Setting the scene: Imagine this, I am in Istanbul with my sister after a fantastic 17 out of 18 day vacation. We had both gotten nice tans, I managed to not get my passport stolen (although I wasn't so lucky with my wallet and blackberry) and we had plans to go to a Turkish bath later that day. All this to say, that we were planning on enjoying our last few hours of vacation before heading back on our 15 hour flight home. In fact, we would probably even have time for a nice nap in our hotel before the 3 different mosques blasting the call to prayer would wake us. All set!
Uh oh, reality check. Did we buy ANY souvenirs yet? No, we hadn't because we thought that we could do this on the last day at the Grand Bazaar. We had scoped it out a few days prior and we knew where to get some cool things for our family and friends back home. We show up ready to drop our highly prized American dollars and wha-aat? It's closed?
"Oh yeah.. it's Sunday. Everything is closed" - F
Not only was the Grand Bazaar closed, everything was closed! Lucky for us, we are tourists, staying in the touristiest part of town, 100% willing to fall into tourist traps for ridiculously inflated tourist prices. No one gets in the way of capitalism! (except maybe those pesky communists)
Convenient for us, our hotel was located right off the main tourist road, which even more conveniently IS open on Sundays. We walk into a couple of stores but it was all the same stuff. Evil eyes and apple tea. Finally we found this one store that actually had handmade stuff. We were able to find these really cool hand-painted tea sets for a couple of people. As we were getting our stuff gift-wrapped, the clerk starts talking to my sister and I, and we introduce ourselves briefly. At this point, we are thankful to not be going home empty-handed, but we still have stuff to buy so off we go in search of the next shop.
As we continue, it is becoming apparent that there really isn't anything um.. how do I say... not horrible? So we decide that we had seen something in the other store that we could buy for someone else, so back we go. Purchase made, more small talk. In total, I think we went to that store 3 times. As we were walking by on our way back to our hotel, the clerk (who, shall remain nameless. Less for privacy purposes, more because I don't remember his name) asked me and my sister if we would like to go for dinner with him. We accepted and off we went, although my sister only stayed for half the "date."
This would all make for an interesting story, if not for the fact that he turned out to be quite boring and not interested in simply friendship. By the end of the night, he had told me that he would remember me always and asked to stay in Turkey (presumably forever?) and come meet his family. To make matters worse, he said that I look young, apart from my few gray hairs, which is a big no-no. I am a silver fox, take it or leave it!
The night ended and he gave me his email and phone number, but I ended up throwing it out when I got back to the hotel. Besides, my bf probably would not have approved.
