Shopping

One of the cool things about Istanbul is the shopping. Not even the actual spending/attaining part of it, but the walking and the browsing and the looking. There are malls here, but it is far more fun to venture into the backstreets and bazaars and see what they have there. Shops tend to be very specific (like a tiny shop that sells just scissors or googly eyes as we found last year) and they are grouped together based on what they are selling. So you might stumble upon the bedspread street, where every shop sells bedding and quilts and bedspreads. There is a scarf street, a baking/cooking wares street and a musical instrument street. Last year we found 6 stores in a row selling wedding dresses. That was quite a scene. There is even rumored to be a men's underwear street, but I have not seen it :-)

Today we met friends and took our daughters to the area where you can buy beads, charms, and jewelry making supplies. We could have stayed for HOURS pouring over probably hundreds of different charms and beads. The girls finally picked their favourites out and we made the dreaded march to the cash register... The total cost of what they picked was... 4TL. That's the equivalent of two and a half dollars. So needless to say, we all left happy.