Istanbul: the spice and grand bazaars

Entrance to the spice bazaar, I love the neon signs, if I could afford a few I would definitely have neon signs in my home.

I wasn't going to start my Istanbul series of posts with the bazaars because we actually visited these at the very end of our trip but I just love the colours in these photos so thought I would I share these so you get a flavour for Istanbul!  

Let me start this properly, last Monday my colleagues and I flew to Istanbul to attend a conference for International Educators.  It was my first visit to Istanbul and I was equally excited and nervous.  Our journey was delayed at every single point, the M4 was shut for several junctions, there was a technical fault with our plane and we were delayed by an hour then we hit rush hour in Istanbul.  By the time we got to bed we were very tired and had three very, very hectic days of meetings and workshops ahead of us.

On Friday we grabbed three hours in the morning to visit the spice and grand bazaars on the Asia or old city side of Istanbul before our flight home.  The bazaars were a riot of colour, smells and noise.  I wasn't great at haggling and had to send my colleague Iain in to haggle for me, I turned all shy and British-polite!

I LOVE Turkish Delight.  The choice was overwhelming but have to say I'm a sucker for traditional rose flavour.

Not even tempted to try one on but the colours are amazing.

This stand reminded me of our Jim, he plays the ukulele.  If I hadn't taken a ridiculously small suitcase I would have bought him one :/ 

Pashminas galore! 

We were so tired and weary by the time we reached this lovely cafe, three packed days of conference, and early start and a lot of walking had taken it's toll.  I had the best cup of coffee I think I have ever had at this cafe.