Day 2 Istanbul

Today was beautiful and sunny and after a copious Mediterranean breakfast, we took to the road.  We made our way to the spice market where one can see hundreds of merchants selling their wares not only spices.  You can find sweet shops, fish, meats of all kinds, cheese, Turkish pottery, soaps and many more merchants, all wanting you to buy from their store.  The crowds of people are just incredible.  One can barely walk.  It is Monday, does no one work in Istanbul?  It got quite hot, even Bernie was feeling it.   Once out of the market, we meandered through the narrow streets of the city, looking for a place to buy a SIMM card and, when we found one, the young lady serving us could not understand us anymore than we could understand her.  Luckily, a young man walked in who spoke English,  and we were able to complete the transaction. We now have an Istanbul mobile number with which we can contact our friends from Belgium who have European mobiles that can seemingly work anywhere!   A holiday is never complete without enjoying the local food so we has lunch at an outdoor restaurant.  We shared a Mezza combination plate complete with fresh orange juice for me and a nice cold Efes for Bernie.  Feeling more than satisfied, we made our way to our hotel for a well deserved late afternoon nap.