5/19/2012 We walked through the entranceway, expecting to see the shops, but discovered that now we needed to follow a little covered walkway. I had to wait a little longer until I got to the Grand Bazaar.
The walkway was paved with square stones.
I can't tell if this is a makeshift cover, or protection from construction happening overhead. Anyway, we followed the crowd. It was during this walk that we stressed our plan. You need to know a little background on the reason behind "The Plan". A few years ago, my cousin, her mother, and two aunts traveled on a cruise together. They stopped in Istanbul and to make a long story short, one aunt was separated from the group inside the Grand Bazaar. After a few terrifying minutes search, they knew that they had to return to the bus or be left behind. My cousin spoke with a shop owner, who took her up a hallway, climbed a long set of stairs, and allowed her to announce that the aunt was missing. When she could still not be found, my cousin was put in to a cab and whisked back to the ship. Her mother was in distress and she had to put on a life jacket to walk the plank up to one of the ship openings. The "missing aunt" was safely aboard, having taken a different bus back to the ship. (Remember this story for later.)
Because of this story, we all agreed to walk closely and not lose one another. Deal! "The Plan" is complete.
THIS is the "gate" search target. We entered through "Gate 1".
The area outside the bazaar was also filled with shops.A little bit of everything was available. Refrigerator magnets,
Very colorful purses.
To give you an idea on the largeness of this Grand Bazaar, I have outline the area in yellow.
We entered and WOW, I just don't know where to begin.
The "streets" of the bazaar are all covered walkways. If you look at the Grand Bazaar on google maps, you can see that these walkways are all named streets. The decorations for the holiday continue inside.
The Grand Bazaar is organized so that there are sections. This was the jewelry section. You can go from shop to shop to decide on the absolutely perfect buy.
I started to see the blue eye in every type of jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets. It is to ward off the evil eye.
Keychains and more.
Beautiful unique earrings. So much to see.
This was quite amazing and we had only walked a little way inside the entrance.
These caught my eye and I "negotiated" for several pair.
I wish that I had bargained harder and bought more. These are really pretty and light weight. I've enjoyed wearing them. This is my big treasure!
Ohhh, there is more!!
PS: This is what I bought.
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