Day 36...Bargaining is the name of the game!

Day 36, July 20th:

ISTANBUL DAY 1!!!

I can’t believe that I am currently in TURKEY!  I never expected that this would happen before applying to SAS!  Istanbul is the largest city in Europe and almost the largest city in the world, with over 19 million people inhabiting the both the Europe and Asia sides of the Bosphorus.  Istanbul is 99% Muslim, which makes this port a little bit more experience culturally.  Is I just walked down the street around Taksim Square, it is very awkward to look up and see a large group of women wearing black dresses and head pieces in a way that you can only see their eyes.  I guess awkward is not the right word, but it just makes you stop and think, “Where am I?” every time you see it.  It is just very different culturally.  I am not really writing this blog post in the order in which I experienced these things, but more in a way of what comes to mind first. 

Another cultural experience I just had was on our walk home from the Taksim Square.  First, the Taksim Square is like NYC’s Time Square, yet totally different.  There are millions of shops, including Nike, New Balance, Swiss Army, candy stores, restaurants, bakeries, ice cream stands, music and book stores.  Anyways, on the way home we passed a mosque and there was a voice over a loud speaker doing a call of prayer.  Vocally it sounded a lot like what I imagined (like a prayer chant); however, I expected much more from the local people.  I expected the town to sort of shut down for a few minutes and have people coming to the Mosque to pray.  I also expected to see several people stopping what they were doing to get on the ground and pray, but I didn’t see it affect anyone that we passed on the street.  I am planning on going to see the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia and Topaki Palace tomorrow, so my experience may be totally different tomorrow. 

I also got to go on the FDP trip to the Grand Bazaar this afternoon.  My economics professor demonstrated how to negotiate the prices with the merchants and also provided advice on how to pick a price you are comfortable paying.  It was very interesting.  We met up with a local tour guide right outside the ship and we took the metro to the Grand Bazaar.  Now this place is not for the weary or the type that money wears a whole in your pocket!  There are over 4,000 shops intertwined in the 65 streets making up the Grand Bazaar.  From just the little section I saw today, there are millions of jewelry stores and many other stores selling leather, rugs, scarves, clothing, musical instruments, oil genie lamps, stained glass lampshades, Turkish tea sets, sunglasses, watches, key chains, wooden boxes, fur coats and everything else under the sun.  The tour guide began the trip by taking to a rug shop to allow us to view all of the different qualities, styles, colors, sizes, antiqueness, materials and prices of the rugs for sale.  All of the rugs are made by hand and some very small rugs even take up for 4 months to make, the large rugs may take up to a year.  Could you imagine spending a year of your life making one rug!  I sure can’t!  The rugs range in price from one hundred dollars to one hundred and fifty thousand!!!!!  I actually got to touch a $150,000 rug!!!!!  WOW!!!  The tour guide also took us to one of her friend’s workshops where they make the jewelry for their store.  There were 6 guys working away, all making something different.  One guy was placing the gems in the ring, while others were making the chains, making the rings, etc.  I was really cool to see them working away creating some of the most beautiful jewelry I have ever seen…not that I have seen much!  We spent almost 5 hours in the bazaar and I only bought two tee shirts.  I can already tell that this is going to be an expensive port for me…especially if I go back to the Grand Bazaar!!!

I want to tell you guys a little bit about the negotiating process.  First off, you must negotiate the price of everything here.  When you walk into the store and look at an item, they will quote you a price.  Immediately, they will try to give you a lower price.  You then can tell them that Ronald McDonald sent you specifically to this store and he said you would give me a good deal, so the merchant will lower the price yet again.  You then continue to look at the product, telling the merchant how nice it looks, but with some hesitation.  You continue to wedge the price lower and lower.  If the merchant doesn’t go as low as you want, then you hand it back to the salesman and move towards the door.  He will probably offer you a lower price yet.  If that still is not good enough, then you leave and go to the next shop, which is selling the exact same product and you now negotiate all over again.  It is really interesting to do; however, it can give you a headache really quick if you aren’t careful.  Another unique thing about the merchants is that they may offer you a cup of tea, while looking at their products or during the negotiation phase. 

It is really neat to negotiate on your own!  The merchants will not be offended if you give them a price way too low; however, you should never back out of a deal if they accept a price that you set.  This means that you must be careful and that you should let them name the prices.  The best way to negotiate is to come up with a price that you are willing to pay for a specific item before even walking into the store.  If you can get the price down to meet your goal, then you should accept the deal.  Moreover, if you can’t get the price down to the level you thought before you entered, then you should not purchase the item at that store.  It is really a cool experience!  I led the negotiations of a purchase made by 7 of us at the tee-shirt stand.  We all chose our tee shirts and agreed that we would purchase them at any level including the initial price (they were already only $8 for a high quality tee-shirt).  I began the negotiations and he said that all 7 would be 150 TL.  By the time I was finished, I had him down to 110 TL and I could have gone further, but we were running out of time and the price was already much lower than we were willing to pay.  Not too shabby for 5 tee shirts and 2 soccer jerseys.  The group was very pleased and it was really fun!

I know I always talk more about the food than I do the rest of the day; however, I have not had much Turkish food yet.  I ate all three meals today on the ship, but I did stop by a candy store tonight and get some Turkish Delight.  It is a jelly-like candy covered in a white power and comes in millions of flavors.  It was pretty good.  Clark, Lacey, Heather and Mindy also stopped to get ice cream, but I was still too full to get any.  They make a show out of giving you your ice cream.  First, the ice cream is very taffy-like and stringy.  Secondly, the ice cream is in this huge clump that he takes out of the long frozen barrel with a metal stick and swings it around in the air.  The guy puts on a great show for each person buying the ice cream.  He takes his long metal stick and an ice cream cone and has a great time making everyone laugh by taking the cone off without letting you know, so you grab the ice cream scoop not the cone.  He also swings your cone all over the place because the ice cream sticks to his metal stick.  It was pretty fun to watch him dish it up! 

Okay, well I got to get some sleep because I woke up at 6:45 this morning to watch us pull into port, but once I got upstairs to the deck we were literally 10 feet from the dock.  I was soooo mad!  I got up an hour and a half early just to see us come into port and we came in earlier than the told us we would in pre-port.  Oh well.  Goodnight from ISTANBUL!!!!