One of the highlights of our trip to Istanbul was our fortunate timing that allowed us to experience the weekly bazaar!  I was a little unclear to begin with when our landlady told us there would be a bazaar.  To me that means old trinkets and clothes and other miscellaneous items….however, to them, it meant a fresh market.  A HUGE fresh market. (with a smattering of clothes and trinkets here and there). And it was right outside our apartment!!

The men started setting up quite early the next morning.  It was cloudy and rainy so they were busy setting up tarps to cover their tables and offer protection to the shoppers.  I don’t know if they did this every week (the tarps) but it was cool to see them line the streets with them.

After peeking out the window for part of the morning, we finally decided to head up and check it out.  It was awesome.  We had to force ourselves to stop buying fruit even though we made a pit stop at home to drop off the first few bags!  It was  a feast for the eyes and eventually the taste buds.  The market went on and on and it was overflowing with fruits, vegetables, breads and cheeses.  And the best part was that all of the produce and other items were local and fresh.

We spent most of the day wandering and eating.  We ate almost 2kg of strawberries that first day. (that’s almost 4.5 lbs!)  Markets like this make me want to live there.  I could just imagine myself doing weekly shopping at the bazaar and getting fresh bread daily…..however, I’m not moving to Turkey, so I guess I’ll just have to make my own bread and plant a garden!