Monica's photography tour of the Grand Bazaar and Rooftops... an absolute must do !!

About 18 months ago my friend Katy told me about this lovely tour she went on in Istanbul which allowed her to walk on the roof tops of the grand bazaar. I thought it sounded fantastic and ever since wanted to do it. Last summer I completely forgot about it so this trip I wrote to Monica in advance asking if there would be a tour, and I was in luck. There would be a tour and there was a space for me.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about having a tour of the grand bazaar. I have been walking that bazaar since I was 13, and I thought I knew it. Little did I know.

I arrived an hour early to Cemberlitas, our meeting place. I took the tram from Aksarary which was only 2 stops. I bought a cheese and tomato sandwich and sat in the square and waited. Im always early, I hate being late. I spotted Blair, one of the guys who joined the trip. He was wondering round the square with his camera and I was going to approach him then decided not to, in fear of looking like a crazy lady. Blair walked off, and I thought he was just another tourist with his camera. Pretty standard. 20 minutes later Blair returned. A man soon approached Blair, chatting about carpets, and of course, how his carpet shop was the most wonderful shop in the world, not just Istanbul and how Blair should join him on a little jolly to his shop and spend thousands of pounds. I introduced myself to Blair and told the man, in Turkish, Blair was not interested and he could leave.

It seemed as soon as me and Blair paired up everyone else turned up for the tour followed shortly after Monica.
Monica was very welcoming and friendly from the start and once we all introduced our self's we were ready to go.  We headed off towards Beyazit, and down a path to the Bazaar. Monica stopped at a bread man on the street and a few of us bought bread. MMMM nice warm, cheese bread. Delicious.

After taking our bread we headed towards the Bazaar, we started to walk through the outside shops which were all silver and stone shops before entering the Bazaar in the leather section. As I said above, I was sure I knew the bazaar, and yes I did know this area, but I didn't know some of the history.  I may have learned it years ago but I honestly can not remember.

Monica stopped us all and explained we had entered the leather quarter and went on to explain how and why the bazaar is set up in quarters, or to be fair, the whole of Istanbul in my experience. Years ago an old tradition began. All the men would pray together then open up their shops. All the shops sold pretty much identical items and were all sold at pretty much the same price. When the men  prayed they made a deal not to try to beat each other with the amount of money they made. Very interesting.

We carried on wondering through the Bazaar as a group. Altogether there were 9 adults and 3 children. It was an ideal size group, not too big not too small. Monica would stop every now and then to tell us interesting things about the old roofs, the old archways and particular shops. I'm not going to tell you everything Monica told us, cos then when you do the tour, you'll have heard all the interesting fun facts !

The grand Bazaar really is a wonderful place. I can spend all day, every day,  getting lost in there and wondering around aimlessly with my camera. Even after 10  years of exploring I still haven't seen it all, I still wont find that nice shop I saw yesterday, I still cant find all the exits, and I will never find all these amazing places Monica showed me. I will have to do the tour again, poor me !

The Bazaar is full of all these wonderful shops selling Tiles, Scarves, Clothes, Bowls, Musical Instruments, leather jackets and handbags, hand made boots, gold and silver and so much more. Its also a photographers dream, did I mention that bit ?

The amount of beautiful bowls, scarves, magnets and Turkish eye dangly things I have bought home over the years I'm pretty sure I could open my own grand bazaar.
Most of the people on the tour had already seen the grand bazaar, they either lived in Istanbul or had already visited the Bazaar on their trip. It was great being with a bunch of photographers and being able to stop and start as much as you can without your non photographer friend getting frustrated. Sorry, friends, its true !

Heres a few more photos of the beautiful, traditional yellow, blue and white ceiling. Isn't it stunning ?!

Monica gave us all enough time in all the areas to photograph what we wanted. We were soon led, one by one, down a very narrow pathway. Very narrow. You could really only fit down in single file and every time we attempted to make a move someone from the other end started coming down. Eventually we got down there and headed towards a ' kervansaray '. 

A Kervansaray is where men with their Camels used to rest over night. Camels can only walk up-to 40km at a time, so they would rest here. You can almost imagine all the men sat around with their camels, drinking tea and chatting. To be fair, its like that now, just minus the camels. 

