Day 26 (2 July): Bazar?
For the majorıty of the day today, I explored the markets around Istambul and the Grand Bazar with some Australian girls I met on the plane from London. (One offered to take me saling in Sydney harbor when I am in Australia so I may have to follow up on that.) The sheer size of the Bazars and markets (particularly the spice market) is really amazing, its about 10 by 15 city blocks for the Grand Bazar. I also crossed over briefly into the Taksim (which is the newer European part of the city, north of the river.) I also sampled random street foods for shockingly low prices. Later in the day, I visited some more touts stores for sheer entertainment. In the evening, I went to a tea and water pipe shop with some people I was staying with: a Polish guy who had been studying at a University in Ankara, a Finnish guy who lived in Denmark, and a Bulgarian girl who lived in Amsterdam. All of them were international relations students which made for interesting conversation.
Observations:
1) Universities in Turkey have instruction solely in English according to the Polish guy. That certainly says they have a very outward orientation. All three of the other Europeans thought that in their home countries, education should be done in English as well, which surprised me, until I realized that with the exception of the Finnish guy their countries have weak economies and that Finnish is spoken by so few people. They all also thought that better English skills would be necessary to make the EU work more effectively.
2) Visa issues for Turks. A number of the touts I talked to were very upset about visa issues trying to leave the country. They seemed to think that the US government randomly denies people visas along with most European countries.
3) I am glad I am not a woman traveling alone. The Australian girls, kept getting calls from guys trying to identify where they were from and whistling. Nonetheless, they thought it was less bad in Turkey than other countries they had travelled to.
4) I do not understand how the people who sell things in the Bazars make any money. Their will be 20 shops selling the exact same thing next to each other and must have the same suppliers. That is as close to the perscription for perfect economic competition as anything I have ever seen. The only thing that distinguishes the shops is their ability to bargin with consumers, most of whom seem to shop around for the best price. The same go with Kepap shops which sell sandwiches for as little as 0.50 USD which can not possibly be more than the cost of meat, lettuce, tomato, bread, and sauce. Even with really high volume, making money at any of these places seems really difficult. It would be interesting to open the books for these places to see how they actually make money.
5) Mall culture. If Turkish Bazars have been around for a long time then mall culture in the US and in particular Southern California or suburbia generally in the US is not that strange as it seems like many Turkish people come to the Bazars just to hang out and waste time.
Weird observation:
1) The cross walk guys in Istambul actually walk when they are green for crossing and stand still when they are red for do not cross. No one pays attention either way though and people and cars seem to share the streets about equally. I would not want to drive here.
Observations:
1) Universities in Turkey have instruction solely in English according to the Polish guy. That certainly says they have a very outward orientation. All three of the other Europeans thought that in their home countries, education should be done in English as well, which surprised me, until I realized that with the exception of the Finnish guy their countries have weak economies and that Finnish is spoken by so few people. They all also thought that better English skills would be necessary to make the EU work more effectively.
2) Visa issues for Turks. A number of the touts I talked to were very upset about visa issues trying to leave the country. They seemed to think that the US government randomly denies people visas along with most European countries.
3) I am glad I am not a woman traveling alone. The Australian girls, kept getting calls from guys trying to identify where they were from and whistling. Nonetheless, they thought it was less bad in Turkey than other countries they had travelled to.
4) I do not understand how the people who sell things in the Bazars make any money. Their will be 20 shops selling the exact same thing next to each other and must have the same suppliers. That is as close to the perscription for perfect economic competition as anything I have ever seen. The only thing that distinguishes the shops is their ability to bargin with consumers, most of whom seem to shop around for the best price. The same go with Kepap shops which sell sandwiches for as little as 0.50 USD which can not possibly be more than the cost of meat, lettuce, tomato, bread, and sauce. Even with really high volume, making money at any of these places seems really difficult. It would be interesting to open the books for these places to see how they actually make money.
5) Mall culture. If Turkish Bazars have been around for a long time then mall culture in the US and in particular Southern California or suburbia generally in the US is not that strange as it seems like many Turkish people come to the Bazars just to hang out and waste time.
Weird observation:
1) The cross walk guys in Istambul actually walk when they are green for crossing and stand still when they are red for do not cross. No one pays attention either way though and people and cars seem to share the streets about equally. I would not want to drive here.
posted by Traveling Brian at 8:49 AM
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