After the Dolmabahca Palace, it was time to head over to the Grand Bazaar. So we flagged down a cab and stuffed five of us in. When he dropped us off near the bazaar, he ripped me off, saying we owed him more because there were five in the cab. The price he gave was already high, and then he added a surcharge. I learned my lesson – no hopping in a cab in Istanbul without establishing either a rate or at least that the meter would be on.
We then had lunch in a square just off the Grand Bazaar. The best part about lunch was that we ate outside, and I did not feel ripped off (not that the food was wonderful, but at least it wasn’t overly expensive). Then we headed into the labyrinth that is the Grand Bazaar, ready to do battle with the shopkeepers. If Rhodes was tough, we could only imagine how crazy the Grand Bazaar would be.
And we’ll still have to wonder how crazed it is. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sunday. Storefront after storefront closed down like an early morning in Manhattan. While the Palace had been very cool, between the cab rip-off and the Grand Bazaar being closed, there wasn’t much good going on after that.
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