No blog about a trip to Istanbul would be complete without an entry on the Grand Bazaar! Our hotel was about five minutes away and this allowed us to visit several times during our stay. We actually did very little shopping but found it a nice place to walk, a great way to take in the culture, and do some people watching.
Some of you who see us on Facebook know that Tommy have been playing chess together for several years, and he even went to chess camp a couple of summers ago. As a result, when we learned that Turkish chess sets were popular, and we had decided not to bring our travel set (although Sarah said we should), we made a trip to the bazaar to get a travel set. It was a challenge because we found many sets that were works of art, but far too big for our backpack, and more money than we wanted to spend. We ended up with a small, but attractive and budget-friendly board. We also opted to get Ottoman vs. Crusader pieces. I am a traditionalist when it comes to pieces (code for my brain can’t strategize well when also trying to remember things like the piece with the shield up is a Bishop, but the shield down is a Pawn); however, Tommy really wanted the customize or set so we could play with pieces reflecting our Asia Minor location.
While finishing up our purchase we became “people who are actually buying” and so were dragged to our salesperson’s “brother’s” spice shop where we (aka suckers) were treated to a lot of different cups of tea, mixed snacks, and of course ended up buying tea and spices! We knew we were not getting a deal, but we considered the money as if we were paying for half an hour of “personalized theater”!
Anyway, we loved the Bazaar and in his role as Nathaniel Morton Elementary School News Reporter, Tommy did his broadcast from there.