Grand Bazaar, Archaeology Museum and Suleiman Mosque

We have to do the Grand Bazaar today because it’s closed on

Sunday and we leave on Monday.  Our time in Istanbul has gone way too fast.  12 days in Athens was nice, you would need 200 in Istanbul.  We haven’t been to many of the places we intended to go much less the ones off the beaten path.  We start off at the 

Archaeology Museum and the Alexander Sarcophagus.  Here we encounter another minus about off season travel, not only is it snowing and cold, half of the museum is closed off.  Unlike Athens, Istanbul didn’t move a thing around, so half the statues that we wanted

to see are unavailable to us, but that means we’re done with a museum faster and that makes Oscar happy.  The sarcophagi in here are unbelievable.  You can still see the paint on the Alexander Sarcophagus and it literally leaps off the stone at you.  Even Oscar is intrigued. 

They are working on one and have a window so that you can look in and see how they are putting fragments back on it like it’s a puzzle.  Lots of grave steles and Oscar has fun trying to find medusa everywhere because she is all over the place from old Roman columns in

cisterns and other places.  After a short, but pretty good museum tour, we head to the Grand Bazaar and can’t seem to find it.  It feels like we should be there and we’re probably walking right past the damn thing anyway hidden behind some buildings, but we have to

take a break and warm up from the cold.  We find a nice little café and have some goodies, then reacquaint ourselves with the map and find our way to the bazaar.  There is a lot of jewelry, a lot of carpets, a lot of candy, pashminas and not much else.  We do find

  soccer jerseys and Oscar is stoked when we buy him a Chelsea jersey.  He can’t believe his good fortune, and we can’t believe we just got it for about $6.  This is one of the best parts about Turkey, everything is way more 

    affordable than in the EU.  But the other half of that, I can’t do the conversions very easily in my head and have a hard time understanding when I’m getting a deal and not.  So, I just ask John to do it for me when it’s too hard and we get out of the bazaar with only the jersey and a pillow case that was bought mainly because I felt sorry for the poor boy who pulled

out every one he had in his booth to try to find the one I might want.  I like the one I got, but don’t need it in any way….oh well.  We get off pretty cheap all things said and head to Suleiman Mosque to get some more Sinan and try their hammam where they allow families.  We head in after service and at least you can see the whole mosque here.  We’re able to see people praying and try to explain to

 Oscar what’s going on.  He’s heard all the calls to prayer everywhere and we finally get to show him the devotions that it is signaling people to engage in.  And while most women in Istanbul are not covered, the mosques are handing out 

scarves if you didn’t bring your own.  So, I’m glad I went on the conservative side and decided to get my own scarf to cover my head.  We head to the hammam and are told that Oscar can’t go until age 6, which upsets him a lot.  We

 head back to Cemberlitas because the lady yesterday told me that he could come if he went in the men’s side and they let us in.  So, my second bath in two days, the boys get to go the men’s side on their own.  John gets reprimanded by the Turkish man coming to take him to his bath when we give each other a kiss when separating.  We’ve been good about avoiding all PDA so far on this trip, but forgot for a second.  I’m so

    much more confident today after doing this yesterday, but lay on the marble slab and worry that Oscar is freaking out on John.  He is scared of saunas or hot rooms, so I’m picturing every kind of thing that could go wrong and conjuring all the things that I should have said to make it an easier experience.  I’m not alone this afternoon and another lady comes to wash me and it doesn’t feel as wonderful as the first time.  Maybe because I’m clean….exfoliated, or she just wasn’t as great a washer.  But I get out of the dressing room to find my boys sitting waiting for me and all clean.  Oscar loved the experience so much that he made John record him doing a song in the changing room where he is thanking everyone for the wonderful experience.  He also thinks that he doesn’t have to take a bath for the rest of the sabbatical….