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THE GRAND BAZAAR OR KAPALICARSI:
This is one of the largest covered markets in the world, it has over 4000 shops in 64 streets and 25000 people work in there. As well as the shops there are two mosques, twenty two gates and four fountains. It is a shopper’s idea of heaven but it is also very easy to get lost in there as you wander from one temptation to the next.
You get lured into one shop to look at carpets then sit and enjoy a coffee before haggling with another shop keeper over a Turkish tea set or leather handbag. The shop keepers were not in the least aggressive; indeed rather than hassle you then joked and chatted in a cheerful banter which made the entire experience a pleasure.
We went in expecting to be hassled and pressured as we had been in Tunisia and Morocco but this was quite different and because they were so pleasant we actually spent more as we did not feel uncomfortable at all while we looked, touched, smelled and admired different items while chatting to the various shop keepers.
The carpets were quite pricey so you would have to actually want a Turkish carpet before buying one rather than thinking it is so cheap I’ll have it as a souvenir. The cushion covers were good value and very nice in a kind of kilim weave – I bought several. The leather goods were also not really cheap but again I didn’t really want a handbag so they may have been really good quality but I don’t spend big money on things like that. We had a lovely time not buying very much but enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the place.
There was a huge array of goods for sale throughout the market but many are grouped in the same place. the carpet shops in one area, the jewellery in another, the leather goods in another and so on.There are still shops and stalls beside each other selling different goods but we did find that some were in specialist areas. This meant it was easy to avoid the pots and pans area as they were of no interest to us and we not especially interesting to look at.
This market has been operating since 1461 and it was greatly enlarged in the 16th century. unfortunately an earth quake destroyed a large part of the bazaar and it had to be renovated and rebuilt in 1894. I think the fact that local people use the market is nice as it could so easily become just a tourist attraction.
The bazaar is open from Mondays to Saturday from 9am till 7pm, it is closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays. I would certainly recommend a visit to the Grand Bazaar, we liked it so much we went back twice and my husband does NOT like shopping at all so that has to be a good advertisement for it.
From journal A short week in Istanbul