Corinne CrawfordI had one more day left and I decided at the last minute to do some gift shopping for my bestie and often travel partner, Jodi. She had joined me on my trip to Morocco earlier in the year and had bought a few things for her home there and Turkey had many of the same type of stuff that I thought she might like. So I went on the hunt for a decorative pillow cover and then some spices. I went to the Grand Bazaar and was overwhelmed with the amount of choices in the thousands of small shops that filled up the 8 blocks that it spanned under the atrium type roof. Spices, souvenirs, lamps, and of course carpets among other types of things.
I panicked and messaged an Airbnb experience host that offered private Grand Bazaar shopping help in a desperate attempt to see if they were available that afternoon. They were not, but they did actually give me the name and location of a few spots that they thought would suit what I was looking for. I went to the first location in the Grand Bazaar but unfortunately they didn’t really have the textile types I was looking for so I kept wandering a bit between shops there until I was going to leave to go the shop he recommended at the spice market. I stopped to chat a bit with a guy trying to sell me a carpet as I explained what I actually was looking for. He took me a few doors down to a textile shop and they actually did have some pillow covers that I thought she might like but they were trying to sell them to me for 1500 dirhams which was the equivalent of $50 dollars. Some of the other places I had priced around were at least half of that so I gave up at the Grand Bazaar and went to the Galata Nomadic Arts shop instead and sure enough, found a very suitable design for Jodi for just 300 dirhams. And I was able to say goodbye to the folks at that shop and they even gave me Yunus’s number in California in case I wanted to reach out to him. Although I doubt he would even remember me from over a decade ago.
After that I went to the spice shop in the spice market that the guy recommended and had a great experience drinking tea and picking out small quantities of some of the spices that were called out for in the recipes I made at the cooking class. I got enough to be able to share some with Jodi and I was very much looking forward to attempting to make the Turkish dishes I learned. I also bought some very interesting mint, ginger, lemon, turmeric tea mix that I had sampled. I would give some to Patty as a very small thank you for letting me stay with her in San Diego when I flew in the following night.
I took all of my newly acquired items back to my room and packed up almost everything except the few things I would need in the very early morning. It was a struggle to add even just the few new items I had bought that day. I had already arranged for a taxi to meet me at the corner at 4am the following morning. It was about 50 minutes to the airport and my flight left at 6:55am. After getting my things in order, I took myself out for a last nice supper on a rooftop terrace and then went back to my apartment to try to get a few hours of sleep before my alarm went off at an ungodly hour.
My flight out of Istanbul with a stopover in JFK and ending in San Diego went smooth. I was able to sleep for about half of each leg, 11 hours from Istanbul to JFK and 6 hours from JFK to San Diego. I got a Lyft to Patty’s house (She was not there) got the key out of the lockbox and pretty much went straight to bed. I stayed in San Diego for 9 days visiting with friends and doing a few work meetings before heading back to the airport to fly to Hawaii for a long weekend trip with some of my best girlfriends. I have not spent time with Cambria, Louisa and Lindsay all together in a long time and I was so looking forward to just chilling out with some of my favorite people.
The days in Waikiki were spent snacking, beaching, swimming, eating and lots of good laughs. It was a perfect way to end the several months of travel before flying to Michigan. I was going to my mother’s house and we would be packing up and making the drive to Arizona after Thanksgiving. I told my mother that wherever she wanted to be for the winter, I would be with her if she wanted me to. It would be the first winter without my dad and I didn’t want her to be alone. I have to say I was pleased when she finally decided that she did not want to be in Michigan for the cold winter and we would be spending December through March in Arizona. This would be great for me to be able to take trips to California both for work and for visiting friends before deciding what I wanted to do after March. So, until next time!
