Day One

Hello Friends & Family:

We arrived in Istanbul on Friday mid-afternoon, later than planned due to delays at JFK.  But we both slept for a good 6 hours so we felt fine and tossed our luggage in the room and were off to The Grand Bazaar, which was located about 4 blocks away.

The bazaar is a huge colossal series of buildings wehre everything imaginable is for sale - well for negotiation!
There were pashminas, pottery, dressy children's clothes (like you would find on Olvera Street) and food.  We walked into #7 entrance and you could go in any direction of small narrow walkways which have items piled high up to the ceiling.  The shop owners try their best to induce you to buy their stuff. Willie found several gelato shops and then we continued walking about 6 blocks downhill to the large spice market.  This building had booths piled high with spices and candies.

As we walked through the market and came out the other end there was a giant mosque (one of many in Istanbul) so we walked up the stairs and approached the entrance.  Before we were allowed in, we had to take off our shoes and put them in plastic bags which we would carry inside.  Then I had to put on a large silk scarf to cover my head.

The inside room was enormous, and it wasn't very crowded so we walked all over...until a young man came and shushed me back to the small entrance area of the mosque, where the women were allowed to stand. Only men can enter the main section, and the women hover behind a wooden fencing. We watched as the men did their prayers, alternating standing and kneeling and then prostrating, and then all over again.  When we went outside we saw a very young boy (maybe 8) dressed in a very elaborate white suit-costume.  His mother was proudly taking photos of him in front of the mosque, so of course I did too!  The next day I showed the photo to our guide, and she said he was dressed that way, as it marked a special day for him in his Muslim religion - he would be circumcised a few hours later!  Note the smile on the young boy's face...wonder how he looked a few hours later!!!

When I tried to explain this all to Willie, he was totally grossed out and told me to stop talking about someone's private part.  We took a taxi-cab back to the hotel and the driver kept trying to get me to give him more money, complaining about the traffic.  I finally said, "I'm from LA - I know about traffic".  That led him into asking me all kinds of questions, mostly about Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers!  That night we were exausted and went to bed and had a fitfull night's sleep, as our minds couldn't decide if we were in Pacific Palisades, on an airplane, or in some foreign land called Istanbul.