The Grand Bazaar & Spice Bazaar 10th May

We moved hotels in the morning as the Sebnem was booked out for our extra night in Istanbul as we could not get a seat (private sleeper) on the train, so we moved just around the corner the Side hotel which was similar to the Sebnem with the view to the Mamara Sea, but maybe slightly nicer. We headed out to the grand bazaar ready to do some bargaining! The grand bazaar is a huge area of undercover alleyways filled with shops. However we found it to be a big tourist rip off, with nearly all the shops having the same stuff, possibly imported from china! There were a few good places and it was good just having a look around. We then headed off to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar and of course got lost on the way, but stumbled on a market, well lots of shops, where there were no tourists, just thousands of Turks! Much better, and less hassling from shop keepers. We did eventually find the proper spice Bazaar, but realised it was also a tourist trap, and got sold Turkish delight at an enormously inflated price to which you could get just out side the proper market on the street. We found a great Turkish deli just out side the spice bazaar and bought some dinner, and went to a cheese shop and bought some kind of stringy cheese which was great! But I wish I knew what it was, and for the first time didn’t think we were getting ripped off because we were tourists. We ate our dinner on the terrace of the motel overlooking the sea.