Grand Bazaar, More Mosques & University of Koc

Day #4

Grand Bazaar, More Mosques & Universityof Koc

I’m awake at 8 am but John and Seth are not up until 11 am… therefore I blog and enjoy our lovely apartment with Nescafe… a powdered 2 for 1 coffee that includes powdered cream.  This is my 3^rd caffeinated coffee now since arriving… am I falling off the wagon?  Knowing that John hates shopping I hesitate to go to the Bazaar with him today. However, our last bazaar event in Jerusalem resulted in us buying 3 rugs… so who knows what might happen? I warn John that some women can spend 3 days in this bazaar and Seth interjects that even men like this bazaar.  It is the world’s oldest shopping mall ~ first ever built. It became the center for trade in the entire Ottoman Empire and remained Turkey’s commercial hub through the 50’s. It is an enormous labyrinth of over 4000 tiny shops originally separated into individual related complexes of related shops but eventually connected and roofed to form a single mall.

This day we travel to the market located in the same Old Town Sultanahmet area we went the first day.  However, this time instead of a taxi we take the “tunel” which is an underground funicular that goes from Istiklal Street (just near our apartment) to the bank of the Golden Horn.  It was built in 1875 and became the world’s second underground people mover around the world (after London’s Tube). 


After getting off the Tunel we join the masses of people to take the electrical tram to the Bazaar. This is Saturday after all and locals as well as tourists head for the market.  We hear the call for prayer announced by what seems to be a live singer rather than a programmed song and enter a mosque at the entrance to the bazaar.  Taking off my shoes and donning a scarf I sit to watch hundreds of people praying in this beautiful mosque. It is a moving experience but again the space for women at the back is barely bigger than a closet. How do women put up with this? Next we enter the bazaar and it doesn’t take long before we get lost despite Seth trying to follow Rick Steve’s map. I mustn’t lose Seth or John or I will definitely be here for 3 days, as I have no sense of direction even in nonchallenging settings. Despite being warned about aggressive shop merchants I don’t find this to be the case compared with the Cairo, Delhi and Jerusalem markets.   These merchants ask us “want to buy a rug” or “where are you from?” or “like some tea?” and when we say “no thanks” they don’t push harder. It is a much more relaxing, pleasant and atmospheric experience. I enjoy the people watching here.

The jewelry section of the bazaar is bizarre… so many windows of gold and diamond displays and there are actually people in these shops buying! I can’t imagine wearing these Queen-like necklaces, rings or earrings. Apparently Turks love gold because they are seen as an investment. Since local currency has a tendency to be devalued, people prefer something more tangible.  A woman wearing golden bracelets is actually wearing her family’s savings. We walk down a little back alley where many men are leaning against walls or sitting on small stools talking into cell phones. Suddenly I realize they are cutting money deals. This is Wall Street! 

We enter the section of the market devoted to scarfs and backgammon boards and small trinkets.  Walking around the streets of Istanbul we have seen people playing backgammon in coffee shops everywhere ~ although I don’t recall seeing women doing this. I will look for this. Apparently the game is not played for money but they may challenge one another to pay the coffee bill or for a baklava. Playing the game online with people around the world has become a recent trend in Turkey. I am not a game player in general but remember enjoying playing this game when we were first married. I think I forget the rules.  I recall that it is not a game with great cognitive challenge or as time consuming as chess maybe I should take it up? I know that Anna loves games and has indicated interest in chess so we talk with a lovely, gentle shop keeper (our age) who has probably been here all his life. John likes him and spends the next hour in his shop… talking, haggling to get a good deal and working out how we will get this back to Seattle when we only have carryon luggage. Seth and I retreat from the deal making (which I hate) and look at scarves.  How many scarves can one woman have?

After Turkish coffee and a lunch in the market, we head for the spice market. I stop to take a picture of the exotic looking spices and herbs including the saffron, herbal teas and “Sultan’s paste” more recently dubbed Turkish Viagra ~ although we saw it named natural Viagra. I guess this is what you need when you have a harem.

  I stopped to take a picture of a stall of lentils, dried vegetables and fruits (apricots and figs), pistachios and hazelnuts and of course Turkish delight. The merchant joked about charging me for taking a picture. 

Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent 

Inside Mosque of  Suleyman

Next we head for the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent that in my mind outdoes the Blue Mosque. It is on a hilltop overlooking the city and is beautifully renovated. In contrast to the busyness of the blue tiles in the Blue Mosque, the interior of this mosque is simple, elegant, uncluttered and sedate with tasteful stain glassed windows. The architect is “Sinan the Great” and said to be on a par with Leonardo da Vinci. He successfully created a relaxing place where the pillars that support the arches and dome are barely noticeable. He died working at age 99 and has built over 450 monuments and 20 royal mosques, the Mosque of Suleyman being his masterpiece. I was especially intrigued by Suleyman the Magnificant, the 10^th sultan of the Ottoman empire (1520-56) not only because he codified Ottoman law recognizing different regions needed different laws but because he fell in love with one of his concubines, Roxelana. She was bought at a slave market and was not the most beautiful but did manage to get Suleyman to marry her (first for a slave) and they had five children. She was the first of several Ottoman women who ruled the Ottoman Empire and Suleyman relied on her for advice. Although she seems to have orchestrated dozens of murders to secure her surviving son’s crown, she also spent her personal fortune creating charitable foundations.  

University of Koc 

Nazli gives us a tour of University of Koc

We walk back across the bridge to the Tunel and John showers to get ready to meet Nazli for a tour of the University of Koc. For this we take the metro to the end of the line and she picks us up there. This beautiful 13-year-old university for 6000 students is set on a hill overlooking the Black Sea and said to have the best psychology department. It even has recently opened a medical school. Nazli lives in university housing nearby and we stop by her house to see where she lives which also has beautiful views. Afterwards she takes us to a local restaurant where we sit outside on the deck overlooking a magnificent view of Istanbul with a full moon overhead. John pumps her for ideas of where to go in Turkey next with Seth and I ask her about finishing up the data set we originally started on. It is a lovely relaxing meal in a neighborhood area not inundated with tourists. 

John and Carolyn at University of Koc 

We get the last metro back to our apartment … and I note that the University of Koc is not in our tour book and the book says the underground metro is generally not useful for tourists. It takes 6 escalators to get down to this metro and it is incredibly clean and sedate. It is a fun and relaxing trip in itself. We are back home after midnight… where Seth and John talk about where they will go after leaving Istanbul.