TOURING ISTANBUL: The Grand Bazaar
Dear Foodie Fam,
At the heart of the old city of Istanbul is a city within a city. Here lies one of the most visited tourist attractions on Earth- a "bedesten", or "warehouse" rightfully named The Grand Bazaar.
With construction starting directly after the Ottoman Empire took Constantinople, the bazaar is one of the oldest covered markets in the world. Over the course of 100s of years, it’s engulfed more square footage than any other roofed market.
Through 22 individual gateways, over 250,000 annual visitors can wander 64 streets and 1,000s of shops manned by over 25,000 vendors.
The mammoth complex houses a police station, a health dispensary, a post office and even branches of major banks. In fact, it takes so long to navigate this sprawling monument that there’s an ablution fountain for devout Muslims to wash their hands in whenever a mussein’s prayer blasts from the hanging speakers above.
The bazaar’s brilliant ceiling, archways and columns are richly painted and could easily distract any one already having trouble cutting through the bazaar.
Having done a good deal of research beforehand and having been baptized by the fire of Cairo’s Khan El-khalili market, Dutch and I were armed with hardened resolve and tried-and-true bartering skills. Below I've listed some tips for those who are ready to take on the Grand Bazaar.
HINTS:
The Bazaar was built with natural lighting in mind. There's overhead lighting but the market still opens at dawn and closes at sunset.
I would say knowing basic Turkish is necessary for an absolute Grand Bazaar shopping experience. Not all vendors speak or understand English.
Aside from useful phrases like “how much is this?” Or “Do you have…”… I learned Turkish numbers from 1-1,000. The number system works like English: one will be okay having memorized Turkish for “1”-“10”, every group of “10” (i.e.: “10”,”20”, “30”…) and groups of 100s. I called upon this knowledge in every transaction we made and it was invaluable.
Count cash before entering. You don’t want to be caught bluffing by checking your wallet in front of vendors.
Have some American dollars ready to sweeten the pot in bartering but only save it for the most special of ocassions.
Have a list of what you want before entering the bazaar. This helps you find the section and vendors you’ll need so as not to waste time roaming the huge depot.
Products sold: antiques, jewelry, carpets, kilims, textiles, lamps, teas, furniture, pottery and souvenirs.
Have basic knowledge on products you want. For example, one thing I wanted was a pashmina. I made sure to research the process and material that goes into making one. A number of times, vendors did try to take advantage of me by lying about the worth and make of their pashmina-type products. I was glad to have researched!
DON’T fear leaving a vendor and DON'T be bent on buying souvenirs at the Bazaar… you can find products of equal or lower pricing elsewhere. The bazaar is geared towards tourists so more affordable wares are found outside the Bazaar or at other markets where locals shop. Not all vendors will chase you down when you walk away but identical products are definitely across multiple stores.
Comparing American, Turkish and Egyptian bartering: Turkish vendors are much more steely in their commitment to having the upper hand. Practice your poker face! Make your first offers a bit above what you are willing to pay but not prices that are outlandish. Trust-worthy vendors know the worth of their goods and aren't afraid to refuse your business.
Take tea when offered. If you are shopping at the bazaar, it will DEFINITELY take time to barter because cultural practice determines vendors and customers chat leisurely and have a real person-to-person exchange. It’s rude not to reciprocate. Besides: Isn’t it nice to get to know people you meet in other countries, share stories and learn about different lifestyles? We learned so much about how other countries may feel about Americans- like how much they do separate opinions of our government with opinions of us, individually.
OUR EXPERIENCE:
We were lucky to walk through the Bazaar with our guide, Unal before diving in alone. Dutch has excellent mapping and wayfinding skills locked up in his beautiful head. Quickly striding through the streets escorted by our knowledgeable friend, we scanned goods sold and constructed a basic map of the product-defined sections.
When we returned by ourselves, Dutch and I were early and it wasn’t too crowded. There’s advantages to arriving early. You can walk fluidly in the absence of huge crowds and take some great scenic photos. However, vendors lacked that desperation most present right before closing shop.
Those vendors sat outside their stores and didn’t harass us so much, though. The few that called to us definitely were eager to barter and know where we were from.
Even before planning for Turkey, my heart was 100% set on owning a Turkish kilim. Kilims are woven in patterns similar to ones present in the textiles of many countries Dutch and I dreamt of. This is because the evil eye is a theme present in many places on our bucket list.
We were able to afford a small kilim for our wedding. We made the best out of it’s size by making it the very spot we stood on during our vows and promising to always dance on it on every wedding anniversary to come. We'd be able to transport it easily if we ever had an anniversary away from home, too!
...By the time we arrived in Turkey, I was more than aware of the regular pricing, make and even price of shipping of quality kilims. Asking stores about the pricing of their kilims and applying my knowledge, we swiftly moved about the bazaar.
( Trigger Warning: from here to next marker)
We stopped at a shop that held some beautiful and characteristically unique pillow cases made from kilim. I picked out a couple and the owner welcomed us into his store for tea while his younger proteges eagerly watched.
The shop owner spoke English very well having spent time in both America and the United Kingdom. He was well versed in American pop culture so we shared laughs over that quintessential -and delicious- hot apple tea. The guy boasted about his resemblance to George Clooney and he showed off hanging photos of him and female tourists he'd sold to in the past.
The bartering started. We had a phone app that calculated Turkish Lira conversions. Pausing to enter numbers into the app created a nice tension between volleys of pricing.
After a while it became exponentially obvious the vendor was more interested in me than in business.
Let's flashback to a few months before our trip: When I was researching our trip, I had to sort out what clothes to pack.
I had a few obstacles in packing: 1) I needed to pack for 3 weeks of travel. 2) What I packed needed to fit in one carry-on for the first 2 weeks. 3) I needed to pack for different weather- dessert to snow. 4) I am kinda into fashion- so I do like to change my looks for different places and events ...because I'm just like that.
Amongst the fun reading on the art of packing light and layering clothes to make different ensembles... I read that though Egypt and Istanbul are touristy and accustomed to American women wearing what they like, public harassment and reprimands are much more open here than in America.
Now, I very well could've packed and worn whatever I wanted but Dutch and I like to meld into crowds and be taken as seriously as possible.
I went to Goodwill and grabbed loose, long clothing to cover my chest, crotch and backside. I noted that shawls and light cover-ups could not only cover my head when entering mosques but could double as scarves or wrap and cradle fragile goods. I could also leave behind these layers of clothing to make room for all the goods I looked forward to buying in the countries that followed.
Back to this encounter: Unfortunately, this particular vendor's flirtation and advances rapidly spiraled into a singular horrible moment that blindsided us. It left me feeling vulnerable, weak and close to tears. I instantly felt pangs of regret in not seeing it coming, but I know it wasn't my fault.
Dutch took my hand to bolt out the door and the vendor -in an obvious attempt to quiet us and not lose any other customers- opened Dutch’s other hand, took the little money Dutch was offering and replaced it with a bag holding the pillowcases I wanted.
After this debacle, Dutch and I sat on a curb a short walk from the store. He wiped my tears and we talked through what happened.
From then on, whenever there was a catcall (which I got basically everywhere we went), Dutch catcalled back to those who harassed me and baffled them.
End of Trigger Warning section.
We did cop some nice things and meet some cool people.
There was an old wizened man sitting on a bench on the street (not in a store). He essentially manned a singular rusty rack of souvenirs. We eyed the little coin pouches with Turkish emblems like the Sultan’s crest, Turkish flag or Hagia Sofia embroidered on them. These were common in Istanbul along with little blue beaded Evil Eye necklaces and wall art. Anyway, if I hadn’t learnt basic Turkish, we would have never been able to converse with this man who gave us a really good price on those pouches.
At another point in the bazaar, we bartered with a young man. His father, who spoke English, stood a little ways off and seemed to want his son -who was sweating bullets- to practice English. When his father wandered off on what must have been a break, the boy anxiously reverted back to all Turkish. He sold us a small Turkish flag for our collection at a price we found nowhere else.
Overall, wandering the bazaar was a definite once-in-a-liftime spectacle. Stalls dripped in layers upon layers of hanging sparkling silver, lush hand woven rugs and lamps phosphorescent with blazing colors. After the first half hour of walking, the amount of richness was so overwhelming I was dizzy with it’s repetitive wares and almost felt like running the rest of the way out! After a few hours, we practically did. At this point, we could notice other tourists wandering wide eyed and were suddenly aware of how we had been doing that, ourselves! Trapped and lured by the shine and color and stories around every corner.
