No Touring for us on Sunday, so we Shop!
After a great breakfast this morning Eric, Makena and I left the apartment to go on a shopping excursion. Our list was vague and we weren't sure where to go to shop, Makena wanted yarn and I wanted to see the Apple store near the yarn store in Shishli. Walking through the stores around our neighborhood we noticed most of the specialty and luxury type stores were closed, either they were closed on weekends or were closed on the holiday. But the little markets were all open. After finding our stores were closed we hoped in a cab and headed down to the market in Beshitash to walk around and see if we found anything interesting. The rain had cleared and the walk around the market was great. The Beshitash market is great because it's not a tourism spot full of souvenirs and high pressure salesmen. It's where many people from Istanbul do their shopping.
We departed the market up a side street briefly, we thought maybe there were shops that way, but it was all residences. A few turns in the maze of narrow streets and we came to a beautiful neighborhood on the side of a hill. Walking through there was a very special feeling. The Turks know how to live well, when you get off the main roads you always see people sitting and talking, or a small peaceful park tucked away. This city is really full of surprises, and Turkey is worth a lifetime.
Returning to the market we stopped in a small cafe and had a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. We ended up buying a few good, soft blankets before as we were leaving. One of our goals was to furnish the living room apartment, folding out one of our futons and turning it into a sort of "love nest" of cushions and pillows. But we just couldn't find the kind of cushions we were looking for in the market. So we caught another taxi for a quick trip up Fulya to the super mall.
Think of the biggest mall you know of. This one is probably bigger than it. Five stories of mall glory, I had never been it. It is decorated in neon green and pink with golden mirrored pillars. Any kind of store is there, including the Turkish version of home depot where we went for the pillows as well
Then it was out of the mall down the street to a little Turkish pizza place, we had a lamb and peppers pizza, and a fish pizza. I didn't know what to expect in a pizza place, there is little caesars pizza and domino's pizza here, so I thought it would just be an imitation of their fare, but this was different. The dough reminds me more of flat bread and there was less cheese and sauce than American pizza. The fish pizza was the most delicious I thought, it was served with slices of lemon on it that you could squeeze over the bits as you ate.
Tomorrow we plan to see a Byzantine church in old Constantinople near the old city wall.
We departed the market up a side street briefly, we thought maybe there were shops that way, but it was all residences. A few turns in the maze of narrow streets and we came to a beautiful neighborhood on the side of a hill. Walking through there was a very special feeling. The Turks know how to live well, when you get off the main roads you always see people sitting and talking, or a small peaceful park tucked away. This city is really full of surprises, and Turkey is worth a lifetime.
Returning to the market we stopped in a small cafe and had a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. We ended up buying a few good, soft blankets before as we were leaving. One of our goals was to furnish the living room apartment, folding out one of our futons and turning it into a sort of "love nest" of cushions and pillows. But we just couldn't find the kind of cushions we were looking for in the market. So we caught another taxi for a quick trip up Fulya to the super mall.
Think of the biggest mall you know of. This one is probably bigger than it. Five stories of mall glory, I had never been it. It is decorated in neon green and pink with golden mirrored pillars. Any kind of store is there, including the Turkish version of home depot where we went for the pillows as well
Then it was out of the mall down the street to a little Turkish pizza place, we had a lamb and peppers pizza, and a fish pizza. I didn't know what to expect in a pizza place, there is little caesars pizza and domino's pizza here, so I thought it would just be an imitation of their fare, but this was different. The dough reminds me more of flat bread and there was less cheese and sauce than American pizza. The fish pizza was the most delicious I thought, it was served with slices of lemon on it that you could squeeze over the bits as you ate.
Tomorrow we plan to see a Byzantine church in old Constantinople near the old city wall.
posted by Alex Gray at 23:31
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