And it's not like any other market or bazaar you may have been to, ever. Nothing like the markets in China - outdoors, with rows of little stalls.
Most of it is indoors, and it's like a maze. It's dazzling, and confusing, and a little overwhelming the first time.
And even the second time.
Next to the main part of the (indoors) bazaar, there is an (outside) street with clothes stalls.
This is where we met "Sock Man" - he has a plastic display sheet with several pairs of socks in pockets ... he really wanted us to buy his socks, and so he kept jumping in front of us with his annoying little display. I never quite worked out whether there was only one sock man or umpteen - and if there was only one did he have a fixation with us in particular. (did every visitor to the bazaar have their own annoying little sock man, or was he just really fast on his feet?)
But inside there is an amazing variety of brilliant things for tourists to buy. The sellers all speak some English, and will accept your hard-earned cash in pretty well any currency you care to offer.
Although when I visited the WC I had to pay half a (New Turkish) lira, and I saw one lady trying in vain to pay her way in with an English pound note.
We bought a small piece of jewellery for me, and the seller agreed to a small "discount" on the basis that we live in Istanbul and may return to his stall another day. We remarked that there was no way we would be able to find it again. And he told us confidently that it was easy as he is situated opposite the one and only restaurant in the bazaar.
THE NEXT DAY WE CAME BACK AGAIN
He was wrong, there are several restaurants. And we were lost in the maze. We went round and round and back and forth - and gradually some parts began to look a little bit familiar. The same salesmen kept jumping out at us with the same lines: "There you are!You are the customer I have been looking for all week!" and the like.
We went down a side alley and found ourselves outside in one of the little courtyards that are embedded in the maze.
We sat down for a cup of çay (Turkish tea in a tulip-shaped glass) and persuaded the restaurateur to find us a map of the maze. After that it was easy. Well, a little easier.
I had been thinking about putting up some curtains in our bedroom, and noticing the material section of the bazaar on the map, we headed down there.
Some of these shoplets are deceptive. Once you enter that cave of fabric you discover more rooms and more shelves behind. We went into one of them, and were taken with a lot of typically Turkish rich velvet materials, all of them sparkly, and quite cheap.
We chose this one. Very velvet and very sparkly. We now hoave sparkly curtains in our bedroom.
And sparkle everywhere. It just trickles off the curtains onto everything - especially when I was sewing them!
The ubiquitous cats
Istanbul is full of cats - but we haven't seen a single rat. The courtyard behind our apartment is full of them - yowling and arguing over the territory.
These bazaar cats seem quite happy to share.
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