Crowded markets

The weekend started with an early morning ferry ride. It was surprisingly chilly, despite the forecast being for 26 degrees. Oh well, I thought, the sun is sure to come out soon. A hot drink on the ferry warmed us up on way. 'Oralet' is sort of like hot orange flavoured cordial, very sweet!

A big day was planned...breakfast in Sultanahmet, buy a sewing machine, then head to the fabric 'market' in Sultanhamam. Things didn't quite go as planned.

We made it to Sultanahmet, but the chefs at three of the cafes we went to hadn't turned up yet! Things were getting desperate and the coffee cravings were starting to kick in. Senol made a few calls and suddenly omelettes appeared from a chefless kitchen, followed by one of Senol's cousins bringing some tasty borek from the local 'borekci' and then another cousin arrived with a huge coffee for each of us. I love a big Turkish family!

We bought the sewing machine, and hauled it and the pram through crowded markets, and down winding cobblestone alleys. We finally got there, exhausted. The area to buy fabric seemed to be in and around a particular building that was like a rabbit warren. The passages were lined with small shoe box sized stores with fabric piled up to the roof and little kiosks selling buttons and threads. The passages seemed to get narrower and narrower, until we couldn't go any further with the pram. We had had enough! We gave up and made our way back through the crowds in search of a taxi.

And we were glad we found one when we did, because apparently sometimes the weather forecast can be wrong!

It was a long, but cosy taxi ride home.