On our own

For the first time, we three ladies went sightseeing on our own without any guides on 10th Aug. We took the hotel’s shuttle bus service to Sultanahmet and continued on foot for the next 4 hours. Our main destination today? Grand Bazaar.

Armed with a map and my vague memories of Grand Bazaar’s location (my friend brought me there once 3yrs ago), we embarked on our adventure. It was a bonus for me when we came across Yerebatan Sarnici along the way, also known as The Basilica Cistern or The Sunken Palace. I’ve been wanting to visit this place during my previous trips but didn’t get to do so till now.

Yerebatan Sarnici is a huge underground cistern built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I during the 6th century. I would never expect to see such a huge cistern beneath Istanbul. I was pleasantly surprised and extremely impressed by the architecture when I descended the 52 stone steps that led to the cistern. It was said that the Byzantine palaces and surrounding buildings got their water supply from the cistern during that era. One of the scenes in James Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’ was shot here. We tried to take pictures and video, unfortunately the pictures were not ideal due to the dim lightings.

After we left Yerebatan Sarnici, we walked for another 500-600m before we reached Grand Bazaar, one of the largest covered bazaar in the world. We spent over 2 hours browsing through the colourful merchandise on sales. You could find almost anything over there, but bargain is a must. We bought some shaws and bags at pretty good prices.

We rushed back to Sultanahmet to catch the shuttle bus at 2.30pm and reached the hotel at 3pm. We rested a while and proceeded to Galleria for our lunch. To me, that was the best lunch I’ve had since I arrived in Turkey. First, we found a foodcourt. Next, I got my Chinese food and the quality is not bad too. I ordered fried noodles and a plate of fried vegetables (something I miss a lot after eating salad for days) What a wonderful reward after a hot and long walk at the Grand Bazaar!

We shopped around after lunch but didn’t get anything as the style was not to our liking. Generally, men shoes are very fashionable and affordable in Turkey. Sale prices are usually around 99 YTL for genuine leather and the designs are fashionable. I can’t say the same for ladies shoe. I personally find the designs too loud and impractical, and the quality is also not as good. We left shortly as we need to prepare for our early flight the next day.