This was the first one we visited.

It was really beautiful. We went through another narrow pathway, and then it just opened up to this massive space. The architecture was lovely, as you can see it still has all its old traditional archways and is painted a deep pink color with maroon and yellow tiles. It was so peaceful. Our tour was early Saturday morning so the grand bazaar was still pretty quiet, but if we were to come here from the usual hustle and bustle in the bazaar it would be so idyllic and a nice place to relax. 

Below, in the court yard, where the camels used to rest, there are now silver shops and above are workshops. Many of the shops in the bazaar have workshops above like this. 

Monica seperated the group into two halves and took us up on the roof in two groups. I went with the first group. We walked up three flights of narrow old stairs then stepped over one very high step onto the roof.

My mouth hit the floor. As it did many times on this tour, in fact on this trip to Turkey. Plenty of new finds for me. I couldn't believe I was on the ROOF OF THE BAZAAR. We were only on a small bit, with a few domes and then a small higher level a few steps up. It was sooo windy but the views were great. I didn't even know at that point that the views were to get even better later.

After both groups have been on the roof we walked through the Bazaar to another kervansaray, it was just as beautiful. It really amazes me, this massive big spaces, with so much history and culture, smack bang in the middle of the bazaar. I don't think many tourists know about them.  I found it really interesting to stand in them and imagine back in the day, when people were travelling the silk route.  You could almost see the camels there. There were 3 young children on the tour, all under 5, and they were very confused that the camels were no longer there.

As a group we carried on walking and taking photos before reaching our second roof top adventure. We walked through all the regular shops before breaking off onto the beaten path. We started walking through old antique shops, workshops and really old areas. 

The stairs we walked up to go on the second roof area were steep, really steep. Monica told us once we go up on the roof we should stay quiet because some guys keep expensive birds up there and they don't want us to scare them away.

This roof top view was even better than the last. This was where the film Sky Fall was filmed. This meant nothing to me as I haven't watched the film, the views, on the other hand, amazed me. I couldn't stop taking photos and looking around. I probably have 50 of the same photo. It was so windy up there, it was freezing.

By now we were all pretty desperate for a rest and a drink so Monica walked us back down the extremely steep steps, through some narrow alleys, through some old crumbly archways and to a small shop. The outside of  shop was painted in a colorful pattern.

The shop was a material / hand bag / carpet shop but we weren't there to be forced into buying anything, we were just there for a rest and a drink. We were all given water. For free. 

I feel like im repeating my self loads by saying ' We then walked through the bazaar' But that's what we did. We all wondered and took as many photos as we wanted to. It was so much fun. On our way to our 3rd rooftop we stopped to take many more photos, heres a few of my favourites. Monica stopped and gave us information about certain shops and certain areas in the bazaar. Some really interesting facts, I guess you'll have to go on the tour to know what she said !

Our final rooftop was by far the best.

But...

...the busiest,

This incredible spot is in one of the lost planets books, so if tourists are any good with maps, which im certainly not, they can find their way up there. I, will never find it again, without the help with the lovely Monica. Even with a map. Just not gonna happen. 

We climbed some wide stairs, then turned a corner down a very long dark pathway before being greeted by a friendly little old man. Hes probably only 40 but looks old. He was holding a very old door open for us and up we went.

I said earlier my mouth hit the floor when I went on the first rooftop. Well, this rooftop was a thousand times better. Save the best till last hey , Monica. I just couldn't believe the incredible views I was seeing and I couldn't believe I was on this roof. I waited patiently and had my photos taken on a dome on the roof before taking more photos. 

After this rooftop we headed to a lovely little restaurant on a side street just off the bazaar. We all sat and had a very yummy lunch. ( Lunch fee not included). The food was delicious and very spicy. The tour finished here.

I really enjoyed this tour and would do it again. Monica made it very personal, she was very friendly, quirky and fun.

If your going to Istanbul Monica's photography tours are an absolute must, especially this one. The prices are unbeatable, Monica is fabulous, and you see some wonderful places you really wont find alone.



Visit Monica's website http://www.istanbulodosviaggio.com/

Small group and private tours available.

Enjoy !

Follow me on Instagram