The Spice Bazaar and Eminönü: spices, coffee, ferries

The Spice Bazaar is not the Grand Bazaar, and that is a good thing. The Grand Bazaar is a labyrinth of four thousand shops; the Spice Bazaar is a single L-shaped hall. You cannot get lost, walking it takes half an hour, and what is sold is mostly food.

Getting there. From Galata, walk across the bridge — fifteen minutes, and the bridge itself is an outing. The bazaar is at the far end of it, beside the New Mosque.

What to buy. Spices, nuts, Turkish delight, dried fruit, tea, Turkish coffee, cheese. Prices are more reasonable than in the Grand Bazaar, but the shops near the gates price for tourists — walk further in, the same goods are cheaper in the middle.

Haggling applies here too, but modestly. Ask the price per kilo, not per hundred grams; small quantities are priced disproportionately.

A note on saffron. Most of the orange threads sold as "saffron" in the windows are safflower, and they cost a fortieth of what real saffron costs. Real saffron is expensive; if it is cheap, it is not saffron. We mention it not because anyone is lying to you, but because nobody volunteers it.

Outside the bazaar. This is the better part. The streets around it hold coffee roasters, herbalists, kitchenware shops and coppersmiths, and this is where people from Istanbul actually shop. The queue outside the famous coffee roaster looks slow and moves quickly.

Eminönü pier is directly opposite. The ferries to Kadıköy, Üsküdar and up the Bosphorus leave from there. Taking one across after the bazaar is the best way to end the day.

No closing day, but note that on Sundays the bazaar is open while most of the shops around it are shut.