Istanbul Part 3

Istanbul giving New York a run for it's money since whenever this Big Apple was built

Now onto my post.
Ok so I lied, after Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque I went for a Hammam (Turkish Bath). Now for those who have experienced the joys of the Hammam you know what I am talking about when I say it is amazing. I'm sure I've never been so clean in my life. Hot room, scrubbers, and not having to do anything. Although strange Turkish men and the language barrier made things awkward at times, it was still amazing.

So the next day I decided to make one final attempt to get a Syrian Visa the way they want people to get them. So I turned up 10:30(I had planned on getting there earlier, but got lost after I took what I thought should have been a "Short Cut", I was wrong) and when I go there they said that they had closed for the day. It wasn't friday, it wasn't a holiday, they had just closed, made no sense, and made me mad, mostly at Syrian Bureaucracy(lots of more that to come).
So I headed to the Grand Bazaar. Basically a great big market, but with everything and covering a massive area. It's so big in fact that it has its own districts, Gold, Jewlery, Carpets, antiques, trinkets, food, and thats just the coverd part. In the uncovered section I discovered the Knife district, Guns, pants, sunglasses, clothes hangars, mannequin and shoe districts.

Overwhelming cannot being to describe how one feels wandering around the Bazaar, shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their stuff, backgammon being played, tea being served, business being had. The strangest moment was as I had stopped to watch two old men play backgammon, another younger guy was there watching and started conversing with me, berated me for not speaking turkish, when I explained that I had only just gotten into the country he said he understood, and pulled a baggie out of his pocket and told me he had great Hash and offered me some for 100 Euro, needless to say I declined him, partially becuase the amount of Hash offered wasn't worth anywhere near 100 Euro, but mostly because I didn't want any, especially in the middle of an incredibly busy street with cops around. If anything I'll say the guy had balls.
I did however make some purchases in the Grand Bazaar, I bought some pants(which I don't actually like) A mini Backgammon board, and a bunch of trinkets. mostly good deals except for the pants, oh well.

That night went and smoked Hookah with a bunch of Debaters from all around Canada, Calgarians, Torontonians, Easterners, all in all it was a pretty good night. Ended with McDonalds(a shame I know, but it was the only place open at 2am). This was the last time I saw any Canadians until Petra almost a month later.
At about 4am I woke up with incredible pains inside me, the McDonalds had struck. I like to think of it as Karma kicking me upside the head for degrading myself to eat McDonalds when I am in the middle of one of the greatest cheap food places in the world.

I survived the night, and made my way to the train station, which was on the Asian side of Istanbul. Asian Istanbul was an excellent place to go see. It was less touristy, the market I wandered through was far less of a tourist trap than the Grand Bazaar, it was more of a place for real people to do their shopping.
I had a fish sandwich, which consisted of a small loaf of bread with a whole fish inside. Needless to say it was the fishiest meal of my life and lived with me in my burps for the next few days. At the time of purchase, it was a great deal, I got a good meal for 1 Lira, but the more I ate the worse it got.
I then bought my ticket to Diyarbakir, and found a place to smoke hookah and read until my train left.

Next time Kurdish Turkey