and there must have been several kilos in that jar. Saffron is about the most expensive spice in the world. Each little red piece of saffron is one stigma from a flower; there are three stigmas per flower and only up to four flowers per plant. I checked when we got home, and found that it costs just about the same to buy saffron from my local Savory Seasonings, but, this Spice Bazaar saffron is Persian, from Iran. "The best stuff" I am guaranteed by the purveyor of the shop.

saffron jar

saffron

John and I then wander off on our own. Piles of spices, plates, mortars, teas, dried fruits, nuts, honeys, pastries, jewelry, caviar, olive oil, chiles, breads, backgammon sets.

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

Note the "Laguna" on the man's T-shirt in the photo below. Laguna Beach, California, near where we grew up. And this guy in Istanbul has a Laguna T-shirt.

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

The outside shops offer fresh fish and really good cheese. We bought a baggie of briny, thin, wound and stringy, mozzarella-type cheese, all kind of piled up and wonderful. The only other item we bought was some Turkish Delight. This is a fruit-nut-honey mixture formed into a roll, cut into chunks, and rolled in powdered sugar. Fresh, it was really good. (Sorry, no photos, we ate it all!)

We tired of the crowds rather early, and found a restaurant. It was good to sit down and watch the people pass by as we shared a small Turkish pizza (cheese and beef sausage, crisp and good) and drank Efes beer.

Early afternoon was time to go to our designated meeting spot by some benches. We called them "bird poop benches" because of all the birds overhead.

Spice Bazaar

One by one or two by two the other tour members join us and we share foods and stories. We head to our bus, which will take us to our boat tour of the Bosphorus. The day is still young!

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