THE GRAND BAZAAR, MAESTRO & ORTAKOY...

After smashing my head against the bed piece last night I managed to fall asleep from the pain at one point or another. Mind you this room is making us feel more sick than anything. I think it’s the fact there is no air what so ever in this room. Plus that air-con doesn’t work correctly to support our lungs.

We drag our asses out of bed around 2pm in the afternoon. Yes that right we missed the hotel breakfast yet again! Lucy storms into the shower while I try and keep my eyes open. I jump up from the bed when the phone next to me starts ringing. I’m lucky I didn’t slam my head against the bed piece again. I answer the phone to hear a panicking bellboy. I’m told that we are getting evicted and its happening right now. Before I can get a word in bellboy screams his coming up and slams the phone down. As I slam the phone down Lucy walks out of the shower. I tell her were getting evicted and she has less than one minute to get her shit together.

I start throwing things into any bags that I can find. Lucy screaming for answers as to where we are getting moved to or why its happening now. I have no fuckin idea. We have been complaining that we had a shit room so I suppose bell boy decided to upgrade us.

As I’m shoving things into bags, bellboy appears at the door. Before we can question him, he grabs any bags he spots and rushes out of the door. I have no idea what’s happening or why we getting evicted so I follow him. We literally walk 2 doors down the hallway and he starts dumping our gear into one of the other rooms. As I’m trying to find out what’s happening bellboy’s grabbing more and more bags from our old room and dragging them into the new room while leaving a trail of stuff behind him.

Meanwhile Lucy’s trying to hide her underwear and god knows what else. Before we know were escorted into our new room completely lost and exhausted. We barely manage to sit down in our new room when there’s a knock on the door. I open the door to spot the cleaner. Apparently Lucy left a bag in the bathroom. She handed that to me and disappeared into thin air.

I turn around to spot Lucy dripping wet. Not from sweat but because she just walked out of the shower when we got evicted. The next 20 minutes was trying to figure what bag had what in it. You see in the mad rush of things, we shoved anything any where. Once we got semi-sorted I jumped into the shower so we can leave for breakfast.

The best part of our new room is that we have a window facing Maestro now. We can watch them when ever we want haha Plus we have air in our new bathroom. Nothings worst than having a shower and feeling sticky and wet afterwards due to lack of air in the bathroom.
We leave our room and walk past our old room when we spot the door open. I decide to grab a few photos for the scrap book.

We walked out of the hotel to have breakfast at Maestro. We strolled in and ordered two breakfast plates and an omelette to share. Its practically 3:30pm!

Above: Maestro breakfast Plate

Above: Turkish Omlette

We finish up with breakfast and declare today as a Grand Bazzar day after our lack of shopping spree yesterday. We catch a tram over to Beyazit and enter the Grand Bazzar. Within seconds we find the Jewellery Guy. I’ve been coming to this Jewellery Guy for years and you know what I don’t even know this guy’s name! I start my shopping spree with him. My mum wanted me to buy her some silver rings from here. So here I was bargaining with the Jewellery Guy.

On my last trip to Istanbul I brought my mum a really nice bracelet. I noticed he had the chain for it too now so I decided to buy her that as well. I asked the Jewellery Guy if he had earrings to match with it all. He didn’t have any earrings but he told his assistant to go find them from somewhere. Within 5 minutes his assistant returned with earrings that could be passed as a match. Hence I paid him for my lot while Lucy wandered around looking lost as usual. Next thing you know the Jewellery Guy rewards Lucy with a present - a chain. What the fuck? I spend all this money and Lucy gets the present!

Next stop - Scarf Guy. I couldn’t remember exactly where the Scarf Guy was but after wandering around for abit we found his store. We rushed inside his store to realise there was no sign of the scarf guy. Feeling extremely disappointed we wandered off. This put a real downer on things.

We continued strolling around the Grand Bazzar when we spotted another belly dancing store like Scraf Guy’s. There was a guy standing outside of the store. We started interacting with him when one thing lead to another. Next thing you know we are inside the store when Lucy is making random purchases. She wanted to buy her nephews a traditional Turkish costume. We were crammed into this tiny store where barely three people can stand when random costumes were shown to Lucy. While Lucy is trying to decide on a costume we find out the guy is actually Greek. We started talking about the Greek Islands and hence realised we need a photo with the Greek Guy. The Greek Guy insisted costumes were involved in the photo:

Greek Scraf Guy

We walk out of the Greek Scraf Guy’s shop to realise he shoved all of Lucy’s costumes into a dry cleaning bag…

Meanwhile we spot this old guy who is trying to drag people into the leather shops. His like the marketing department of the leather shops. He grabs random people and drags them into the leather section. This guy was causing a scene with tourist:

The Leather shop Marketer - In brown suit

Feeling exhausted from the shopping and all the interaction with people we decide to settle down at the café opposite Jewellery Guy. We order Lemon Ice teas as we spot another potential sugar daddy for Christine.

