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DAY 14
After a hot & humid nights sleep (unaware we actually didn't have the air conditioner turned on!!) and a breakfast buffet, we ventured off to explore the city on our own.
We decided to take the safest option to begin with - a taxi ride to The Grand Bazaar. Umm in hindsight "safe" might not have been the appropriate word!! We should have realised, when we went to buckle up our seat belts there was no unit to buckle it into! So we had to improvise and just tuck it in between the two seats. The driver had the appropriate gear, but he hadn't bothered to use his at all. From the moment he was told where to go, he planted his foot and it felt like an amusement park ride - weaving in and out of moving and parked cars, narrowly missing any collisions. The interesting parts were in the side streets he took as short cuts - coming within centimeters of clipping other cars, pedestrians and animals. OMG I have never seen people drive the way they do over here, it's crazy! Thankfully we arrived in 1 piece and without incident. We entered The Grand Bazaar to get a few last minute gifts and soak up the atmosphere one last time.
We then decided to catch a tram for the first time. After figuring out the token machine (thanks to the language translator button) and entering through the turnstile we hopped straight on the tram. Extremely efficient system with trams running every 6 minutes - wish we had transport like that back home! Only cost $3TL each ($1.63) too. We stayed on for a few stops and then got off 1 stop before the Galata Bridge. We walked along following the tram lines and window shopping at stores that we'd driven past on our tour. There was a very near accident when an approaching tram had to stop because a taxi driver had parked and exited his car on the tram lines!! We then made our way through the streets and towards The Spice Bazaar. This was on Aleisha's "must do" list and I was keen to see it too. Actually, had we known we could have avoided The Grand Bazaar and just gone here instead. As well as selling herbs, spices, fruits, Turkish delight etc, they also sold the trinkets found at The Grand Bazaar, just on a smaller scale. The variations in pricing were interesting to note - Turkish Saffron ranged from $140TL - $400TL with no visible difference between them. We tasted some turkish delight (pistachio & honey), which was delicious, but cost $64TL ($34.80AU) p/kilo!!! We took a few photos (interestingly no-one said we couldn't) and then walked along the Galata Bridge which crosses the Bosphorus River. Underneath the bridge are strategically placed restaurants to take full advantage of the views, and lined up along the top are fishermen hoping to catch a big one. As we walked past, a fisherman casting his rod caught it on a passerby's clothing - good job it didn't do more damage. We kept walking for awhile because Aleisha recognized the streets that our your bus had taken and further down the road a bit we hailed a taxi. This one wasn't as crazy as the other one, and at least 1 of the rear seat belts buckled up! There's one thing that impressed me about these taxi drivers though - unlike our drivers back home, their aim is to get you to your destination as fast as possible and they do not enjoy sitting in traffic jams watching the meter tick over. You just have to hope and pray you get there in one piece :)
We arranged to be dropped off at the huge shopping mall. We liked it so much 2 weeks ago that we decided a return visit was needed. We had a bite to eat and a drink and went to the supermarket to look for apple tea. We couldn't find the one we were looking for, so opted for an alternative brand - gee I hope it tastes as good!! Aleisha and I treated ourselves to Ben & Jerry's icecream and then walked back to the motel.
We caught up with our tour guide Izzet in the lobby, who was getting his next tour group organized. Poor thing - he does 4 x 2 week tours in a row without any break!!
Time to relax in our room for a bit then we headed across the street for dinner at Sbarro's (a fast food pizza restaurant and rival to Dominos). We enjoyed a lovely margarita pizza + 2 pepsi's for only $14TL ($7.60AU).
The traffic was still chaotic until about 8:00pm and I now know why McDonalds, Burger King, Sbarro's & Sushi all offer home delivery - because by the time people actually get home from work it's too late to start cooking!!
Back to the hotel to finalise our packing for our journey to Kuala Lumpur and the 15 hour layover.....
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