Wednesday 8th August 2012…last day!!

Even getting up at 8am and after breakfast walking down to

by 9am to avoid the crowds did not quite work out!!

Please again Google the Palace and read all about the rich and long history……the Harem was a separate tour and this is one I did first!!!

With all the rooms and courtyards the Harem was huge!!!

The art work exquisite!!!

I think when I get to Mexico I might get me a harem!!!!!!!!!

It took me over three hours to see most of the buildings and it was such a wonderful journey back to the times you read about in school!!!!

No Comment!!!

As I was leaving but still on the grounds the band came marching in!!!

So I stayed and was entertained for 45 minutes!!!!

I then came home for lunch.  The place I am staying is brand new and it is a hostel with 5 beds in each room and I have the only single private room, very modern and clean and in the three days I have only seen the manager no other guests.  the location is great and after lunch I walked the 5 minutes to the Grand Bazaar!!!

A maze of over 4000 shops and the motto is if you cannot buy it here it is not worth having!!!

I wanted to buy a small carpet as a wall hanging so I went into a couple of stores and listened to the sales pitch and was offered tea..but walked out and then I found a store that had what I wanted and after tea and a nice chat the bargaining began…his starting price was 190 Lira about 95 dollars!!!! It went back and forth a few times and then when I said I would take a walk and think about it he asked me what I was willing to pay and I told him 60 Lira I think he nearly spilled his tea!!!  I got the usual answers to this so I thanked him for his time and got up and went to the door when he said 80 Lira and it is yours..again I thanked him and walked out and of course he followed me and told me to come back that 60 Lira was OK!!!!!!

The evil eye pendant is extremely popular here so I bought a couple of those…

This is from the Internet!!

From time immemorial, people, from gut feelings, we instantly become wary of strangers with greedy or mean eyes. We know from experience, that effusive praises should be taken with a pinch of salt, for behind all the gushes, smiles and the adoring eyes, the person is probably itching to wring your necks or stab you from behind.
The Turks have devised the Evil Eye Pendant to guard themselves from such not-so-well-meaning people with their necessarily evil eyes.
The Turkish Evil Eye Pendant or the Nazar Boncugu, which literally means the "evil eye bead", is actually a stone bead, which is worn to protect oneself from evil looks. The stone is an amalgamation of molten glass, iron, copper, water and salt. This particular combination of minerals and metals is believed to provide a shield from the forces of evil.
The Evil Eye pendant has the symbol of an eye worked upon it. The symbol of the eye is regarded as a potent amulet for protection against evil forces in almost every culture of the world like Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian. Thus, in Turkey, you have an eye for an eye.
It is believed that the Nazar Boncugu deflects the negative energy that is being directed towards a person onto itself, thus dispersing its powers.
The Nazar Boncugu is blue in color and the age-old Anatolian belief is that it is actually the blue color of the stone, which holds the real shielding power and absorbs the negative energy.
This is not surprising since the people in many Mediterranean nations ardently believe in the protective powers of the blue color. That is why; front doors of houses in these Mediterranean countries are painted blue to ward off evil spirits.
The evil eye pendant is attached to anything and everything that, it is felt, will attract envy and greed. Thus, you will find a Turkish man attaching the evil eye pendant in front of his house or office, hanging it from the neck of his newborn child, or his farm animals and even on his newly acquired machinery. You will find the pendant being inserted into the foundations of modern offices and even come across it in Turkish web pages.
What is more, there is no religious bar in the use of the evil eye pendant. Thus, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, use this lucky charm.
The evil eye pendant is still hand crafted using primitive means, by highly skilled glass workers who are carrying on a 3000 year old craft. The pendant can be worn in a necklace or a bracelet.

Back home again for some snacks and then walked back to the center for my 5pm sunset cruise…join me please!!!

So a wonderful last day in Turkey.

The last problem was how to get to the Airport from the hotel it is over 50 km away but I found a travel agency that sells shuttle service tickets so for pickup at 8.30am tomorrow morning outside the hotel to the airport in a mini van 25 Liras!!!!!!

So how lucky am I to have travelled 15 countries and 2 continents many hundreds of miles sleeping in various accommodations and not one problem with health, transportation, sleeping nothing at all!!!!

My flight leaves at 1pm and I will be in Luton by 3pm when my lovely chauffeur, Brother Malc will pick me up and we should be home in Hull by 7.30pm!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I did and thanks for keeping me company!!!