Christmas Shopping @ Grand Bazaar

Yesterday I finished my Christmas shopping! Yay! I had a goal to get everyone a little something from Turkey since its our first year here. Our driver's wife, Ilknur, had offered to take me shopping at the Grand Bazaar and the area around it. It worked out that Joel had to go to England for a few days, so I could use Murat! Parking in that area of town is a PIA. And expensive! So I called Ilknur and said lets go! So Monday morning we headed down to the Golden Horn. We had a lovely drive down the shore and suprisingly little traffic. Since we had no desire to walk up hill.... we started at the Grand Bazaar from the top! It was pretty empty, which was great! Pushing a stroller thru the crowd is not fun. And very difficult to "window" shop. Ilknur is Turkish but was born and raised in Australia. Since she speaks Turkish and loves to bargain, she was my guide for the day! I'm so thankful for her. She translated that I was not a tourist and I lived here. So I got the local price. Which she immediately got them to lower. We strolled around for quite sometime trying to find gifts for everyone on my list. Nate was really good but started to get fussy a few hours in. When I had told him we were going shopping that morning, he told me he wanted to go home.... before we even left! As we were walking, Nate yelled car. I looked over and there was a pile of what looked like antique toy cars. Turns out they were new handmade in Italy. They had planes, boats, VW buses, and Mini Coopers. The first one I picked up had a roof rack with a kayak on top. The nice man showed me that you could open the roof rack and it had a place for a picture and was a bank! There was one other one that I really liked. It was also a Mini but was blue with racing strips. My boy has great taste and that is the one he pick! That car was well worth it! He hugged that thing most of the day. We decided to head out for lunch. There is this chicken sandwich that I.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE! Never can remember the name of it tho. Its cooked over fire on a tall bar. Then they shave the meat off. It usually comes on an amazing piece of bread with onions, tomatoes, pickles, and french fries. OMG YUM. So we found a little place that had it and chairs to sit outside. It was sunny and 60. A little bit of a wind that was chilly. Poor Nate didn't enjoy it as much as me. I ordered Nate pilav since its his fav. He inhaled it and then have a 1/3 of my sandwich! Next we headed to the spice bazaar. There had been a spice I wanted to ask about and couldn't remember for the life of me! We samples some Turkish Delight, which was really good. Got some of that as treat for everyone later. I found a better one later on.... but we have his card, so next trip. I finally remembered I needed Bay leaf... which they had! Also, got a tea to try. Good for winter colds. Unfortunately, Nate had to use the bathroom, so we headed outside in search. We found a public one... I got to pay a TL to get peed on by Nate. Lovely. LOL. It was a tradition turkish toilet.... We walked around the outside of the Bazaar checking out all the food shops. It was starting to get really crowded and difficult to maneuver the stroller. I found the last gift I needed and we headed to find Murat. Of course, Murat had run into an old friend and got a tour of this amazing cistern turn art gallery. So we made a stop and got to check out some amazing Turkish rugs. Real ones. Majority of the Turkish rugs aren't make in Turkey anymore. They outsource here too! I found one that I completely feel in love with. Unfortunately, its the price of a college degree. This one is only $13,000 Such beautiful rugs and they would last forever. But I can't imagine spend that kind of money on something I walk on! I was thinking a few thousand but not tens of thousands! It was a very educational trip. We made it home just in time for the girls to get off the bus. Very long day of shopping. But I'm looking forward to the next trip, when I'm shopping for me! I have a few things on my list! Ilknur and I are planning to take my mom and my MIL when they are here in January. Maybe need to warn the dads! LOL.