Extension Day Two

I had breakfast in the hotel again, and when my girlfriend woke up we went to McDonald’s. Not seeing a breakfast menu, we ended up ordering cherry pies, but would have to wait seven minutes for them to be cooked. I almost finished my soda in that time, and when my girlfriend was nearly done with her orange juice she went to see if the pies were ready. Sure enough, the girl was just bringing them. They were just out of the oven and for some reason I ignored the Caution: Filling Is Hot warning, lightly burning my tongue and fingers. We caught a taxi and my girlfriend gave instructions I couldn’t hear to the driver. I don’t know what she said or what she thought she said, but the driver apparently thought she said something else because we ended up somewhere other than the bazaar. We explained this wasn’t what we wanted, and when I said “kapali” he finished “çarisi” and nodded. He even reset the meter back to its starting point of 500,000 lira before starting again. On the way I told my girlfriend of my plan to get a costume, and when we got there that was the first thing we looked for. I found one that fit me reasonably well, and while I liked the colors they had, my girlfriend determined I looked best in the iridescent white. The salesman met my offer of 35 million, but because it was the first I had found I didn’t want to buy right away. I think that was an error - he expected me to buy now that he had met my price. We took a card and I noted landmarks so we could find the shop again. We looked in other stores, but it wasn’t until we found a shop specializing in costumes that I tried another on. It was lilac and gold, and very pretty - but the top was much too big. The woman showed me how she could fix that in five minutes, so we drank apple tea and talked to the seller. I had 55 million in my pocket, and decided to offer 50 million now and go up to 55 million if he offered that. But even when my girlfriend explained I was a student (false) without much money (true) he wouldn’t go below 60 million. I’m sure that’s a very good price for a full outfit with beaded top, belt, cuffs, and headband plus matching chiffon scarf, but my girlfriend pointed out that it was twice what I had budgeted so I declined. In addition, it had started at 75 million lira and I didn’t feel they were giving enough of a discount - the first shop started at 60 million for beaded top and belt, and while that wasn’t as complete a set it was more affordable and therefore better. We looked around some more, buying trinkets as we went. While buying a gift I realized I had left my bag in the store with the lilac costume. my girlfriend stayed with the gift while I ran off to retrieve my bag. Unfortunately I had only a vague idea of where the store was, so I ran all over attracting stares from vendors (I buttoned my overshirt) and a police officer (I slowed down and tried to look calm). I finally spotted the distinctive storefront, and I clattered down the stairs. My bag was right where I had left it, and the woman said she thought it belonged to a girl who was still there from when I was. As she handed me the bag she said it was no problem and it was safe here; that reminded me how friendly most Turks are, and I was glad she was so nice even after I had put on a costume, haggled over it, and then not purchased. When I got back upstairs it was considerably easier to find my girlfriend - it turned out the store with the gift was just a few aisles away. We continued to look around, and I tried to keep from being frustrated or discouraged too easily, but eventually I decided it was time to find the first shop and get the white outfit. The salesman insisted we couldn’t possibly have agreed on 35 million, that 50 million was the last price, so we found the man who had met my price and he stuck to it - but my girlfriend and I both had the feeling he went lower than he was supposed to, and hopefully the owner didn’t yell at him too much. We shopped a bit more, then stopped at the first place we found for lunch. my girlfriend had soup and bread with water, and I had a small salad. After walking around the bazaar some more we decided we would have to balance cost and quality with how much our feet hurt, so we bought a few more trinkets and gifts in rapid succession and left. We walked outside for a while before I finally found a taxi to hail; traffic crept along at rush hour pace for a while but we finally arrived at Taksim Square and the driver rounded our price down to two million. Had it been very close to three he’d have rounded up, but apparently they don’t expect tips so we gave him two million. Neither of us had wanted to risk encountering a Turkish toilet at the bazaar (I’d only been forced to use one once, and I gave up and just took off my pants - almost all public bathroom stalls are mini-rooms anyway, so no one could tell) and we hurried the few blocks from the square - which, by the way, looks circular to me - to our hotel. After we had put our bags down and relaxed, I asked what we should do for dinner. my girlfriend felt we should have pizza delivery, and while I knew the nearby Pizza Hut delivered we didn’t feel like trying to conduct business over the phone. I volunteered to run across the street, and when I got there ordered a plain cheese pizza. In the 20 minutes I had to wait, I went outside and bought t-shirts from a man carrying an armload and offering five for 10 million. I picked out two and offered 5 million, but he kept trying to get me to buy two more - he even said if I bought four he’d give me one free, which, yes, I’d expect if he had been hawking five for 10 million before I walked up. I insisted I only needed two, and I brought them up to our room along with some drinks from the market. By the time I returned to Pizza Hut the order was ready, so I carried it back and we watched CNN while we ate. The first time in Istanbul we’d had MTV India, and it was there the first day we returned, but for some reason it was no longer on any channel. We did some packing for a bit, then around 8:00pm I suggested a nap so my girlfriend set the alarm for 10:00. I woke up at about 10:30 and realized the alarm was set to 10:00am. my girlfriend didn’t feel like waking up anyway, so she reset the alarm to 3:00am and fell back asleep around 11:00. I stayed up a bit longer, then at midnight or so I went to bed. I was up again around 2:00, and my girlfriend woke up just before the alarm went off. She finished packing our suitcases and I got my carry-on bag ready with some snacks and books and things. There were eight members of our group going to the airport at the same time, and I had expected the other six to be mostly quiet on the ride because of the early hour but they talked the entire way. We checked in with a minimum of trouble, and went to the food court to see about breakfast. Burger King didn’t have a breakfast menu either, so it looks like Turkish fast food places just don’t have breakfast. We were able to order a BeanBurger instead, though, which was good enough to count as food. We looked around in the gift shops a bit, and by the time we made it to the gate we didn’t have to sit long.