Last Day in Istanbul

My last day in Istanbul was great. I had just a few last gifts to buy and did that right after breakfast. The hotel breakfast was great, not as much or as fancy as the expensive, swank hotel, of course, but they had wonderful sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, feta, and olives, as well as some local bread rolls and jams. I probably ate a whole tomato's worth of slices; they're so good.

After breakfast I went to the spice market and the grand bazaar again, taking a different route and wandering a bit on the way there. I bought my last few gifts, including Tony's gift to me. :-) He told me to go buy myself a necklace at the grand bazaar and that it is his gift to me from Istanbul. I thought that was the most romantic thing I'd ever heard. Tony (by proxy) bought me a beautiful old silver necklace from a vendor in the antiques area of the bazaar. The vendor told me the pattern is called "tree of life." I didn't see any others like it in any of the shops or stalls, so even if it's not a real antique (and who knows really?), still it's unusual and really cool looking.

After that, the bazaars were crazy crowded, so I made my way back to the hotel and dropped my packages and spent most of the rest of the day reading and people watching in various places. It was a lovely sunny day, so I sat outside on a low wooden bench with brightly colored cushions outside of a restaurant and spent forever drinking a single beer and watching people pass by. Then I went to a juice bar and did the same with fresh-squeezed pomegranate and orange juice. (I've had three glasses of that stuff today; it's so good! They cut the pomegranate in half and squeeze it in a press and the same with oranges and hand it to you. Mmmmm.) Then I went to a large paved area with cheap food vendors and political leaflet hander-outers and moms with strollers and guys who smoke and half the rest of the city seems to go to sit in the sun on benches and chat and look at the water. I spent several hours there reading a book, snapping some photos and people watching.

When I finally decided to leave, I thought I'd get someone to take my pic waving goodbye to Istanbul. Well, I asked a woman maybe a generation older than I and pantomimed taking a photo. She seemed concerned about taking the camera at first but then snapped a great, clear shot of me. Her daughter, Ozlem, walked up at that time, and Ozlem is a medical student who is lovely and speaks wonderful English. She had just bought a roasted corn on the cob to split with her mother. She invited me to join them on the bench, and I did. They broke the corn into 3 pieces and gave me one. It was so kind. Ozlem and I chatted and exchanged email addresses; she said it is her mother's first time to Istanbul, as they are from another part of Turkey. It was a lovely, if brief, chat. When I said goodbye, her mother gave me a resounding kiss on the cheek. I was so touched and am hoping that we do email each other.

After that I went to a place that has--what else?--fresh-squeezed pom-orange juice and also baked potatoes. Let me just say that Turkish people know how to do up a potato--wow!!! They get the potato, slice it open and smash cheese, butter, and salt into it and then gesture to the 28 items in the case and put a spoonful of all of them that you agree to. I had peas, red cabbage, chopped pickles, chili sauce, green olives, black olives, yogurt with mint, yogurt with dill, corn, and I can't remember what else. Man. So good. $5. I sat upstairs directly in front of a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the water where all the cruise ships dock. It was the best seat in the house, so I stayed there a long time and watched twilight come and finally left for the hotel.

On the way to the hotel, one of the guys who works in the bazaar recognized me and walked me to the hotel, just chitchatting. I tell you, everyone is so friendly here. I've had more people buy me tea, walk me places, offer me some of their own food, give me directions, etc. and many of them not trying to hit on me or sell me anything--just being friendly. It's incredible to encounter such kindness in such a big cosmopolitan city.

Well, that's all for my Chronicle of the Final Day. I'll try to do another post tonight with a bunch of pics, but I did want to get a long, text-heavy post in. I've been trying to remember so many details today so that I could share them with everyone, and now I have. Tomorrow I catch the airport shuttle at 7:30 a.m., so I want to get a good night's sleep in. See you soon, loved ones in Seattle!