Today we are in for a treat. The heralded Grand Bazaar, one of the world's leading trading centres since its original construction in the 15th century.
Again by prejudices are severely tested as my preconception of the bazaar's dark, oil-lamp lit alley ways and stalls burgeoning with rugs and hessian sack bound spices proves to be woefully antiquated.
The bazaar, owing to health and safety (yes, we're still in Europe) and taxation laws, is not compartmentalised into individually owned shops, with doors, windows and there own bazaar reference number. I am not a little disappointed that the first thing for sale I see upon entering beneath the east gate's facade is a replica Fenerbahce shirt.
As I am sure is apt for much of commercialsied Istanbul, the bazaar seems to have forgotten some of it's authentic lustre; the shops are clean and straight, too ordered to merit the connotations of a bazaar. It feels like an antiseptic version of the souk in Tangier - there are no smells, virtually no street sellers and, I feel, precious little intimacy.
With still a whiff of disappointment cloying to my as-yet untantalised nostrils, we enter the Aladdin's cave that is the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. Now that's a bazaar. Spices are piled high like multi-coloured snow drifts, huge wheels of Turkish delight and luridly coloured jellied confectionery jostle for space as they stretch towards the Bazaar's tarpaulin roof. And the smell.
The bazaar smells like every curry house, sweet shop and perfumery in Arabia rolled together into one tangy potpourri bomb. Through in some locals getting their weekly spices, sellers laughing and bartering with customers and fellow proprietors alike and you have the 'authentic - although I hate using that word, as it implies that tourism is not indelibly part of many country's present national identity - Istanbul we've been so keen to discover.
We have fresh fish in a restaurant tucked under the Galata bridge, a position that offers views of the ethereal, almost Gaudi-like New Mosque. The food is excellent but the service a little show, most likely due to Fenerbahce's Champions League Qualifier against MTK Budapest blazing out from an over sized television.
Fenerbahce win 5-0 and has no bearing whatsoever on me purchasing their away shirt immediately. I just like the colours, alright?
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