This one is again from the Turkey holidays, visiting one of the local markets on the last day. Our return flight was late evening, and we had the half of the day at hand. I had planned one Mosque visit and some last minute shopping for this half day at hand. By this time it had already become exhausting because we were travelling continuously for 8 days, but then this was the last day, so we pushed ourselves out.
We first visited the Mosque as that was an important place to visit. Did not want to miss it and after that I had decided that if time permits I will do some shopping. The area the Mosque is in, is the Sultanahmet Square and this is one of the central and most popular place in the city. Most of the sights to visits are in this place and nearby areas.
The market is very vibrant with lots of variety of things to select from. It's the olden days shopping mall. In those times, space was not a constraint, so all these markets were spread out horizontally. It is only in the last 3 to 4 decades that the vertical shopping malls concept have developed. Even in Muscat we have a similar type of market and it is called as Souq, and just like a mall, there are variety of products available. These markets do not sell international brands, they are famous for their local products which displays the culture of the place.
Turkish sweets are very famous. You find them in every nook and corner of the city.
There are ready boxes as well as open available. I prefer to buy from the open lot, because then I can taste and pick up what I like. I bought one box also but did not like it much as there were some flavors in it which I do not relish.
The pottery shop. I bought quite a few plates for home decor.
Variety of spices
These are some beautiful designs and they are expensive also.
I bought some pillow covers with their traditional designs for my home.
At regular intervals there were these tile designs. I guess these are drainage outlets.
And lastly the most famous evil eye. I had already bought quite a few by this time, but then here too I found some pretty and unique designs, I picked up 2 more from here.
The two of us
I was tempted to buy many things but then it was the last day of the trip and pockets were almost empty so I had to restrict myself. I could have used my card, but I did not want to do that. I wanted to keep to my holiday budget and not over spend.
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