Friday: morning at the Spice Market and street shots (part 1)

Friday was our last day of the trip.  We had an empty morning, and then 2 short business trips in the afternoon.  I took a lot of pics that day, so I'm breaking it up into several different posts.

You may have noticed a lack of food shots in the blog.  That's because I always seemed to have the same thing during the trip -- if it wasn't chicken kabobs, it was hamburgers.  (I dislike both now.)  And for breakfast, it was always -- ALWAYS -- bread.  So much bread.  Only bread.  They had other options, but I couldn't eat them (olives, cheese, eggs, more olives, etc.).  So bread for me.  Oh, and sometimes the bread had olives, as I found as I was eating this piece of bread that day:

Bleh.

Anyway, then Wil, Raminder, Sonny, and myself walked to the Spice Market and then the surrounding streets.  Some pics:

Throughout the trip, Wil and I sometimes took the same shot of a situation.  We did so at this grid:

My pic was terrible.  Wil's, naturally, was great.  Check out his shot here.
 

One shop apparently got the presidential seal of approval:

More pics of Friday morning to come.

Thursday: the Blue Mosque at night

Thursday was a busy day, meetings-wise.  We met with Hewlett-Packard in the morning, and then had a meeting at the US Consulate in the afternoon.  Pictures were not allowed at the Consulate, so the day was pretty picture-less for me. 

A quick snapshot as we drove back.  Whenever there was slow traffic, we saw people walk out into the streets, selling anything from bread to water to chain saws.

That night, Wil and I went out for a photowalk on the streets of Istanbul at night.  We picked a place to have dinner, and lo and behold, Ben and Raminder were also eating there!  Small world, that Istanbul.  I also decided to try a chicken kabob again, and bleh.  No more chicken kabobs for me!  Anyway, some pics from our photowalk:

We walked back to the Blue Mosque, which was still open but far, far less crowded than it was the day.  The inside part of the plaza -- not the mosque itself, but the outdoor plaza -- looked so amazingly different than it did during the day that it was just stunning.  I was in awe.  The plaza was lit with soft blue and yellow lights, the birds flying overhead were illuminated by all the lights below, and it was so quiet and serene. 

Inside the mosque:

It was funny.  When we were in the outdoor plaza minutes before, I realized that I could tell which camera shutter snapping was Wil's.  So even if I was busy taking pics, I could tell exactly where Wil was by the sound of his camera. (Like sonar!  Sort of.)

Now, in the mosque, I was standing there taking pics, and saw this figure sitting on the ground, intently taking pics.  I went into sneaky mode, to try and take a pic of him, and when I got around to his left, I saw it was actually Wil!  So much for my sonar.

This gentleman carried around Turkish tea with him, and sold it to cab drivers who were waiting for passengers:

Wednesday: Spice Market + streets of Istanbul

On Wednesday, the class split into 2 different business meetings.  Before our meeting, our group went to the Spice Market, which is like a farmer's market with vendors selling different spices and foods.  Some pics:

On the way to the business meeting:

And after the day of business meetings, Raminder, Sonny, and I went out and walked around the back streets of the Grand Bazaar -- full of alleys and shops that more of the locals went to (as opposed to the tourists).  We then had dinner at El Torito (I had a hamburger -- yes, that's right), and we went back to the hotel to have a blogging party.  Unfortunately, that was the night where the internet conked out, and I couldn't post anything.

Anyway, pics from the back alleys that night:

And Sonny admiring his future bedroom decorations: