Dear all,
at the end of another great day in istanbul, and it seems by the end of the day we crammed so much in.
Today we were woken early, our 6 bed dorm (5 girls + dan) slept with the window open cz it was a little sticky. But that meant at 7am the speakers covering istanbul were blaring calling all muslims to prayer. The speakers ring out 5 times a day. Only the very devoted pray 5 times a day, and the men are expected to make their way to one of the many mosques while the women are allowed to pray at home. Free brekkie at the hostel was bread, cheese,eggs,tomato, turkish tea,cucumber and olives.
We had organised the night before to go to the grand bazaar and spice bazzar and turkish baths with 7 other people from the hostel ranging from aussies, americans and alaskans. Wandered through the grand bazaar again, and because its so huge it felt like i hadnt seen any of it before. I was really tempted to buy a gorgeous ceramic bowl but even though they said the would package it will enough for me to kick im still a little hesitant. dan meanwhile was a little more ambitious and enquired as to the price of a 150g gold bullion..2,500 aus dollars..lol,that could buy alot of other pieces of jewellery. The gold here is sooo gold, that really deep yellow colour that almost looks fake, and the shop windows are sooo full with it that it definately looks fake.Most of the stall holders will try and entice you into their shops, and through most of the bazaar i got "hey lady", although one creative guy tried "hey bimbo" which i restrained myself from turning around and acknoledging him because i think thats what he wanted, dan also got told that if he bought me a belly dancing costume with tassles and glitter everywhere i would make him a very happy man..bahahahaha.
From the bazaar walked across town to the spice bazaar which was full of colours,smells and textures.the huge piles were amazing,and in the end i bought some apple tea and love tea-a mixture of apple and rose and some spices to use back in the uk.
From the spice bazaar we caught the ferry across the bosphorus to the asia side of istanbul. The asia side is definately the side most tourists dont visit, Im pretty sure we were the only ones across there. But the reason we went across was that one of the girls we were with had been to a traditional turkish bath on the other side which was much more resonably priced and tradtional compared to the touristy versions on this side of town. After walking up a huge hill,we were sweaty and the bath was looking really good. However turkish baths dont include any bath tubs. Instead the guys and girls are separated and we stripped down to undies and entered a domed warm marble covered room. It was really warm and we sat on the side washing ourselves, then in the middle of the room there is a marble platform. We were called onto the platform and then massaged by a undie wearing turkish woman. first we were exfoliated everywhere that wasnt covered with undies. The skin peeling off was gross but felt good. From that we were lathered up and soap massaged, which was soo relaxing, however i have now found out that the boys massaging was a little rougher and including slapping and really heavy massaging.ours was more relaxing and softer, i think i nearly fell asleep on the warm marble, until she dumped a tub of cold water on me to wake me up..geez. It was totally relaxing and was good to go somewhere where the locals still go.
Tonight were just relaxing at the hostel because we leave at 6am to go to gallipoli tomorrow.
love always, j and dan xoxoxo
