Finally it was time to wrap things up. We packed up and checked out of the hostel They let us keep our bags there which was crucial. It was cold and raining all day, and pretty miserable at first. By the end of the day though, I was ready to stay for the next week.
The first order of business was getting me some money to spend. I was down to my last Turkish Lira bill. It was a 20, but had a small piece of one corner torn off. This turns out to make it completely useless in Turkey. Not even the shoe shine guys wanted it. The front desk at the hostel recommended taking it in to the national bank and getting it exchanged. I managed that without much trouble, and was ready for my last day.
We got one final trip to the Grand Bazaar in and then wandered aimlessly for a while. This was a good call. We ended up near the university buildings and followed the student traffic to find the street with the best restaurants. We picked one enormously popular one that was ridiculously small. We sat at a small table in a cramped room and gave out order directly to the chef, who was working at a low grill right in the middle of the floor. It reminded me a bit of hibachi. It was delicious and cheap. I had my ayran too. Definitely the place to be for a light lunch.
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| outside our delicious dive |
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| inside our delicious dive |
We regrouped at the hostel for some tea and to plan the afternoon. We decided to do the spice market and then hit the turkish bath before working our way to the bus station. The spice market was one of the coolest places I have ever been. The nearby streets had the most authentic shops and we stopped in one guy's store to pick up some spices. Everything was ridiculously cheap. I got a 1/4 kilo of sumac, some Turkish tea, green cardamom seeds, and some Turkish saffron.
By then, it was getting later, so we headed to the hamam recommended to us by a dean at the college. He picked a good place and it was a great time for a fairly modest price. I decided to get a manicure. I have always been curious about it, and it was cheap so i figured why not. I am not very satisfied with it, but it was still an interesting experience.
The best part of the place was the heated marble slab that you lay out on a sweat in the hot room. I did not want to move, but I had to slide over for my scrubbing (more like a scraping) and bubble wash. Then they washed my hair, and then I got in line for the oil massage. The guy really tore out some of knots in my shoulders.
We stepped out into the street totally relaxed and not wanting to do anything. We decided that eating was the thing to do before our long bus trip back. We went the street food route, and picked up two sesame bread loops, and two islak burgers. An islak burger is a small greasy thing that is soaked in a special sauce, glazed all over with oil, and put in a hamam for hamburgers to stew. It sounds disgusting, but it was amazing! I mean, it was like krabby patty secret recipe amazing. We headed back to the hostel and got some free tea from our wonderful manager. He even offered to let us stay another night for free on the couches!
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| hostel bar |
We declined, collected out bags, and headed for the bus station. We took the awesome public transport - first a tram and then the metro. It was 3 TL for each ride, a total of 3-4 dollars. Then we hopped on out bus and waved goodbye to the city as we headed back to school.
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