This week has pretty much been more of the same. Stay up late, sleep in late, go to the gym, hang out, go to practice, go out for a beer or food, and repeat. Last night, we played about three hours of hockey and so it was another late, but fun, night and late wake-up time today.
And thus today, which was a day off of hockey, I decided to stay away from the ice rink and go shopping instead. I met up with Angelique, the New Zealander, and we took the metro to the center of the city, called Kizilay. From there, we walked about 10 minutes until we got to an open bazaar, which can be seen in the photo. As you can see, its packed full of people and has items for sale from floor to ceiling. If you are looking for Adidas track pants, you can come here and choose from hundreds, all at an unbeatable price of less than $20. And no, of course they aren't real. Just like all the Abercrombie & Fitch clothes, or the Nike hats and bags. Along with fake brand name clothes for cheap, you can find anything from window curtains to kids' toys to pots and pans to underwear. I bought socks, a cutting board, a hat and 4 DVDs for about $20. DVDs also surely illegally made, but hey, they are cheap and they play on my turkish DVD player.
The sales people are very kind and they yell out their prices to any passerby, hoping to make a sale. When you do pick out an item, they quickly take it, put it in a plastic bag and stick out their hand for the couple of Lira the item costs, then, on to the next costumer.
After shopping through every aisle and feeling frozen through to the bone (it was hovering right around freezing for the first time this winter) we headed to a cafe to have a sandwich and coffee. Instant coffee, that is, called 'Nescafe' and pretty much the only kind of coffee available here. After warming up a bit, we were back out on the street stopping in here and there to shop a bit more. The Kizilay area is laden with small shop and street vendors, most of which sell the same or very similar items, most of which are hats, shoes and handbags. Almost everyone i know comes to Kizilay for cheap shopping, as the malls are nice, but much more expensive.
After an afternoon of shopping out in the cold, we took the metro back to our neighborhood, and I plan to spend the rest of my evening watching one of my new movies and making an attempt to fall asleep before 3am for a change.
1 comment:
Wow - complete opposite here! You only get brand name and it's all expensive!!! As far as the coffee goes --- yeah, they pride themselves on it. You get fresh ground beans at the "Pressbyn" - meaning convenience store. Granted, you walk out of said convenience store at $5 USD...but...it was good! Haven't bought anything but my team stuff yet....hoping to find good deals after the holidays! Keep up the posts - everyone here is amazed I have a friend playing hockey "in Turkey????" :)
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