EXPANDED NEIGHBORHOOD

Most Saturdays will find us at the local "bazaar" where you can find anything from clothes, to eggs, to cheese, to fish, as well as fruits and veges.  This past Saturday, as well,  we ventured back to the Grand Bazaar, on a much cooler, but not less crowded, day to check it out a little further.  First to the Bazaar for fruit and veges.

WELCOME  in Turkish

Street view of the market, divided into dry goods and food goods; there are always taxis available to take home those who do not have transportation and way too many parcel

3 of our favorite vendors  produce; there are so many choices

from olives to eggs

citrus to apples

tomatoes to garlic

broccoli to cauliflower

dried fruits to nuts

and fish of all kinds.

And it is always good to have your husband along to carry home all the produce.

 Then to the Grand Bazaar....Street views

This is where you drive in and, if you are early enough and lucky, you will get a parking spot where the blue car is to the right.  The portion of the glass pyramid in the distance is an entrance to a large downtown mall.

 

The streets outside the Grand Bazaar are teeming with shoppers as well

The interesting roof of a section of the old part of the bazaar; a huge plaza outside one of the entrances

 On the inside.....

One of several external entrances to the Grand Bazaar

Two interior walkways, both extremely busy

The meat (lamb) for Doner Kepab & Durum Doner (Gyro in US which is actually the Greek name for same thing); a covered walkway that used to be an external street

Tea (cay-chai) or coffee is  delivered to the employees of a business by one of the tea houses within the bazaar; a "cup" of tea which had been delivered to a shoe shop.  Tea is generally served in these glasses and coffee in small cups

Tea garden in one of the courtyards where we took time to enjoy a cup of tea, Geoff regular Turkish tea and me, Apple Tea, yummy.  Note the difference in color between the tea above and the apple.  Regular tea is quite stout.

At the start of this Bazaar segment there was a photo of the entrance to the parking for the bazaar....several hours later, this is what it looked like.  The "balloon" is over our car, and we were wondering how in the world would we ever get our car.  Apparently they do this way too many times, but 6 cars moved and some minutes later, we had our vehicle, only to have to maneuver back down that narrow road while others were trying to come in.  Next time, we will NOT park in that lot, but across the street at the undercover lot for the mall.

 
A little further afield is Anatolium, a new shopping mall that is truly a one stop shop, with an Ikea, Carrefour Supermarket, Leroy Merlin (Lowe's/Home Depot), Media Mart for all your electronic needs, large food court, a bowling alley, play area for kids, and 3 floors of very nice clothing stores.  This is where we do most of our other shopping.  There are 2 or 3 other similar malls within close proximity to our home as well if we can't find what we want here.

Anatolium - The Mall

This Ikea is huge, 3 floors and a huge dining facility; Large metal replicas of a Karagoz Shadow Puppet.  There are puppet theaters here in Bursa that house shows with these puppets.  The 2 dimensional  puppets are made of tanned animal hide, especially camel, and dyed with vegetable dyes.  They are controlled by rods located at different parts of the puppet.  They are shadow puppets because they are controlled behind a translucent screen; the light that casts the shadow is obtained from an oil lamp behind the screen.  These have been in existence since the 16th century and usually depict some  incident from Ottoman years.

A view up/down; a Pinocchio display, one of several different story displays throughout the mall

Food Court choices and lots of room to sit;  there is also a stage in one area where they often have some entertainment or children activities, especially on the weekend

The terrace outside the Food Court; offers a lot of tables, playground, and lovely views.