Above: Potential Sugar Daddy for Christine

Now, the Grand Bazaar’s always been more about Lucy than me but for some reason its been me making all the purchases today. Leaving the café I promised my mum I would buy her this 3D plate which had SultanAhmet Camii & Aga Sofia on it. We saw it together in Antalya but didn’t end up buying it that day. When we went back to the store it was sold out. Anyway I found it here in the Grand Bazzar. The guy wanted $20 for it. I asked him if he can do it for $15 and he accepted without challenging it. Usually they give you a whole lot of crap why they cant. It was $25 in Antalya so I was doing pretty well. Damn I should have offered him $10 for it haha

We stormed off as soon as we made the purchase. We decided to check out the Scarf Guys shop again just incase he was back from lunch or something. The minute we walk past the Scraf Guys shop he spots us from inside and comes rushing out for hugs and kisses. Once he gets that out of his system he offers us seats and tea. For some reason this leads into a shopping spree with the Scraf Guy even though Lucy just brought everything she needs from the Greek Scraf Guy.

There’s something about this original Scraf Guy that we just get caught up in. He states that we get a special price and for some reason we know its going to be a rip off but we continue buying anyway haha

Scraf Guy starts dressing us:

Next thing you know Lily starts trying on Sultana hats and its almost like a montage of her swapping and changing hats. All the woman needs is a red carpet for her to walk up and down in. Lily starts buying things and I decide to buy those traditional Turkish hats that guys and girls can wear. Next thing you know Scraf guy shoves them into the bag as a present for me. Nice work, Lily did the buying and I got the presents haha

My 5 minutes of Montage:

It's time for a photo with the Scraf Guy:

I decided to buy my cousin’s daughter a belly dancing outfit while Lucy was finalizing her purchases. By the time we finished with the Scraf Guy I was dead exhausted and ready for siesta. We decide to leave the Grand Bazzar to head back to the hotel.

The Grand Bazzar:

This is when we spotted this woman posing on the ground of her shop:


We catch a tram back to Gulhane and start walking back to the hotel. For some reason Lucy has this bright idea that she should walk inside of the hotel with all the bags showing to bell boy that she spent all her money at the Grand Bazzar. So I decide to go along with it.

We enter the hotel with Lucy tripping over her own bags as bell boys face lights up when he sees her. I blurt her out to bell boy that Lucy spent 500 Euros at Grand Bazzar. Bell boy looks like his about to snatch one of Lucy’s bags as we shove ourselves into the elevator. We can barely fit into the elevator from all the shopping bags.

We stroll into the room and collapse on top of the beds with all the bags. We start sorting through the bags on who’s is who’s when I spot the Scraf Guy’s card in one of the bags. Now the guys given his cards to us before but we totally ignored it. Anyway I decide to read his business card to realise the Scraf Guy’s name is actually Zulfu. For some reason this leads into a massive laughing fit. Next thing you know Lucy slams the room window open and screams Zulfu. Now that is out of our system we leave the hotel to head to Maestro again.

On one of our visits to Maestro previously I noticed that they do “Testi Kebabi” which is basically cooked casserole in a clay pot. They usually serve this in south of Turkey and I have always wanted to try it so I convinced Lucy we should.

We plant ourselves down and order 2 testi kebabs and watch in amazement as it gets prepared in front of us. We must look like idiots as were filming and taking photos of the entire process.

Our Salad:

Testi Kebabi:

On the plate:

Followed by Traditional Turkish Tea:


We leave Maestro to head back to the hotel to rest up abit. I decide to grab a shower to prepare for our evening. The plan is to head over to Ortakoy for Kazandibi. I walk out of the shower to see this:

A massive laughing fit starts and I can barely hold my camera straight to take the photo. That was a much needed laugh. We leave the hotel to head over to Ortakoy. The minute we jump out of the cab we shove ourselves into the night markets for more shopping. Lucy starts her spending spree over jewellery. We enter this store where Lucy obsesses over a piece of jewellery on whether she should or shouldn’t buy it. In the end we bargain it and she makes the purchase.

Feeling a whole heap better we head to the restaurant near the water where we always have Kazandibi. This is probably the best place I have ever had Kazandibi in. Even Mado in Turkey doesn’t hold up to it. We sit ourselves down to place an order for two Kazandibi’s and tea when we are told there is only one piece left. We practically scream at the waiter that we want it. We decide to share the Kazandibi and I must say its still as good as it used to be.

Turkish Tea & Kazandibi

Restaurant Atmosphere - Ortakoy

We leave the restuarant to walk around Ortakoy for some nice photos:

We decide to leave Ortakoy to head back to the hotel. The minute we get off the cab we realise Maestro is still open so we shove ourselves in for soup. I think the staff have realised were obsessed with this joint. We had breakfast, lunch/dinner here today already. We order tomato soup to realise there’s something strange in it…

OMG cheese in tomato soup!!! YUM!!!

We head back to the hotel to pass out when we realise there is some noise from the room next door. We can hear the neighbours having sex! Lucy puts her ear to the wall and indicates that the woman is being spanked or something. Next thing you know Lucy decides to act out her own erotic performance which leads us to a laughing fit… Eventually the neighbours shut up and we fall asleep….